Health is not just absence of disease but it is a state of wellness in which a person enjoys physical, mental, social and spiritual health. Health is connected to the total well being of an individual. A pure and clear mind enables the use of time, energy and resources in the best way.
Holistic health encompasses total health of a human being in all four aspects of life:
- Physical health
- Mental health
- Social health
- Spiritual health
So let’s check out how Meditation helps in improving and maintaining all four health aspects in our life.
What is Meditation?
Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state. Meditation is practiced in numerous religious traditions. (Wiki)
Purpose of Meditation
Meditation can give you a sense of calm, peace and balance that can benefit both your emotional well-being and your overall health. You can also use it to relax and cope with stress by refocusing your attention on something calming. Meditation can help you learn to stay centered and keep inner peace.
Meditation lets you become more aware and more purposeful about your actions. It teaches you how to respond, rather than react, to situations in your life. Meditation sounds simple. But it takes discipline to remain still in body and mind.
Benefits of Meditation
Research shows that the benefits of meditation are multi-dimensional. It enhances holistic well-being through improved concentration, reduced stress, calmer outlook, heightened awareness, positive energy, and greater emotional regulation abilities. Despite these known advantages, meditation is prone to misinterpretation as something difficult, impractical, or even an outright boring activity.
* Promotes Health: Meditation promotes health in all these areas of life. Meditation regulates the physical responses of the body by eliminating stress and stimulating healthy hormones.
* Secretes Healthy Hormones: Meditation aids the secretion of ‘healthy’ hormones such as endorphins and enkephalins, which help in detaching oneself from various kinds of pains. Meditation helps sustain deep relaxation even during active states of mind.
* Treatment for various Health Issues: The benefits of meditation go beyond relaxation response. A number of studies have critically investigated meditation for effective treatment of hypertension, diabetes, headache, anxiety, depression and heart disease.
* Effective in De-addiction: Meditation reduces the requirement of medication for pain and sleep etc. It is reported to be effective in de-addiction from drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and can increase decision-making skills, overcome irrational fears, phobias and expand spiritual life.
* Increase Awareness: Meditation gradually trains the mind to become more aware of a person’s outer and inner self. It increases awareness of one’s own feelings, emotions and surroundings.
* Anger Management: Through meditation, a person becomes more rational and learns to regulate their emotions rationally and learns how to respond rather than react.
* Increase Focus: Meditation trains your brain to stay focused on one thing for a longer period of time which helps in studies, jobs and day to day functioning.
Easy Meditation Techniques for Beginners
* Mindfulness Meditation
Sit comfortably, set a timer, then calm yourself down. Take a few deep breaths. Be aware of your thoughts, feelings, sensations in the body. Just stay in the moment.
* Nature Meditation
Go out in some quiet natural space. Sit comfortably and take a few deep breaths to settle your mind. Now close your eyes and try to feel the breeze, chirping of birds, noise of insects, sound of waves and get completely indulged into it.
* Focus Meditation
Make a dot on the wall at your eye level or keep a candle in the same way at the same distance Then sit and focus straight on either the dot or the flame of the candle. Whenever you lose focus, get it back. In India this type of meditation is known as Tratak Meditation.
* Guided Meditation
For this you can take the help of an app or youtube, to follow the scripts of meditation to achieve different goals like releasing stress, gaining confidence and balancing Chakras.
* Five Senses Meditation
This is best for relaxing and grounding yourself with the help of your 5 senses . For this, sir comfortably, now look for 5 things around you, listen and identify 4 sounds you can hear, feel 3 distinct sensations, identify 2 smells, identify 1 thing that you can taste.
Try these super easy and effective Meditation techniques and take a strong step towards a Healthy and Happy lifestyle.