1.Definition
2.Correct Position
3.lotus pose
4.Lion Pose
5.Benefits of Meditation?
1.Definition
Meditation is a practice of concentrated focus upon a sound, object, visualization, the breath, movement, or attention itself in order to increase awareness of the present moment, reduce stress, promote relaxation, and enhance personal and spiritual growth. The word meditation is a Latin derivative of meditari and mederi (think and heal) How to Meditate View more Meditation VideosWith the hectic pace and demands of modern life, many people feel stressed and over-worked. It often feels like there is just not enough time in the day to get everything done. Our stress and tiredness make us unhappy, impatient and frustrated. It can even affect our health. We are often so busy we feel there is no time to stop and meditate! But meditation actually gives you more time by making your mind calmer and more focused. A simple ten or fifteen minute breathing meditation as explained below can help you to overcome your stress and find some inner peace and balance. When we practise meditation we need to have a comfortable seat and a good posture. The most important feature of the posture is to keep our back straight. To help us do this, if we are sitting on a cushion we make sure that the back of the cushion is slightly higher than the front, inclining our pelvis slightly forward. It is not necessary at first to sit cross-legged, but it is a good idea to become accustomed to sitting in the posture . we cannot hold this posture we should sit in one which is as close to this as possible while remaining comfortable. Human brain is an electro-biochemical organ and that it reverberates to cosmic powers. Meditation activates the brains neural networks and brain chemistry to achieve and maintain meditative states of mind. Through meditation your mind and body acquire some energy field. Meditation shows the meaning of life and it helps achieve peace within ourselves. You can realize god through meditation (that meditation is the path to god and salvation). Your any activity in the right earnest and undistracted mind is meditation. You need to concentrate hard to meditate.
What is Vedic Meditation? Benefits of Meditation How to Learn Course Schedule Courses on Offer Frequently Asked Questions Meditation in the Press Testimonials Related Links About New York Meditation Centre Contact Us Meditation Courses in London Benefits of MeditationThink about how much better you feel after a good night of sleep. The mind is clear, you are more alert, and you have more energy to deal with the demands of the day.
Now imagine that, in only 20 minutes, you can get the equivalent of several hours of deep sleep simply by sitting in a chair with your eyes closed. And you can do this at home, in your office, on a plane, or anywhere else where you can have a few minutes undisturbed.
This is exactly what happens when you practice Vedic Meditation. When you rest deeply, you create the perfect conditions whereby your mind and body can purify and normalize, throw off stress and fatigue and come back to a state of balance. Changes occur quickly and improvements are often significant within the first few weeks of learning.
A few minutes of Vedic Meditation each day brings a wide range of practical benefits - a clearer and more creative mind, increased effectiveness, improved health, broader awareness, greater happiness and more rewarding relationships.
2.Correct Position
The most important aspect of sitting is to find the most appropriate pose depending on the physical challenges of the person. Although, some exercises can be performed better in one position over another, there are always variations that can be done instead. You need to start simple and build up from there. continue Sukasana Or Easy Pose Easy Pose is one of the most commonly used of the sitting poses.This is done sitting by on the buttocks, crossing the legs , and keeping the spine straight. It doesn’t matter which leg you choose to place underneath. continue Vajrasana Or Rock PoseThis is called “rock pose” because it it said that when you master this sitting pose you will be able to digest a rock. This is done by sitting on the heels, pressing on the buttocks nerves, and keeping the spine straight. continue Siddhasana Or Perfect PoseThis wonderful sitting pose benefits the nervous system and directs sexual energy. This is done by bending the left leg and placing the left foot on the spot between the sex organ and the rectum. Next bend the right leg on top placing the toes on the back of the left knee. continue
3.lotus pose
Most people have heard about “lotus pose”. This may be due to its beautiful name and mysticism that comes from the lotus flower. continue Half LotusThis sitting pose is a moderate variation of the full “lotus pose”. There are two options; bend one leg and place the foot of the bent leg on top of the opposite thigh. The other leg bends, bringing the heel towards the buttocks, or sitting on the heel of the other leg. As in all the sitting poses, keeping the spine straight is key to good posture. It doesn’t matter which leg you choose to place on top of the opposite thigh. You can practice with both. continue Sitting In A ChairThis pose is just as good as any other one and is normally used when other poses are too physically challenging. However, this pose may be too comfortable! You must remain alert, and choose a good chair to sit in. A firm chair with a straight back to support your spine will work just fine. This is done by sitting on a chair with both feet flat on the floor, and the spine straight. continue Bound LotusThis may be one of the most physical challenging sitting poses, which is why it is advisable to build up slowly. This pose is done by sitting in full lotus pose, bringing your leg on top of the opposite thigh as high as possible, and grabbing with the right hand the right foot, and with the left hand the left foot. continue Thirty Degree SlantThis sitting pose creates some pressure at the third eye and at the four lumbar vertebrae. It is done by sitting on the buttocks in easy pose or full lotus pose leaving the eyes semi open for meditation. Lean back 30 degrees, different from slump back, maintaining the spine straight. continue
4.Lion Pose
Good for problems with the teeth, tongue, jaw, or sore throat. When emulating the sound of a Lion, the three bhandas are linked and eyesight is improved.
Enjoy YourselfKeep it simple. You don't need to know very much in order to begin meditating. Just come on in. Keep it personal. Do it your way. You can't imitate someone else's meditation. You know what you love. Be brief. A few minutes of meditation is powerful. Do that then call it a day.
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5. Benefits of Meditation?
5. Benefits of Meditation?
Scientifically validated benefits include:
• Reduced tension and anxiety• Increased resistance to stress• Improved memory and concentration• Better learning ability• Increased energy• Improved health• Reduced insomnia• Greater ability to enjoy life• Increased self esteem• Improved relationships• Reduction of biological aging
· Greater Orderliness of Brain Functioning· Improved Ability to Focus· Increased Creativity· Deeper Level of Relaxation· Improved Perception and Memory· Development of Intelligence· Natural Change in Breathing· Decrease in Stress Hormone· Lower Blood Pressure· Reversal of Aging Process· Reduced Need for Medical Care· Reduction in Cholesterol· Increased Self-Actualization· Increased Strength of Self-Concept· Decreased Cigarette, Alcohol, and Drug Abuse· Increased Productivity· Improved Relations at Work· Increased Relaxation and Decreased Stress
How Can Meditation Be This Beneficial? It is interesting to wonder, how could something as simple as meditation be so beneficial? The answer is in the physiology. Meditation is something the body knows how to do, and does willingly if you set up the conditions and allow it. The body knows how to enter a profound healing state. All you have to do is pay attention in certain ways, and tolerate the intensity of what you feel as you let go of stress. So one answer is that meditation is a built-in ability of the human body. The word meditation is just a name we give to the situation where we give the nervous system, the brain and senses a chance to tune themselves up. More than a chance – meditation is giving total permission for the nervous system to do its healing thing. And since this is an innate thing, the body and brain are very good at it. People are naturally good at meditation, like cats are naturally good at hunting mice. And when we don't meditate, it is as if we are "meditation-deprived." In other words, we are not adding something weird to our life – we are just giving ourselves something we need. What is weird is to NOT meditate. In other words, it is unnatural to go through life deprived of a time each day to rest more deeply than sleep, and let go of all the stresses that keep you wound so tight. If this is true, then this is part of why meditation has such powerful effects – because it is a way of giving into the powerful mind/body healing dynamics that we already have within us, as part of our genetic heritage. Or, you could say, God put it there. Meditation is one of the few things in the self-help arena you can do that produces measurable changes. In other words, you can take a few hours of meditation training, and then go into a medical lab and meditate, and they can meaure the changes in your breathing, your blood chemistry, your brain waves, and your response to stress. And if you were sitting in a medical lab, all wired up, and they saw you enter a state of rest deeper than sleep in 5 minutes, a knowledgable researcher would look at the instruments and say, "Oh, you just started meditating. I can see it on the meters." One of the main reasons meditation is so beneficial is that it is instinctive and natural. When you meditate, you are accessing your body's own built-in ability to heal itself and tune itself for action. Here is a summary of research findings cited at the Mind Body Medical Institute at Harvard Medical School (They recently changed the name to Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine. BHIMBM? Mind/Body Medical Institute clinical findings include: Chronic pain patients reduce their physician visits by 36%. The Clinical Journal of Pain, Volume 2, pages 305-310, 1991 There is approximately a 50% reduction in visits to a HMO after a relaxation-response based intervention which resulted in estimated significant cost savings.Behavioral Medicine, Volume 16, pages 165-173, 1990 Eighty percent of hypertensive patients have lowered blood pressure and decreased medications - 16% are able to discontinue all of their medications. These results lasted at least three years. Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, Volume 9, pages 316-324, 1989 Open heart surgery patients have fewer post-operative complications. Behavioral Medicine, Volume 5, pages 111-117, 1989 One-hundred percent of insomnia patients reported improved sleep and 91% either eliminated or reduced sleeping medication use. The American Journal of Medicine, Volume 100, pages 212-216, 1996 Infertile women have a 42% conception rate, a 38% take-home baby rate, and decreased levels of depression, anxiety, and anger. Journal of American Medical Women's Association. Volume 54, pages 196-8, 1999 Women with severe PMS have a 57% reduction in physical and psychological symptoms. Obstetrics and Gynecology, Volume 75, pages 649-655, April, 1990 High school students exposed to a relaxation response-based curriculum had significantly increased their self-esteem. The Journal of Research and Development in Education, Volume 27, pages 226-231, 1994 Inner city middle school students improved grade score, work habits and cooperation and decreased absences. Journal of Research and Development in Education, Volume 33, pages 156-165, Spring 2000 You can read more about MBMI's approach to research here. The following list of research is interesting, and most of the results will probably be proven to some extent in the future, but right now this is a mixure of preliminary results and solid data. Greater Orderliness of Brain Functioning EEG coherence increases between and within the cerebral hemispheres during meditation. EEG coherence is quantitative index of the degree of long-range spatial ordering of the brain waves. In a new meditator, the EEG coherence increased during the period of meditation. In a person who had been meditating for 2 years, spreading of coherence occurred even before meditation began, spreading of coherence to high and lower frequencies about half way through the meditation period, and continuing high coherence even into the eyes-opened period after meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine 46: 267-276, 1984. Broader Comprehension and Improved Ability to Focus Field independence has been associated with a greater ability to assimilate and structure experience, greater organization of mind and cognitive clarity, improved memory, greater creative expression, and a stable internal frame of reference. The results show that practice of meditation techniques develop greater field independence. This improvement in meditators is remarkable because it was previously thought that these basic perceptual abilities do not improve beyond early adulthood. Perceptual Motor Skills 39: 1031-1034, 1974, and 62: 731-738, 1986. Increased Creativity This study used the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking to measure figural and verbal creativity in a control group and in a group that subsequently learned meditation. On the post test five months later, the meditation group scored significantly higher on figural originality and flexibility and on verbal fluency. Journal of Creative Behavior, 13: 169-190, 1979, and Dissertations Abstracts International, 38: 3372-3373, 1978. Deeper Level of Relaxation A comprehensive statistical "meta-analysis" was conducted that compared the findings of 31 physiological studies on meditation and on resting with eyes closed. (A meta-analysis is the preferred scientific procedure for drawing definitive conclusions from large bodies of research). The study evaluated three key indicators of relaxation and found that meditation provides a far deeper state of relaxation than does simple eyes-closed rest. The research showed that breath rate and plasma lactate decrease, the basal skin resistance increases, significantly more during meditation than during eyes-closed rest. Interestingly, immediately prior to the meditation sessions, meditating subjects had lower levels of breath rate, plasma lactate, spontaneous skin conductance, and heart rate than did the controls. This deeper level of relaxation before starting the practice suggests that reduced physiological stress through meditation is cumulative. American Psychologist, 42: 879-881, 1987. Improved Perception and Memory College students instructed in meditation displayed significant improvements in performance over a two-week period on a perceptual and short-term memory test involving the identification of familiar letter sequences presented rapidly. They were compared with subjects randomly assigned to a routine of twice-daily rest with eyes closed, and with subjects who made o change in their daily routine. Memory and Cognition, 10: 207-215, 1982. Development of Intelligence University students who regularly practiced meditation increased significantly in intelligences over a two-year period, compared to control subjects. The finding corroborates the results of two other studies showing increased IQ in meditation students. Personality and Individual Differences, 12:1105-1116, 1991, and Perceptual and Motor Skills, 62: 731-738, 1986. Natural Change in Breathing Subjects were measured for changes in breathing rate during the practice of meditation. Breath rate fell from 14 breaths per minute to about 11 breaths per minute, indicating meditation produces a state of rest and relaxation. The change in breath rate is natural, effortless, and comfortable. American Journal of Physiology, 22: 795-799, 1971. Decrease in Stress Hormone Plasma cortisol is a stress hormone. The study shows that plasma cortisol decreased during meditation, whereas it did not change significantly in controlled subjects during ordinary relaxation. Hormones and Behavior, 10: 54-60, 1978. Lower Blood Pressure In a clinical experiment with elderly African American (mean age 66) dwelling in an inner-city community, meditation was compared with the most widely used method of producing physiological relaxation. Subjects who had moderately elevated blood pressure levels were randomly assigned meditation, Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR), or usual care. Over a three-month interval, systolic and diastolic blood pressure dropped by 10.6 and 5.9 mm Hg, respectively, in the meditation group, and 4.0 and 2.1 mm Hg in the PMR group, with virtually no change in the usual care group. A second random assignment study with the elderly conducted at Harvard found similar blood pressure changes produced by meditation over three-months (11 mm Hg for systolic blood pressure). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57: 950-964, 1989. Reversal of Aging Process Biological age measures how old a person is physiologically. As a group, long-term meditators who had been practicing meditation for more than five years were physiologically twelve years younger than their chronological age, as measured by reduction of blood pressure, and better near-point version and auditory discrimination. Short-term meditators were physiologically five years younger than their chronological age. The study controlled for the effects of diet and exercise. International Journal of Neuroscience, 16: 53-58, 1982. Reduced Need for Medical Care A study of health insurance statistics on over 2,000 people practicing meditation over a five-year period found that meditators consistently had less than half the hospitalization than did other groups with comparable age, gender, profession, and insurance terms. The difference between the meditation and non-meditation groups increased in older-age brackets. In addition, the meditators had fewer incidents of illness in seventeen medical treatment categories, including 87% less hospitalization for heart disease and 55% less for cancer. The meditators consistently had more than 50% fewer doctor visits than did other groups. Psychosomatic Medicine, 49: 493-507, 1987. Cholesterol A longitudinal study showed that cholesterol levels significantly decreased through meditation in hypercholsteolemic patients, compared to matched controls, over an eleven-month period. Journal of Human Stress, 5: 24-27, 1979. Increased Self-Actualization Self-actualization refers to realizing more of one's inner potential, expressed in every area of life. A statistical meta-analysis of 42 independent studies indicated the effect of meditation on increasing self-actualization is markedly greater than that of other forms of relaxation. This analysis statistically controlled the length of treatment and quality of research design. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 6: 189-248, 1991. Increased Strength of Self-Concept
Recent scientific studies have shown:
During meditaion oxygen consumption drops by 10 to 20% and it produces a deeper state of rest than sleep. In fact, 75% of insomniacs were able to sleep normally after they had meditated. Meditation is the only activity that reduces blood lactate, a marker of stress and anxiety.
Meditation decreases the stress hormone cortisol and increases the happy, calming hormones melatonin and serotonin.Meditators secrete more of the youth related hormone DHEA, having on average 47% more. DHEA hightens memory, preserves sexual functions and helps control weight.Long term meditators experience 80% less heart disease and 50% less cancer.34% of people with chronic pain significantly reduced their pain medication when they began meditating.Meditating is known to produce 'spontaneous remissions' in 10% of cancer cases, reduce psychosomatic illnesses, like psoriasis and reduce blood pressure. It is also a key component in addiction programs. Enough reasons to start today! We really believe it changes your life for the better.
6.Brainwaves
Beta: 13-40 Hz
This brainwave is the predominant frequency when we are fully awake and alert Active awareness directed to the outer world.These brainwaves are present with stress, paranoia, worry, fear, and anxiety Also present with hunger, depression, irritability, and moodiness
Alpha: 7-13 Hz
This alpha state is where meditation and relaxation begins We start to encounter the wealth of effortless creativity flowing just beneath our conscious state Awake but deeply relaxed Studies have shown the alpha state has been associated with "peak performance" where elite athletes produce alpha brainwaves prior to concentrated performance (shooting a free throw, hitting an important golf shot). Lower level athletes' brains produce anxious beta brainwaves In the alpha state we learn, process, memorize and recollect large sums of information fast with peak effectiveness
Theta 4-7 Hz
Theta brainwaves become prominent when we go deeper into meditation and relaxation. Almost trance-like Here, brain activity decelerates to the threshold of the sleep stage One of the more indescribable and wonderful realms we can explore The theta state produces flashes of creative visualization through vivid imageryIn this state we feel much more open and connected to other people
Delta: 0-4 Hz
The delta state is associated with "no thinking" during deep, dreamless sleep Although a difficult state to entrain, delta brainwaves are very rewarding Delta is said to be the entrance to non-physical states of reality A crucial state for renewal, healing, and rejuvenationThe immune system strengthens in the delta state
1.www.meditationcenter.com
2.www.themeditationcenter.org
3.www.meditationinboston.org
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