The Benefits of Meditating

Meditation has many positive benefits that are countless. Many studies have shown that those who regularly meditate have reduced stress and illness. But one of the most important reasons to meditate is the process of becoming disciplined with meditation itself.

The act of meditation is a blissful one taking you from one peaceful state to another. In today's day and age we are constantly bombarded with a constant onslaught of stress. We are bombarded by all kinds of energies such as television, radios, noise pollution or even envious people. In order to take control and counteract all these negative energies, we need to develop our selves from within.

Meditation will be the tool that connects us to the cleansing and energy of our minds. In old times people were surrounded by nature in their daily lives and existence. There were no artificial sounds to disturb our peace. In today's modern age we can live a whole lifespan without ever contacting nature in a direct way. Meditation allows us easy convenient, portable method to get back into our lost natural rhythm, by closing the world around us and making us aware of the world within us.

By learning to close the world around us we can clear our minds of all artificial stresses that the mind gathers during our daily lives. Learning meditation will not cost you anything, it has no secondary side effects, and it won't add any calories to your diet. The only thing meditation will do for you is give you a sense of well being and a more positive out look in life.

Andy J. has been writing articles for about two years now. Make sure to visit his newest website on Social Anxiety at http://socialanxiety101.com/

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andy_J.

View the Original article

Developing a Breathing Practice For Meditating and Letting Go Tension

The preparation for meditation involves focusing on your breathing. Focused attention quiets the mind. Active attention to breathing helps deepen the breathing, and increases physical and sensual awareness. Deep breathing is relaxing to the whole body. Letting go of tension is aided by breathing practice.

Breathing Practice

1. Settle yourself in a comfortable position, whether sitting or lying down. You want to be located where you will not be interrupted, and where it is quiet.
2. Bring your attention to your breathing. Notice the breath coming in and going out.
3. Follow the breath. Feel it entering your nostrils. Notice the breath as it enters your throat.
4. Then where does it go? Do you feel it in your upper chest? in your tummy?
5. Is your breathing shallow? raspy?
6. Take a deep breath so that your abdomen rises and falls. Be there with your breathing for awhile, noticing the movement of your abdomen.
7. Breathe deeply and slowly through your nose, hold your breath momentarily, then breathe out slowly though your mouth.. do this for a few minutes. You might fall asleep.

Letting Go Tension

1. Continue your slow breathing, in through your nose, and slowly out through your mouth.
2. As you breathe in, imagine the breath going to your toes and feet and circulating. As you breathe out, your breathing out the tension from your feet and ankles. Be with your feet and ankles, breathing in and out. How wonderful it feels to have the breath caress your feet.
3. You continue with your breathing and circulate the breath in your lower legs and knees. The tension breathes out. Whatever discomfort you have, lessens. Your lower legs and knees are feeling good.
4. You are ready for your sacred breathing to circulate in your upper legs. Slowly you breathe in and out, and the tension leaves. Your feet and legs are feeling very relaxed.
5. Your breathing now circulates in your hips. The bones and muscles need the caring touch of the Holy gift of life through your breathing. You feel the tension and any discomfort leaving.
6. Your breathing circulates to all the organs and systems in the torso, going wherever it is needed and as long as it is needed. All the stress, tension and discomfort is breathed out.
7. Now your breathing caresses your arms, hands and joints. Circulating, all the stress and discomfort is breathed out.
8. Your breath, really the sacred breath of life we all partake, circulates through your head, mouth, eyes, ears, nose and brain. All stress, tension and discomfort is breathed away.

Thanksgiving to the Holy One.

Judy Brutz is author, spiritual director, retreat leader and speaker. She lives in Idaho with her family, and enjoys nature, knitting for peace, and volunteering. How has this article helped you? Please let me know.

email: comments.judy@gmail.com
http://judybrutz.net

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Judy_Brutz

View the Original article

How to Relax Your Mind More Deeply When Meditating

Meditation has wonderful benefits. It can help to improve your physical and mental health, to release stress, and even to tap into the deepest potentials of your mind and explore an exciting variety of altered states of consciousness. But to get the most from your meditation sessions, you need to be able to relax your mind properly - and this is where many people run into problems.

Most beginners know the frustration of sitting down to meditate and realising just how uncontrollable their minds are. Their thoughts jump around all over the place, and resist any attempt at prolonged focus on the object of meditation. And as for achieving that mythical state of 'no thought', forget it! It's very easy to finish a meditation session feeling that you've just wasted your time, because all that's happened is that your mind has run away with itself, rehashing problems or trivia over and over again.

All too many beginning meditators give up before they manage to move beyond this stage. And that's a shame, because if you give up, you'll never experience all the great things that meditation has to offer. With traditional meditation methods you just keep practising, day after day, and eventually controlling and focusing your thoughts becomes easier. But this may take months or even years.

Fortunately, modern technology can help you to obtain and maintain a state of deep mental relaxation more quickly and easily than is normally the case. Thanks to brainwave entrainment, you can start to experience the benefits of meditation sooner rather than later.

What is Brainwave Entrainment?

When you listen to a rapidly repeating sound of a specific frequency, the brain has a natural tendency to follow along, and match its own brainwaves to the frequency of the sounds it's hearing. This is called the 'frequency following response'.

When meditating, your brainwaves will slow down, until you're predominantly producing brainwaves in the alpha (8 to 12 Hz) or theta (4 to 7 Hz) regions. By listening to a brain entrainment recording which incorporates sounds in these frequency ranges, your brain will be able to access these states more easily - this is brainwave entrainment.

There are three commonly used types of sound-based brainwave entrainment: these are binaural beats, monaural beats and isochronic tones. All three work very well, although many people find isochronic tones to be the most effective. But it's always a good idea to experiment and see which type works best for you.

Regular use of a brainwave entrainment recording while meditating will make it easier to achieve a state of deep mental relaxation. And best of all, with consistent practice, your brain will become used to attaining this state, and eventually you may not need to keep using the recording at all.

If you want to discover how to relax your mind using brainwave entrainment or yourself, I suggest checking out the meditation recordings from http://www.brain-sync.com These are of great quality, and are fully guaranteed - and there are free downloads available as well, so don't forget to check those out while you're over there.

Loren Mann is an experienced 'explorer of consciousness' who enjoys writing about self-development topics and sharing helpful, high quality resources, and may receive compensation as a result of making these recommendations.

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Loren_Mann

View the Original article