How many of you think meditation is associated with a religion or picture themselves in a pretzel position on the floor chanting some strange language? Nothing could be further from the truth, at least in my experience. Researchers have found that meditating at least 10 minutes a day in some form will make improvements physiologically and psychologically. What does that mean specifically? Reduced blood pressure, reduced risk of heart attacks and strokes, increased ability to handle stress…just to name a few.
Check out this article from Psychology Today on the Science of Meditation.
So what is meditation? In my opinion, meditation is anything that quiets the mind. This can range from listening to music, gardening, or more traditional sitting forms of meditation. It’s all about finding what works for you and allowing yourself to be in the moment (ie…not thinking about the past or the future). However, many people believe it’s too difficult to stop their thoughts.
Shaktipat master, Steven Sadleir, commented one time that trying to get your mind to stop was like telling a 3-year-old to be quiet. It works for awhile, and then starts right back up….and that’s okay. As you meditate more, these periods of quiet will increase. There’s no need to berate yourself or compare yourself to others.
Chun-yi Lin, a Spring Forest Qigong master, told me once there is no bad meditation….only Good, Better, and Best. Ten minutes a day is good, 30 minutes a day is better, and 1-2 hours or more a day is best. I believe that because I can tell if I haven’t meditated in a few days. My days don’t seem to flow as well, and my stress levels go up.
When I first started meditating, I was introduced to a product called Centerpointe. They have done an amazing amount of research, and are using technology to introduce meditative states in a very easy way. I will try to summarize how it works; however, I highly recommend checking out their web site and ordering a free demo CD for the most accurate and up-to-date information.
Centerpointe consists primarily of a 1-hour CD with sounds of rain and gongs. It’s very peaceful. Sub audibly, however, there is a carrier frequency 10 cycles per second difference between the L and R channels to the ears. You need to wear headphones to benefit from this, and what it does is cause the brain to obtain a balanced state between the left and right hemispheres. What they found after measuring the brainwave patterns of Zen Buddhist monks who had been meditating for twenty years, was they obtained these balanced brain states. Centerpointe is able to use technology to bring this about, and what I love about it is how easy it is to use. All you have to do is listen. You can be sitting up, lying down, awake or asleep. It works; however, you do need to stay away from operating machinery while listening to it.
When I first started, I would fall asleep while listening, and that was okay. It worked the entire time. If I didn’t have time to listen during the day, I would put the CD and my earphones on before going to sleep. Over time, it didn’t put me to sleep as much as my brain got used to it, and I would set the alarm an hour earlier, reach over and put on my earphones, and either slowly wake up and plan my day, or fall back to sleep until the alarm clock rang again.
I liked it so much I bought the deeper levels (ie the carrier frequency gets lower) and am progressing through those. From my experience, I can say that things don’t bother me as much as they used to. What they say, and I can agree, is that everyone has a threshold for stress and a daily level of stress. When that daily level of stress reaches your individual threshold, you get stressed out. What meditation does over time is raise your threshold for stress so the same daily levels don’t reach it, and you don’t get stressed out anymore. Try it! It worked for me.
Whether it’s Centerpointe, Spring Forest Qigong, Shaktipat, Yoga, Transcendental Meditation, listening to music, or some other form of meditation, try different ones and settle on the best one for you. Consistent meditation will make a real difference in your life physiologically and psychologically.
Namaste!
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