What do you find the Benefits of Meditation to be?

To quiet the judging mind can bring periods of deep rest, which rejuvenates our motivation to experience and express joy, kindness, love. We can actually meditate while going through our day, by practicing non-judging.

Something I'm working on......lol

Meditation helps strengthen awareness.  Meditation helps us to see that we are not the mind, not the emotions, not the body.  Meditation brings a sense of calm.  Meditation helps us to see that fulfilling the desires of the mind will not bring a lasting sense of contentment.  

And all of these things change the way we act in our everyday lives.  When a business deal falls through, we do not take it as hard.  When someone cuts us off on the highway, we laugh instead of yell.  When we have an hour between appointments, we stop and breathe into our bellies and enjoy simply being, rather than playing video games.

The mind will continue to try to persuade you to *stop* meditating, because meditation is all about taking energy away from the mind and directing it towards your Being.

You need to decide that you will meditate each day, using a technique that feels right, and then just do it!!! No matter what excuses the mind comes up with.

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Meditaions considerable biological benfits include regulating blood pressure, stimulating blood circulation, alleviating pain and reducing muscular tension. It can even slow down hormonal activity, so that people who practise meditation on a regular basis begin to look healthier and feel fitter. Minor ailments such as migraine, anxiety attacks, sinus problems, asthma and cardiac arrhythmias can also be helped by regular deep-breathing exercises which improve the circulation of air through constricted passages. For these reasons an increasing number of doctors are beginning to refer patients with stress-related ailments and even terminal illnesses to meditation classes. But even if you feel physically fit and healthy there are considerable benifits to be gained from integrating meditation into your daily routine. By practising it regularly you can develop self-discipline, improve your personal performance in sports, business and the arts, build self confidence, increase your energy and efficiency, and generally create a more positive attitude to life. According to series of scientific experiments carried out in the 1960s by Robert Wallace of the University of Calafornia in the USA, and subsequently confirmed by Havard cardiologist, Herbert Benson, meditation has a more profound physiological effect on the body than merely relaxing or even sleeping. Wallace and Benson discorvered subjects in a meditative stated inhaled 20 percent less oxygen and exhaled 20 percent less carbon dioxide than they would do when relaxing in the conventional manner. There blood pressure and heart rates also fell significantly and they produced significantly less lactic acid which remained at a low level for some time after the sessions had ended. Lactic acid is a substance linked with the fight-or-flight response, and is therefore traditionally used as an indicator or stress levels.

The true purpose of meditation is to let go of your constant stream of thoughts that you go through daily like your fears, desires, anxieties, etc., and experience stillness so that you can have glimpse of your soul. When you regularly meditate you will find that it will become easier to settle into that stillness, and you will find that you are able to integrate the calm from your meditation into your daily life. That situations that would normally have made you stressed or angry do not have that same effect on you, and that you are able to handle them in a calm and relaxed manner. I recommend that you meditate twice a day for 10 minutes(eventually working yourself up to 15min, 20, and then 30 min). Meditate first thing in the morning you will find that it is easier to settle into your meditation and that it helps you start your day off relaxed and focused. Then later in the day when you get off of work do your second meditation. Try to meditate the same time of day for each meditation and for the same length of time. After a month of doing this try to go for 15 minutes and in another month or two go for 20 etc.

Meditation is a workout for your mind and just like a physical workouts you will find it hard to stay motivated at first especially when you may not notice any results. But after say 4 to 6 weeks of working out you one day look in the mirror and notice that your biceps are bigger and that you are looking more fit and as soon as that happens you are excited about your next workout the same holds true with meditation when you begin to experience the stillness and calm you will be hooked.

Guru Hemraj

Hello Arj,

At any time of day when I am reminded of the unconscious alternative to meditation, I will instantly rest the mind in awareness of simple and impersonal being - without actually having to think about doing it. The only possible alternative to this awareness/mindfulness, as meditation, is to be in a trance state of conceptual thinking, remembering or of planning. This planning, memory and thinking is just fine and is useful for it's purpose, but it is not actually being alive. It is correct to think of this unconscious process as robotic or a kind of autopilot without the genuine sentience that marks what human life is all about. Anything except actual awareness/mindfulness is to be a subject of the ongoing habitual process of the mind, regardless of it's content, especially including so-called imagination. Imagination is also very useful, but it is not awareness/presence/mindfulness. The habitual process is not alive, is not at all responsive to the immediacy of awareness - awareness which is what we actually are - if we are anything at all.

This understanding is not the product of belief - in fact it is just the opposite. Meditation is a science of the mind advocated by the Buddha and others which is not a religious practice. Some religions favor meditation, both formally in sitting practice and as an ongoing daily presence of mind, but others strictly discourage it. There is now very considerable respected evidence that meditation actually re-forms the make up of the brain - the ultimate sense organ - into a much more integrated entity which assists our beneficial experience of this phenomena which we call "life".

Honestly, I would be afraid to not meditate as a daily practice of awareness without conceptualizing. I have the clear experience that it has improved the actual thinking and clarity necessary to get through challenges of life - without exception. It also has shown me when to let go of obsessive and compulsive thinking for a clear head.

Good luck!

At its very least it gives you some head space. There are many benefits from quietening the mind, many a scientist have had their eureka moments while meditating, including Einstein. :)

It's a question of setting and sticking to a routine. Make the time.

Practicing Shaman.... quantum physics rocks

Well, I found it has calmed me down and given me a more relaxed perspective on life. As an added bonus, it slows down the aging process.

Like anything, you have to want to do it, and be willing to persevere during days when you would prefer to do other things. I see my practice as something that is easy, relaxed, and fun to do. I concentrate on the benefits, and that motivates me.

Good luck.

1

That depends on what one meditates on.