Meditation is often credited with helping people feel more focused and energetic but are the benefits measurable? Yes – they are! Meditation involves more than naps or exercise.


At the Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Dr. Prashant Kaul of the University of Kentucky took 12 students who did not meditate and taught them the basics in two short sessions.

Then, over a series of weeks, the students were asked to come in and take a test devised to measure skills like reaction time. The tests involved a series of visual cues on a display screen that the volunteers had to react to by pushing the correct button. The students were asked to take the tests in mid to late afternoon, when people tend to be the sleepiest. They did so before and after 40 minutes of meditating, napping or exercising, or after taking caffeine. Napping produced poor results, presumably because of “sleep inertia,” the researchers said. Caffeine helped, and exercise was unpredictable.

Earlier studies have found that people are awake while meditating but that their brains undergo changes similar to patterns found in sleep. Some studies have found that people who meditate a lot report sleeping less, so the researchers were curious to see if meditation could serve the same function as sleep. The results support the idea that it can. In fact, when some of the students were asked to skip a night’s sleep and then take the test, the researchers said, meditation was even more helpful. They said they did not know if caffeine and meditation combined would be even better.

Meditation is the practice of focusing your attention and mind on something that makes you feel calm and relaxed and gives you clarity about your life. The medical community is becoming much more accepting of meditation as a legitimate treatment for many different medical problems, such as anxiety, stress and depression. It’s being used to treat all kinds of chronic pain. People are using meditation to try to quit smoking. It’s also being used for alcohol and drug addiction; and the National Institutes of Health is even recommending meditation for high blood pressure. Studies have show also that it can help women who suffer from PMS, menopausal hot flashes and even infertility.

Meditation beats medication – and these points are important reminders:

• Meditation can be a form of medication
• Meditation helps your enter a relaxation state that can lower your heart rate, your blood pressure, slow down your breathing and relax your muscles
• Meditation can be a “reset button” for your body
• Meditation is something that most people can safely try on their own
• Take time each day to meditate and connect with the silence within yourself
• Prayer and meditation is a way to be at peace
• Developing a deeper sense of peace and direction will give you a clearer sense of purpose at work and at home

Exercise is a form of meditation

• Chinese medicine practitioners often recommend medical Qi Gong, a form of Chinese healing exercises
• Qi Gong focuses on breathing and movement of Qi to increase physical harmony and strength and establish spiritual/emotional peace
• Exercise helps you to refocus and regroup

Getting started:
1. Sit or lie in a comfortable position with your eyes closed.
2. Simply focus on your breathing, focusing all your attention on sensation of air moving in and out of your body.
3. The other thing you can do is repeat a single word or phrase either silently or by whispering.
4. Do this for about 20 minutes every day if you can

As you begin, your mind may wander, but don’t despair, simply refocus your mind and try again.

http://www.sfn.org/index.aspx?pagename=about_sfn

http://www.docmisha.com/understanding/exercise-meditation.htm

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We spend a lot of time and effort exercising our bodies in order to keep fit & healthy. What about exercising our minds? In today’s day and age of increased stimulation, high technology, high demand our minds are being inundated with “work” and has to go non stop! We live in a society where there the mind is working on tasking, processing, worrying, fearing, etc that we’ve “exercised” it to automatically run on these thoughts. Just like many things in our body, the more we do something over and over, the more it becomes automatic—this rewiring is called neuroplasticity. So, what if we can use this same ability to rewire the mind to be able to relax again through meditation. Meditation is a practice of quieting the mind which allows our bodies to focus on healing, rejuvenation & peace. There are many ways of meditating the key is to keep it simple and keep practicing!

Some Benefits of Meditation:

• Increase blood flow to heart & vital organs
• Helps to regulate and optimize blood pressure
• Decreases Mental stress/strain such as anxiety, fear, worry, feelings of inadequacy
• Enhances Immune system function especially the “natural killer cells”
• Enhances connection with inner Spirit, intuition, feeling of well-being
• Increases deeper more restorative sleep

Simple Meditation to start

• When you begin choose a peace place to practice meditation
• Sit comfortably in chair or on floor—do not lay on your back or you may fall asleep
• Gently close eyes and gaze down
• Gently tuck chin inward slightly
• Inhale slowly through the nose and into the abdomen; think about expanding with life being grateful for life in this moment
• Pause
• Exhale through nose or mouth; think about letting go of any stress, tension, tightness, thought with each exhale.
• Repeat; start with 5-10 minutes then work your way up
• The most important part is to create a habit and to practice!

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200105/the-science-meditation

http://ezinearticles.com/?Overcoming-Depression-Through-Neuroplasticity&id=3836518

http://www.healthandyoga.com/html/meditation/objectives.html

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/meditation/overview.htm

http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/6-6-2006-98395.asp

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Here is a quick little meditation.

Note: The ocean is used in this meditation because of the sea salt and the gently action of the waves. The third eye is in between the eyebrows where the skull is the thinnest and the sunlight can move into the area of the pituitary gland. This gland is called ‘The Master Gland’ and regulates the secretion of the thyroid, adrenal and reproductive glands. It is located just beneath the hypothalamus in the middle of the brain. If you have a fear of drowning, you can replace the ocean water, with ocean air as the salt will still be in the air OR you can pretend you are a mermaid.

It is best to start out with the minimum of seven breaths and work your way up slowly until you feel comfortable with the meditation. Too much, too soon, like a power cleaning won’t work in this meditation. Gentle action is what is called for. Also, you can do seven in a row: inhaling left, exhaling right and then change to: inhaling right, exhaling left. Each ‘set’ however, should contain seven breaths before changing the nostril side.

Open a window and let the fresh air in.
Sit in a comfortable position.
See yourself standing at the water’s edge of the ocean.

Begin to focus on your breath. As you breathe in, see a small gentle ocean wave move into the left nostril and up into the third eye area of the brain. Breathe out the water through the right nostril, along with any thoughts, feelings or old ideas that it may have picked up along the way, pulling it back into the larger container of the ocean. Do this for at least seven breaths, each one moving deeper into areas of the brain. It’s best to concentrate just on the action of the water. When you have done this for as long as you feel you need to, see yourself walk away from the ocean’s edge and look up into the sky to see a bird fly over you. Call out to the bird and hear its reply to you.

You can follow this meditation with some lavender oil placed on your wrist and inhaled or later, in a salt bath to clear and cleanse your aura.

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Many people today, especially younger people, are being labeled as having a deficit of attention, often with hyperactivity. This is called either Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) or Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). This diagnosis is so prevalent in our culture that many consider it to be an epidemic. In reality, we cannot have a deficit of attention because the mechanics of the mind are the same for all of us in much the same way that the physiology of the body is essentially the same.


What can happen is that the ability to hold the attention where we choose for it to be can be weakened, in some cases to the point of apparent helplessness. This leads to the attention jumping from one thing to another without the ability to follow through effectively. This can also be displayed as an inability to sit physically still, which is an outer expression of the scattered mind. This can affect not only the person experiencing the scattered mind, but often those he or she is in contact with. Fortunately, just as with weakened muscles of the body, we can do exercises for the mind that build our ability to control the attention and stay focused on the project at hand.


One type of mind exercise that has been used successfully for thousands of years is meditation. Few would argue the effectiveness of this practice in bettering the life of the practitioner, but often we do not realize that the foundation of meditation is the focused mind, which replaces the scattered mind over time.


To begin a meditation practice, first sit in a comfortable position keeping the spine long and vertical. Lying down is not recommended, especially when starting out, because of the ease of slipping into sleep. Next, focus your attention on the breath. Feel the breath as it enters and leaves the body. Any time that the attention leaves this experience, bring it back. It doesn’t matter how often you must do this, only that you do it each time. As you experience your mind becoming focused and calm, begin listening to the mind paying close attention to any gaps between your thoughts. It is these quiet moments that we expand over time. If you find yourself wandering, bring your attention back to the breath.


Five minutes a day is sufficient to start, eventually working up to about fifteen to thirty minutes daily.


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Practicing regular, mindful breathing can be calming and energizing and can even help with stress-related health problems ranging from panic attacks to digestive disorders.

Breathing exercises such as the one described below have a positive impact on your:

Purpose: To increase awareness of the abdomen and rib cage during breathing in order to decrease tension and stress in the neck shoulders and upper back, as well as the effects noted above.

Reps: 3-10 reps/ several times a day, or even 10-20 minutes per day.

Description: Lying on your back is the easiest position for this exercise. As you improve, the exercise can be performed in any position. The inhale sequence is like a wave starting from your lower abdomen and flowing into your chest. The lower abdomen is always the first to activate in both inhaling and exhaling.

Place one hand on your lower belly and one hand on your upper chest. Breathe into your lower abdomen raising it towards the ceiling. Let the breath flow into your upper and middle chest. Be patient. As with any new skill, abdominal breathing takes some practice. Keep in mind that the goal is relaxation, so don’t try too hard.

Exhale out loud, actively pull your navel in toward your spine to hollow your lower abdomen. Allow the rib cage and chest to lower.

For relaxation, and to decrease emotional stress, promote muscle relaxation, ease pain, and facilitate better sleep and energy levels, try this variation:

Perform this exercise at least 3 times each day, throughout the day, while sitting, standing, walking, driving, waiting in a line, anytime you’re feeling anxious or stressed out. Also do the exercise once or twice per day for 5-10 minutes, while lying down on your back with your knees bent.

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Meditation – Reducing Stress and Enhancing Well-Being – by Sharon M. Weinstein

Meditation: Exercise for our Minds – by by Dr. Helen Lee

Abdominal Breathing – by Dr. Richard Ezgur
Meditation for Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity – by Patrick Andries
Spring Clean Your Mind – by by Shauna Angelina Kohler