Effects and Benefits of Meditation

Our health is founded upon a relationship between body, mind and spirit and the wellness of each part and the physical body itself is only one component in the overall equation of well-being. This principle of holistics recognises that a stress free and happy mind and a blossoming spiritual life are major factors in our physical health. Just as stress and negative emotions silently erode our life force, so too the practice of meditation releases a new and positive life force borne of inspiration, happiness, peace into every part of our existence, creating the optimum conditions for vitality and health. With meditation even our sleep pattern can change an improvement in quality, a likely reduction in quantity. More time and energy to live our lives!

Everything Starts Within

The way we feel and function in our outer life is determined to a very great extent by our inner life our happiness, our confidence, our moods, our consciousness. We often have little power to change events in the outer world, but we can change the way we react to them. When we are happy and calm, difficulties and problems are easily coped with when we are anxious or unhappy, the same difficulties can become nightmares. Our whole experience of life is coloured by our own consciousness our life is the creation of our minds! Meditation balances the inner and outer worlds and brings out the bright colours of our nature joyfulness, serenity, loving kindness, strength. These emerging positive qualities reshape our very experience of life, for everything starts within.

The writings of all the great sages and pathfinders over the centuries share many recurring ideas and truths one of these is a belief in the wisdom and beauty of the human soul. Sri Chinmoy describes the soul as our 'inner pilot' it is our highest Self, our truest Self, our in-house life guide. The more we listen to our soul, the more our outer life will flourish and prosper and it is in the silence and stillness of meditation that the wisdom of the soul can most easily be felt and experienced. In everything of life decision-making, problem solving, the search for fulfillment and purpose the inner pilot is there to show us the way and we can learn to access it through our deepening practice.

The Soul's Special Promise

The great sages also tell us that each soul is unique and has something very special to accomplish on earth. It is by listening to our 'inner pilot' that we begin to feel and understand what our life's deeper purpose is and then our outer life becomes increasingly in harmony with this knowledge. The discovery and fulfillment of the soul's special promise brings us great happiness.

Power of mind

The many techniques employed in learning meditation share a common theme harnessing and concentrating the power of the mind. By-products and benefits of this effort are numerous an ability to focus and concentrate quickly, enhanced memory, a stillness in the meditating mind which enables us to access deeper, intuitive, creative and inspirational parts of our being. Power of Heart

Sri Chinmoy places great emphasis on the spiritual heart in our quest for happiness, for it houses many of our most powerful spiritual qualities. A widening, deepening capacity for love; compassion for others; a oneness with all of life; inner wisdom; a desireless happiness, like the fragrance of an inner flower, spreading out into our life a treasure trove waiting to be discovered! Sunset over the oceanThe heart is an egoless, unhorizoned consciousness and living 'in the heart' is one of the secrets of real happiness. One of the principle forms of yoga bhakti yoga is centered in the spiritual heart as well. Here, the power of devotional love is directed out to God and sees divinity in all things.

A Peaceful Life

Meditation will make you a very peaceful person. This peace comes about through a growing self-acceptance and self-confidence, and through an inner poise that comes from a deeper part of our being. This peace is not something passive and fragile it is very powerful and dynamic. This kind of inner peace will lift you above success, failure, the positives and negatives of life it leaves in us an adamantine poise and a sense of calm detachment in the face of life's changing fortunes and tribulations. People who have developed inner peace are very powerful.

Awakening

Meditation is the awakening to our true nature, a spiritual path to enlightenment, self-realisation, oneness with God. This is why one should always feel gratitude for the impulse to meditate we have consciously begun the great journey of awakening that lies at the very heart of all human life.

By Jogyata Dallas. Jogyata is a member of the Auckland Sri Chinmoy Centre and has been giving meditation classes in New Zealand for over 20 years. He has also written extensively on Meditation subjects Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jogyata_Dallas

Related Links:

What is meditation?

Meditation usually refers to a state in which the body is consciously relaxed and the mind is allowed to become calm and focused. Several major religions include ritual meditation; however, meditation itself need not be a religious or spiritual activity. Most of the more popular systems of meditation are of Eastern origin, though there exists also various forms of Christian, Jewish and Muslim meditation.
Meditation as a form of alternative medicine brings about mental calmness and physical relaxation by suspending the stream of thoughts that normally occupy the mind. Generally performed once or twice a day for approximately 20 minutes at a time, meditation is used to reduce stress, alter hormone levels, and elevate one's mood.
A discipline in which the mind is focused on a single point of reference. Employed since ancient times in various forms by all religions, the practice gained greater notice in the post war US as interest in Zen Buddhism rose. Meditation is now used by many nonreligious adherents as a method of stress reduction; known to lower levels of cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress. Enhances recuperation and improves the body’s resistance to disease.
Meditation is an easy and simple way to balance a person's physical, emotional, and mental states. It is easily learned and has been used as an aid in treating stress, anxiety, pain management, and as part of an overall treatment for other conditions including hypertension and heart disease. Research shows that meditation decreases the heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen consumption, and even decreases blood pressure.