Meaning of Meditation
These days meditation is promoted as an activity that can solve all your troubles – lowering your stress, improving your love life, boosting creativity – all in a matter of 30 minutes of practice a day and voila, you have the recipe for a stress-free life and chances of an enhanced libido.
Meditation is lucid, meditation is participation. Thoughts will always pervade the dark nooks and crannies of our minds, even when we are supposedly in meditation. The idea is to not force anything. Let the thoughts come. Watch them as the observer and allow them to leave, say a goodbye.
How to Meditate
The most important step to meditation is breathing correctly which opens up a whole new vista of awareness and tranquility. When you inhale, make sure your stomach swells with the life-giving oxygen, and during exhalation make sure your chest and stomach contract with gratitude. Keep breathing consciously till such time that you feel peaceful and blissful.
If you find the breath work much too challenging as a start, then just chant, “it’s okay”. Chant this as many times as you can to rewire your brain into feeling safe and secure. These words are a powerful mantra that, when repeatedly chanted, brings you closer to a safe place from which you may embark on a meditative adventure. Obstacles and stresses of life fade away and you’re once again a kid in a candy store.
Benefits of Meditation
Meditation not only aids in psycho-cognitive development, and keeps us stress-free, happy and healthy, it is known to be so powerful that it could be a substitute for anti-depression medication. As these anti-depressants help some patients, in the case of many, this kind of therapy proves highly dangerous and addictive.
Studies have shown amazing benefits of meditation to counter a plethora of conditions. It heals depression and other mental ailments and is known to be effective for people with bipolar disorders. On the other hand, it also benefits against an array of physical conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, psoriasis, fibromyalgia and intense migraines. When dealing with intense pain or grief or post-traumatic stress disorder, meditation is the silver lining that not only helps us cope with difficult situations, it shapes us to become pillars of support for people who depend on us, like family and community.