The rest in meditation is deeper than the deepest sleep that you can ever have. When the mind becomes free from agitation, is calm and serene and at peace, meditation happens.
The benefits of meditation are manifold. It is an essential practice for mental hygiene. A calm mind, good concentration, clarity of perception, improvement in communication, blossoming of skills and talents, an unshakeable inner strength, healing, the ability to connect to an inner source of energy, relaxation, rejuvenation, and good luck are all natural results of meditating regularly.
In today's world where stress catches on faster than the eye can see or the mind can perceive, meditation is no more a luxury. It is a necessity. To be unconditionally happy and to have peace of mind, we need to tap into the power of meditation.
How To Meditate With Feedback
From silent meditation retreats in Nepal to the Art of Living to yoga and South American forms of meditation, I’ve studied meditation in many forms. In all that study, what I found is that all of these different types of meditation require learning. The most effective that I found were the kinds that came with neurofeedback.
The type of meditation I teach my clients is guided by feedback. We use Buddhist heart opening meditation, which is easily taught using heart rate variability feedback.
This teaches you how to open your heart (which won’t really mean anything to you until you’ve done it) – but you can learn in several weeks what a regular practice might take years to accomplish. This type of meditation is so profound that in the first study of the Ornish low-fat diet, they used this (which has all of the effects that were claimed for the low-fat diet!) in conjunction with the low-fat diet.
In other words, meditation can overcome the harmful effects of a low-fat diet….at least for awhile.
With feedback, you can learn much more quickly. That said, start meditating by yourself to get a feel for it. If you can meditate with another person or a group even once a week, the results are pretty amazing. I once gathered with entrepreneurs to meditate together every Saturday morning at 7am; even though it was an inconvenient time of week, it was like taking a mental shower – worth it to feel nicer all week long, and you simply didn’t get the same effect if you did it alone!
You don’t have to become an expert meditator or a Buddhist monk to see the payoff when it comes to meditation—it’s just a matter of finding a routine that works for you and sticking to it, day-to-day, and learning when possible from masters or feedback. Or even your talented local yoga teacher!
Read the rest of the science of meditation series to find out what’s actually happening in the body when we meditate, and why it makes everything so much better – or check out the overview below.
The Many Benefits Of Meditation In A Nutshell
Meditation is a calming practice that, over time, thwarts emotional reactivity, reduces unhelpful stress, and steadies your mind under pressure, so it’s no surprise that meditation can even improve your interpersonal relationships and make it easier to achieve your life goals.
Evidence comes from thousands of years of human practice in cultural and religious contexts, and more recently from scientific research in the fields of psychology, neurobiology, and countless others investigating the processes underlying human functioning, resilience, and overall well-being.
There’s a ton of research that says meditation can have an impact on almost anything you’re looking to change in your body and mind – and some would even say soul [1-25].
The practice can lower blood pressure and reduce inflammation associated with chronic disease.
It can enhance immune function and lessen fatigue, especially in people with immune-ravaging disorders like cancer and HIV.
Meditation can ease anxiety and depression, down regulate stress hormones, improve mood, resolve sleep difficulties, and boost self-esteem.
It can strengthen memory and problem solving skills, sharpen concentration, improve decision-making, and slow the deterioration of cognitive abilities that comes with age.
If we all started meditating ten minutes a day, we’d collectively nip a lot of modern troubles in the bud!
Overview: Types of Meditation
There are various forms of meditation, and most have in common the following elements: a quiet space, a comfortable posture, a focus of attention, and an open, non-judgmental attitude. They all provide similar benefits – the most important factor in your practice, should you choose to embark on one, is consistency and developing a routine.
In mindfulness meditation the practitioner deliberately heightens his or her awareness of what’s happening in the moment, giving full notice to thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations, and allowing them to exist without judgment. In this way the practitioner deepens his or her ability to observe life—including difficult or painful situations—calmly and with acceptance.
Transcendental meditation is a type of “mantra” meditation in which you repeat a calming word, sound, or phrase (the yogic “om” is an example) to displace distracting thoughts. In transcendental meditation the mind becomes so fixed on the mantra that it relents all effort at concentration, and deep relaxation follows.
Some forms of meditation use imagery and/or movement to achieve the relaxation effects.
The Chinese practice of qigong provides visual cues, such as imagining light traveling to a part of the body, and it may couple these images with matching movement.
Most lineages of yoga emphasize the meditative aspects of the practice by instructing the yogi to focus on the breath and link physical postures together with the flow of inhalation and exhalation. Based on the Yoga Sutras, the eventual goal of the physical practice is to be ‘still the mind’ to meditate without distraction, linking mind and body for maximum benefit.
Although certain types of meditation are used more often in research or clinical settings to treat specific conditions (i.e., mindfulness meditation is used frequently in substance abuse recovery), the numerous benefits of meditation appear to be available to the average practitioner regardless of type.
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