Stress is a normal part of our everyday lives, yet it is something that requires our attention or else, it can turn into a bigger concern.

Dealing with stress is tricky, but you can learn to manage stress and lead a happier life. Following are a few ways that can help you relax, unwind and keep stress at bay:

Indulge in Physical Activities

It may sound contradictory, but experts say that physical exertion can help cure mental fatigue. When you indulge yourself in physical activities, your body releases endorphins in the bloodstream, also known as feel-good chemicals. Endorphins are responsible for your happy mood and calmer state of mind. Therefore, it is said that regular physical activity can help with managing stress effectively.

Keep a Journal

You may think of it as something ‘old school’ but writing about things that make you sad or upset is the best catharsis. Keep a journal and write about all those things that contribute to your anxieties. Talk to yourself about how your day went, how did you feel, things that previously made you sad, things that made you feel uncomfortable, and more. It is the best way to put things in perspective.

Your stress journal will help you find out about all those things that trigger stress. Once you get to this point, try your best to avoid everything that triggers feelings of sadness and anxiety in you.

Try Herbal Remedies

There are various herbs and plants that are considered quite effective for countering stress as well as anxiety. Some of the best ones include:

Lavender: Lavender is famous for its calming effects. If you’re a fan of aromatherapy, you must have heard about how beneficial lavender oil is. It is included in many aromatherapy products including massage oils, moisturizers, and even bath salts. As mentioned by a study, aromatherapy with lavender oil can reduce work-related stress for days.

Chamomile: Another magical herb that is mostly consumed in the form of tea is chamomile. Chamomile tea is said to be an excellent cure for not just stress and anxiety, but insomnia as well. It can relax your stressed muscles, reduce irritability, and boost the mood.

Medical Marijuana: Cannabis is one of the most reliable plants when it comes to countering stress. It has been legalized in various states of America and Canada because of its amazing medicinal benefits. According to multiple studies, a single puff of marijuana can significantly reduce everyday life stress. If you’re not into smoking, you can try THC concentrates instead.

Time Management is the Key

Most of the time, one feels overwhelmed because of everyday tasks. Even though it is natural, it contributes a lot to the stress levels of the human body. Hence, it is safe to say that time management can help with lowering stress levels. All you need to do is prioritize the tasks that require immediate attention and come to terms with the fact that you cannot do everything in a single day.

Make a weekly list of tasks according to their importance. Also, make sure to create buffer times, you never know when you have to deal with an emergency situation and in the end, take some time for yourself as well. After all, you need your own slot to unwind and relax.

Get Adequate Amount of Sleep

The unhealthy sleep cycle can contribute to your stress in so many ways. In fact, according to science, the lack of sleep is one of the significant causes behind everyday life stress. Thus, an adequate amount of sleep is crucial to function properly. According to health care experts, the best time to sleep is from 10-11 PM to 6-7 AM.

In a nutshell, you need to fix your routine and unhealthy habits in order to fix your sleep cycle. Declutter your bedroom, switch off your cell phone, try different relaxation techniques, avoid beverages with caffeine before sleep time, and give your brain some time to de-stress and let loose. Make your sleep a priority!

About the Author:

Jack is a psychotherapist and neurodegenerative disorders expert. He has been practicing in New York for 25 years now, and since then he has been fighting to make marijuana legal in the United States for it comes with numerous health benefits. You can read his blogs at https://thegreenace.ca/.

By Kevin Schoeninger

Meditation is a powerful tool for preventative medicine. It can facilitate self-healing and inspire a deep sense of well-being. In this article, you’ll learn four ways to use meditation for health and wellness.

You’ll also read a profound story of how mindfulness and meditation cured one woman’s cancer.

The body knows how to heal itself. It is equipped with natural self-repair mechanisms that repair broken proteins, kill cancer cells, fight infections, prevent aging, and maintain the homeostasis of the body.

When the body gets sick, whether, from the common cold or something more serious, like heart disease or cancer, it’s almost always because the body’s self-repair mechanisms have broken down, usually because of stress.

When the nervous system is stressed, as it is during the “fight-or-flight” stress response that is so commonly triggered in modern-day life, these self-repair mechanisms are disabled and the body is at risk for disease or injury.

Only when the counterbalancing relaxation response is activated, when the sympathetic nervous system is turned off and the parasympathetic nervous system is turned on, can the body heal itself.

Learn More About Meditation for Healing: Can Meditation Cure Cancer?

Let’s begin with this story of miraculous healing from “Meditation: An In-Depth Guide” (Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin, 2011) by Ian Gawler and Paul Bedson.

Bernice Heals Her Cancer (p.274-278, MAIG)

In 1980, Bernice Groeke was diagnosed with melanoma in her calf which she had surgically removed. A year and a half later, doctors found melanoma in a lymph node in her groin and also surgically removed that. A year and a half after that, cancer had spread to her lungs, at which point the doctors said that it was inoperable. They said there was nothing medically they could do for her and that she had only months to live.

Bernice decided to join a 12-week cancer self-help group. Soon after joining the group, the discussion turned to the effect of mindset on handling the physical pain and mental-emotional suffering of cancer. Bernice had never really given much thought to her mindset.

However, as the group discussed the power of mindfulness and positive thinking, Bernice quickly recognized just how negative her usual mindset tended to be. In fact, she had taken it as her duty to be on guard and to warn her family and friends of anything that could go wrong. On the flip-side, she was also quick her warn herself and others not to get too excited about new possibilities because they were likely to end in disappointment.

Bernice realized her mindset was the definition of a “glass-half-empty” approach to life. So, after learning about the benefits of thinking more positively, she decided to change her habitual mindset. To do this, she decided to repeat the affirmation “I am a positive person” anytime she recognized herself going negative.

About six weeks into her new mindfulness and affirmation practice, she was sitting with her husband after dinner when she experienced one of the melanomas pressing uncomfortably against her spine. Her husband noticed her agitation and asked what was wrong.

Bernice replied, “Perhaps the doctors are right. Perhaps I’m just kidding myself. Perhaps I should just accept the fact that I’m going to die and give up on all this other stuff.” (p.275, MAIG)

Her husband was sympathetic to her pain and he was also aware of her new affirmation practice. So, instead of just sympathizing, he replied, “Oh that’s interesting. What are you?”

“What do you mean, what am I?” she replied.

“Oh, I thought you were a positive person now,” he said.

Bernice reflected on this and replied, “You’re right, I am.”

Bernice recalled that, as she said this, she felt a palpable shift inside her body, as if a switch had been turned on. From that moment on, she was able to see the positive in every situation.

Shortly after this inner shift, she was meditating and praying in church and had a profound mystical experience of God’s Presence in which she understood the Biblical phrase “Be still and know that I am God.” From that moment on, her faith was strengthened. She found it easier to follow through on her healthy diet and her healing efforts with meditation. She also became enthusiastic about serving others.

Within six months, scans revealed that her lungs were clear of all tumors. And, within a year, much to their surprise, doctors proclaimed her cancer-free.

Soon thereafter, Bernice volunteered to speak to meditation groups at the Gawler Foundation telling them her story. She beamed radiantly as she spoke and her enthusiasm for life was infectious. Bernice became an inspiring spiritual force.

Several years later, her husband died in his late eighties. Her friends and family wondered how Bernice would take his passing. After all, they had been together for over sixty years.

While she grieved appropriately and was deeply saddened, she surprised them with her resilience. She said, “Well, you know, it is really sad that Wain died and I will miss him terribly, but it will be interesting… I have never lived on my own before. I wonder what it will be like not having to take Wain into account anymore?”

Shortly thereafter, to help with expenses, Bernice took in a student boarder from overseas. They quickly became the best of friends. She taught him about life in Australia and he gave her company and financial support. It was a beautiful new chapter in her life.

Then, in 2009, at the age of 93, and 26 years after her cancer had disappeared-it reappeared. This time, she deteriorated quickly.

At first, she thought she was at fault. She went to Gawler to express her disappointment in herself. Gawler was quick to remind her of her remarkable recovery. For over 26 years, she had lived cancer-free. He reminded her that we all die of something-and that we don’t always know why. He also reminded her of her faith.

Bernice conceded that she had somewhat lost touch with her faith and now she had some doubts and fears of dying.

Gawler encouraged her that doubts and fears were natural human feelings, especially in the face of death. He encouraged her to mindfully recognize her doubts and fears and accept them for what they were-natural feelings toward facing the unknown. He also suggested to Bernice that dying was like “going home.”

He reminded Bernice of her faith and encouraged her to imagine what it would be like to rest in the Divine Presence. He told her that “dying was easy, that she had led a good life, and she could look back on it with gentle satisfaction and no regrets. To die she only had to breathe out and not breathe in again. It would be easy.”

Supported by Gawler’s words, Bernice resolved to focus on the Divine Presence and imagine herself merging with it when the time came.

Bernice died less than a week later, peacefully. And, her funeral was a joyous celebration of her life. Family, friends, and throngs of those whom she had touched with her smiling service came to celebrate what she had meant to them.

A beautiful story.

4 Ways Meditation Supports Health and Healing

So, what can we draw from Bernice’s story that can help us heal and be healthier?

1. Your mindset affects your ability to heal

As we saw with Bernice, her healing began with healing her attitude, her habitual mindset. She recognized her habit of looking at life through a negative and fear-based lens. She was always wary, on guard, and expecting the worst. Before attending the cancer self-help group, she hadn’t really noticed this was a mindset, or that it was detrimental-she just thought she was being conscientious, responsible, and careful.

Bernice learned to change her mindset by affirming, “I am a positive person.”

Now, having a positive mindset is not about making things up or making things better than they really are. It’s about noticing the opportunities that are present in every situation. It’s about seeing what can be done rather than focusing on what can’t. It’s about being present with “what is” and noticing what you can do to move things forward in a good direction.

When you do this, you open yourself to a wider scope of possibilities and become more inspired to take positive action.

2. The choices you make matter

As you open yourself to a wider scope of possibilities, you realize you can choose to take actions that make a positive difference for yourself and others. Things are not “just the way they are,” they are the result of a series of choices that combine to create specific results.

Meditation supports a state of clear seeing in which you can recognize options and make good choices. Through meditation, you become more able to choose what works and let go of what doesn’t.

As Bernice opened to the possibility of healing, she began to make different choices. She chose to say her positive affirmations to reset her mindset. She adopted a healthier diet. She meditated daily. She increased her efforts to serve others. She widened her community.

In time, these combined with other unseen forces to create healing.

3. Meditation itself supports healing

One of the most important things you can do to facilitate healing-whether it’s physical or mental-emotional-is to activate your body’s natural relaxation response.

When you are in stress-mode, over-busy, and overwhelmed, your body restricts energy flow to digestion, immune, and higher-thought processes. Your sympathetic nervous system directs all energy outward and you lose your ability to absorb nutrients, repair your cells, and make good choices.

Our bodies are made to alternate between periods of activity and rest. Most erring on the side of too much activity. We rush from one thing to the next and don’t allow ourselves time to consciously process the events of the day. Then, we spend our sleeping hours actively processing life in our dreams. This hinders deep rest and recovery.

When you consciously relax, using a tool such as meditation, you activate your parasympathetic nervous system, your natural recovery, and repair mode. This brings digestion, immune, and higher-thinking capacities back online. You also begin to process and integrate the events of the day, and of your life up to now, so you can let the past go and be more present with what is.

For these reasons, it’s vitally essential to consciously activate the Relaxation Response at least once a day using a tool such as meditation for at least 10-20 minutes.

4. Meaningful imagery supports healing

Bernice had a strong faith in God. Because of this, she found it quite helpful and healing to imagine herself immersed in the Divine Presence. This soothed and comforted her. Her faith also prompted her to take other healing actions, serve others, and build community.

When we think only of ourselves and our own suffering, it’s easy to get bogged down in feeling “Woe is me.” Widening your vision to realize your Oneness with the larger field of Life inspires and heals. Health and healing occur naturally as a result of the Universal Life-Force flowing strongly and smoothly through your whole being.

Meditation is a powerful way to mindfully recognize blocks to this flow, release them, and center into this deeper enlivening Presence.

Enjoy your practice!

FREE Online Meditation Course! – Your Meditation Journey

Can Meditation Help Keep Your Brain Young and Fit For Life?

Clear Quiet Mind Meditations guide you into a deeply relaxed state of being in which your body and mind can rejuvenate and heal. Just click “Play” and follow along. Download on CD Baby or Download on iTunes

Kevin Schoeninger is a writer and teacher of Mind-Body training, including Mindfulness, Meditation, Qigong, and Reiki. He is the author of the book “Clear Quiet Mind” and numerous guided meditations and programs in the field of personal empowerment and spiritual growth.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kevin_Schoeninger/31493

http://EzineArticles.com/?Can-Meditation-Cure-Cancer?&id=9991739

As people age, their brain’s lose weight and volume. These changes may start to occur in people as early as their mid to late 20s. Previous research has shown people who meditate to lose less brain mass over time than those who do not. In particular, the research concluded people who meditated showed less of a decrease in their white brain matter.

White brain matter acts as a connector and insulator for gray brain matter. It carries nerve impulses between the functional parts of the brain. Gray brain matter houses the various neurological centers of the brain, which direct speech, motor skills, memory, etc.

Meditation is something practiced by more than 15 million Americans and many more people around the world. It has its roots in eastern culture but has been wholeheartedly embraced in western societies.

Meditation has a wide variety of benefits, including:

• Improves sleep
• Inner peace and tranquility
• Reduces chronic pain
• Reduces stress and anxiety
• Reduces depression
• Boosts attention
• Improves immunity
• Helps with weight loss
• Boosts memory
• Improves heart health and lowers blood pressure
• Improves wellbeing and allows for deeper relationships

Now it seems that meditation may also help to keep our brains young.

Interesting Experiments In Meditation and Brain Research

A team of researchers from UCLA wondered if meditation preserves the gray matter of people who meditate as well. The researchers found meditation to have a widespread effect on the entire brain not just specific regions of the brain associated with meditation.

The study compared people having years of meditation experience with those who had none. The meditators had an average of 20 years of experience with meditation practice. The age range of the study participants included people in their mid-20s to their late 70s.

Nearly equal numbers of men and women participated in the study with 28 men and 22 women. They found the meditators still experienced a decline in gray matter with age but less than non-meditators.

The researchers noted the positive outcome of the study but caution people reviewing the results; they were unable to establish a direct link to meditation and the preservation of gray matter.

Another UCLA study conducted in 2012, showed meditators to have more gyrification, folds in their brains, which may contribute to an ability to process information faster than usual.

Meditation appears to allow practitioners to maintain both white and gray matter and form increased connections in the brain; it seems to keep the brain young.

Along with its positive effects on white and gray brain matter, meditation appears to have a positive effect on other body functions.

Learn About The 20 Ways The Brain Is Rewired By The Power Of Meditation HERE…

Anti-Aging Benefits Of Meditation

The youth-preserving and renewing benefits of meditation include:

• Meditation increases DHEA, which facilitates the production of the hormones that maintain fat and mineral metabolism.
• An increase in Melatonin, which acts as antioxidant, supplies immune support and fights depression.
• A decrease in cortisol, the stress hormone that encourages the body to retain dangerous belly fat associated with heart disease and diabetes.

The Effects Of Meditation

Part of feeling and maintaining a youthful mental outlook centers around the quality of one’s thinking patterns. Meditators learn to quiet the mental chaos and build their ability to concentrate.

They experience greater clarity of thought and tend to react less and respond more to circumstances. In short, they maintain their ability to be highly adaptive and think quickly with the additional benefit of choosing their response to situations rather than reacting to them.

How To Meditate For Beginners

Meditators typically meditate at least twice a day for twenty minutes per sitting. Most schools of thought recommend meditation to start the day and to close it.

However, a person may meditate whenever they have time in their schedule to accommodate it.

Meditation is not an all or nothing proposition. It is also beneficial to meditate in shorter increments of time, sitting for 5, 10, or 15 minutes.

There are also several different methods of meditation, including:

• Primordial Sound Meditation
• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
• Zen
• Transcendental Meditation
• Yoga Meditation (Kundalini)
• Focused Attention Meditation
• Open Monitoring Meditation
• Vipassana Meditation
• Loving Kindness Meditation (Metta Meditation)
• Mantra Meditation (OM Meditation)
• Qigong (Chi kung)

Learn How To Establish A Daily Meditation Practice For Beginners HERE…

How To Meditate At Home

A person new to meditation needs to be patient; it takes time to train the mind to focus and settle into a meditation practice. The first step is to decide which form of meditation you wish to practice, and then learn how to do it. If possible, obtain the services of an expert, and there are also many books, DVD’s and free information available online that can teach the exact steps of the particular method preferred.

When beginning, try to meditate at the same time every day. If this is not possible, you can still meditate at a different time. Building a meditation practice is more important than when you do it. The benefits of a consistent meditation practice can develop in a few weeks with continued practice preserving your brain’s youthful dynamics for years to come.

3 Easy Steps To Start Your Own Meditation Practice At Home

How Meditation Helps Your Body And Brain

There is constant two-way communication going on between your body and your brain. Do you remember a time when you may have thought of something that was just terrible or maybe you had a “sinking feeling” in your stomach area? That is the kind of communication that goes on between your brain and your body. Meditation can help relax your mind so it can help train your body to relax and your brain to be clear.

Recent research has found that not only does your brain communicate with your cells, but your cells will also communicate with your brain and also with other parts of your body. In fact, a scientist has recently discovered that we think with not only our brain but our bodies as well. Meditation can help us to also understand our brain.

It is not inaccurate to look at your entire body as being part of your brain…

That may be a new fact that may startle you, but do not reject it. Many scientists are now starting to believe that we are actually a “body-brain”. You can communicate with your body and brain through meditation. A key part of your body’s incredible communication system involves your cells’ receptors. This means every call in your body can have millions of receptors on its face, and each cell has perhaps seventy different types of receptors.

While meditating as I learned more I discovered that in the early 1970s, Candace Pert, PhD.D, was the first scientist to prove that the existence of these receptors with her own discovery of the opiate receptor. These receptor molecules float on the cell’s oily outer part of the membrane and also have roots that can reach deep inside the cell.

Brainwave Entrainment: Achieve Deep Relaxation and Emotional Balance

I’m sure that Dr. Pert had to do a lot of meditating as she wrote her wonderful book The Molecules Of Emotion, Dr. Pert says that “the life of a cell, what it is up to at any moment, is determined by which receptors are on its surface, and whether those receptors are occupied by ligands or not. A ligand is described as a small molecule that will bind itself to a cellular receptor.

Using mediation to keep my mind clear I learned that there are three chemical types of ligands. They are the neurotransmitters, the steroids, and the ones that we are most interested in at this time, the peptides. According to Dr.Pert, as many as 95 percent of all ligands may be peptides.

The receptors and their ligands have come to be seen as “information molecules’- the basic units of a language that are used by cells throughout the organism to communicate across systems such as the endocrine, neurological, gastrointestinal, and even the immune system.” I would say as much knowledge as Dr.Pert has on this subject meditation would be what kept her mind in focus.

Meditation For Physical Pain Can Make You Feel Better

Painkillers are addictive and potentially dangerous. Some drugs could cause a host of long-term health problems even if they are used correctly. Fortunately, there is a safe, low-cost alternative to painkillers. Meditation relieves pain without the many side effects that you get from painkillers and other drugs. Some say that meditation can be addictive, but there have been no dangers associated with “too much” meditation.

Meditation For Pain Relief Is Backed By Science

Meditation for pain relief has been used for hundreds of years, but its efficacy has been proven by science. After assessing 34 trials in evaluating the effectiveness of meditation on pain relief, the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research Quality has reported that meditation programs can indeed help reduce pain intensity.

Researchers at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have found that meditation can reduce pain intensity by about 40 percent and decrease the unpleasantness by as much as 57 percent. Typically, morphine and other painkillers usually reduce pain by about 25 percent. This means that meditation may even be more effective than medication when it comes to pain relief.

Meditation For Physical Pain – How Does Meditation Stop Pain?

Pain activates the body’s stress response. Stress has been found to exacerbate pain especially in diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. In other words, when you are in pain, your body becomes stressed. The more stressed you are, the more intense your pain becomes. Meditation relieves stress by inducing a relaxed state. When stress dissipates, so does your pain. When you meditate, biochemical changes also start happening inside your body. Your body releases, endorphins, a natural painkiller that also produces a feeling of well-being.

Can Meditation Help You With Emotional and Psychological Pain?

Meditation can help heal psychological trauma and emotional scars. Army veterans take meditation classes to help them overcome negative thoughts and emotions associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The American Psychological Association has reported that people who have meditated for a considerable amount of time are able to detach themselves from emotionally upsetting images.

A study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism reported that meditation can reduce PTSD symptoms by up to 41 percent, which is more than twice the expected outcome of 20 percent.

People who suffer from depression can benefit from meditation. Serotonin is an important neurotransmitter that influences mood and behavior. Low serotonin levels are associated with depression. Meditation has been found to increase a person’s serotonin level and to elevate one’s mood.

Antidepressants, especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors like Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil, are widely prescribed by mental health professionals for depression, but these medications do have adverse side effects. If you are using these medications, you can use meditation in conjunction with your treatment.

However, you should ask your doctor if you could be weaned off the medications if you feel that they are no longer necessary. Do not make this decision on your own.

Benefits of Healing Meditation

The type of healing meditation can provide comes from within. Meditation can reap a number of benefits for people who practice it as a daily routine. Here are just some of the many benefits that meditation can have in your life.

One of the most important benefits that meditation can have on a person’s life is inner peace. A lot of people today, in this stressful world that we live in, would like to experience more inner peace in their lives. Inner peace can, at times, seem elusive because life in these modern times has become so hectic.

It is through meditation that we can be taught how to switch off the noise of the mind brought about by this busy and stressful world. Through meditation, we are taught not to focus on all the various passing thoughts which clog our mind. Meditation can teach individuals how to gain a clear state of mind. And through this, the secret of feeling real inner peace can be achieved.

Meditation can also provide some health benefits. Numerous studies have shown some links between meditation and improved health. One of the health benefits that meditation provides is that it is a practical solution to combat stress. It is through the stress that a lot of health problems may come from. By relieving stress through meditation people may be able to lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart-related diseases.

Through meditation, people may also be able to discover a real sense of who they are. Intelligence may be able to seek and discover the answer to many questions in the world. But the one question that asks who we really always remain unanswered. In order to discover our real selves, depending solely on the intellect may not be enough. We need to be aware of our own soul and we may need to go beyond the mind. Through meditation, people can become more aware of a spiritual essence in life. Discovering this would help us feel a new purpose in life.

Meditation can help make our lives simpler. Life today consists of a lot of clutter and unwanted baggage that we can actually live without but do not realize it. A troubled life can contain nothing but teeming problems and worries. By learning how to meditate, people can develop an appreciation for the simplicity of life.

Meditation may also help a person know happiness. Learning how to meditate can help people feel real happiness because it allows people to become more in tune with their inner selves. When we become more aware of our own heart and mind, we can experience a sense of unity with others and the things all around us. This will bring about a sense of happiness that is not caused by mere external events.

Healing meditation can also help foster better relationships with other people. People can easily create minor conflicts with other people by bringing to light the minor faults of the other person. Fault-finding becomes a common source of unhappiness and division among people. Through meditation, people can develop a sense of giving minor thoughts of lesser importance. Meditation can also help develop a sense of unity with other people by naturally looking to their good qualities. By doing this, the minor faults of other people become less important.

Using A Guided Meditation Script For Healing and Relaxation

If you suffer from physical or psychological pain and you want to use meditation in conjunction with your current treatment, you should know that there are guided meditation programs that are tailor-fitted to your needs. Guided meditation is a form of meditation where a voice guides you as you enter a meditative state.

Can You Meditate Without A Guide Or Meditation Teacher?

Meditating on your own can be challenging. Besides, guided meditation can help you attain a specific goal or meet a particular need.

Meditation is a practice that has been around for as long as the world can remember. There are those who meditate in an attempt to diminish the stress from their busy minds, and there are others who do it to bring peace in their minds and their bodies.

There are many different types and methods of meditation techniques, but they all give the same amazingly simple end result. Total inner peace and a strong sense of well-being for anyone who will practice the calming methods of meditation.

What Is Meditation? How Do You Meditate

Meditation has been defined in many different ways with many different words, terms, and phrases. Meditation affects everybody differently, so your definition of meditation may be different than the next person’s definition of meditation.

Overall, meditation is something that has always been for bringing a person to a calm and peaceful place in their minds and creating a certain consciousness that can bring many positive thoughts in the brain and make that person’s world seem a little brighter, a lot less foggy and confusing.

The term “meditation” itself is in reference to a number of different mediation practices, all giving the same result, and are being labeled as a form of meditation. Meditation is meant to include techniques that can promote relaxation, build life force and internal energy, and develop a sense of compassion and understanding for other people.

FREE Online Meditation Course! – Your Meditation Journey

Meditation For Beginners – What Are Some Meditation Techniques For Beginners

Meditation for beginners and experienced alike is something that crosses everyone’s mind at some point in their lives. Over 20 million people meditate every day! Everyone wants to feel a little bit better with themselves and others, but aren’t sure how to go about creating that mindset for themselves to accomplish this.

When you want to feel more compassion, understanding, and love for other people, meditation is the way to go in order to achieve more of what you want out of your life. Not everyone is going to know exactly how to meditate at first and that is completely alright.

That is why guided meditation exists, just for those people who aren’t sure how to begin the meditation part of their lives. Guided meditation means that someone will take you through all of the steps of meditation, while you are meditating like the meditation video above.

The meditation instructor will tell you what to do, and how to reach that sense of inner peace. There are places online that you can visit in order to find a guided meditation practice, but it is always the best idea to find someone who can help you through your first meditation in person so that there can be a personal connection in the teachings that you are receiving.

You can Google “guided meditation for beginners” with the quotes and find many videos and mp3s to help you on your journey. Just remember to get started, and remember that you can not meditate wrong. Learn and discover what type of meditation works for you will be exploring the many different types of guided meditations for beginners and move forward with confidence!

How To Meditate – FREE Guided Meditation For Beginners

Many scientific studies support the use of meditation in medical treatment. However, before you use meditation in conjunction with your current treatment, discuss this with your health practitioner. Do not make decisions regarding your treatment on your own.

People are now going back to ancient practices because they know that modern times have been causing them too much stress. Of all the means of relaxation out there, more and more people are looking forward to experiencing the benefits of meditation.

Because of its effectivity in terms of calming the mind and developing a person’s level of intuition, meditation has now being performed not just a means of clearing the mind and inner reflection but also to heal various illnesses in the mind, emotions, and physical aspects.

Regular mindfulness meditation has been shown to be an essential element in reducing stress and improving your overall happiness. Along with the many mental benefits, meditation can provide you with the following emotional benefits as well.

Learn how to rediscover the benefits of meditation. What can be so easily forgotten in this complex, stress-filled 21st century of total distraction is the need for self-care. When it comes to an increase in stress in everyday life,  especially in the age of a hyper-digital, detrimental political climate and confusion.

In a world with an intense need for immediacy and instant gratification, the practice of meditation has helped humans cope for thousands of years and is arguably more crucial to successful living more than ever before.

FREE Online Meditation Course! – Your Meditation Journey

The Top 5 Benefits Of Meditation For Healing Your Mind, and Emotions For Better Living

Improved Mood

Practicing meditation on a regular basis is great for boosting a lousy mood. Meditation is the perfect anecdote if you are looking to boost your mood and lead a happier, healthier life. Whether you are just having a bad day or if you are suffering from depression, engaging in meditation can help.

Lowered Stress levels

Stress is something that we’ve all experienced in our lives. If you engage in meditation every day, you can experience an immediate decrease in your stress levels. As you learn to focus and live in the moment, you learn how to better cope with the ongoing stressors in your life.

Increased Calmness

When you practice meditation, you can remain calm during upsetting situations and events. Meditation brings about an awareness of your thoughts and feelings, allowing you to witness the situation without having an adverse reaction.

Emotional Strength

Meditation is based on the truth and the reality of Òwhat is. This means that by engaging in meditation on a regular basis, it will provide you with immense clarity and greater inner strength. As you learn to be present at the moment, your fears, anxieties, and worries start to fade, leaving you feeling steady, stable, and emotionally firm.

Emotional Balance

Emotional balance means being free of the neurotic behavior that is a result of a traumatized ego. Regular meditation is a great way to cure these neurosis and unhealthy emotional states. As your consciousness is cleansed of the emotionally soaked memories, you gain freedom and balance. Your responses are no longer colored by the burdens you carry.

One of the best things about meditation is that once you learn how to do it, there is no limit to the number of benefits you’ll gain in your life. Not only will you begin to experience more balanced emotions and a healthier mental state, but you’ll be able to lower your stress levels.

5 Surprising Benefits You Can Gain from Meditation

We’ve all heard that practicing meditation can be good for us, but beyond the common knowledge that it’s relaxing, we might not be exactly sure why it’s so good for us.

The truth is that meditation allows you to experience many benefits, both direct and indirect. Here are five surprising benefits that you can gain from regular meditation practice.

1. It Improves Fertility

Stress has been proven to hurt our immune systems. But did you know it can be equally devastating to our fertility? While scientists aren’t sure about the exact link between stress and infertility, they have discovered that women who took part in stress-reduction techniques were more likely to get pregnant.

2. It Improves Self-Acceptance

When we engage in meditation, we become more aware of our thoughts and more capable of controlling them. A crucial part of meditation is noticing our thoughts and feelings without judging them. This helps us to develop a different perspective on our inner dialogue so that we can develop a greater understanding of ourselves.

3. It Improves Self-Confidence

Our self-confidence is built on the stories we know about ourselves. So, just like our self-acceptance can be improved with meditation, so can our self-esteem. When we experience negative thoughts and feelings about ourselves during meditation, we learn to notice them at the moment, and not hang onto them. After a time, this leaves us able to handle negative, internal dialogue better outside of our meditation sessions.

4. It Improves our Relationships

Our relationships can be improved through the practice of meditation in two ways. First, it allows us the time to reconnect with ourselves. The more grounded, relaxed, and self-accepting we are, the more we can be our best selves with others. Secondly, it can help us to develop our awareness of the stories we hold around others. Meditation provides us with the ability to see stories we have with others from a different perspective.

5. It Improves Creativity

Many internal and external factors contribute to the creative blocks that we experience. When we struggle to break through specific thought patterns, practicing meditation is like hitting the restart button. Meditation allows us to step away from and out of these patterns, making it easier to move past them.

Engaging in regular meditation provides you with a whole host of benefits. Practicing for just ten minutes a day can change your entire world. While the length of your practice isn’t significant, the frequency that you practice will determine how successful you are on your path.

FREE Online Meditation Course! – Your Meditation Journey

Learn Even More About The Benefits Of Meditation

Meditation is an art that has been around since the dawn of the age of man. This is not a statement to be brushed over. After all, many many things about mankind have changed over time, but the profound art of meditation is something we have clung on to dearly.

There is no substitute for consistent meditation practice. Nothing else, single-handedly, bestows the many wonderful blessings that meditation brings… in fact, nothing else even comes close. In this section, I will outline the top benefits that meditation brings and hopefully, it will inspire you to learn and practice this timeless art.

The mind of one who meditates is like the easy, leisurely flow of a river, as compared to the ordinary mind, which is like Niagara Falls. In other words, your mind is at peace, deeply silent and so you are at peace.

Meditation opens up the channels of communication between all levels of your being. What this means is that you have access now to the guidance that is coming directly from your Divine Self. This link gives rise to the flow of intuition and wisdom.

Meditation strips away the layers of false identity that mask your True Self from shining through. Once you eliminate these false egos and stop catering to their nonsense you can reside in your True Nature. This brings forth joy and happiness as it allows you to be at ease with life, existence and yourself.

All serious meditators know how much their brain function has been enhanced by meditation. Now, empirical studies every day are indicating this link. Meditation will undoubtedly increase your awareness and will significantly increase your intelligence.

This will give you insight into who you really are and what you really love in life. That is the secret of mastering the art of living and discovering your true talents, gifts, and purpose. That which you love, you do for its own sake without the need for the reward of accolades. Once this is discovered, life can be lived with passion, zeal, and independence.

Enlightenment: This is the one ultimate purpose of meditation. To help you discover the True Non-Dual Nature of Reality. To make you realize that your True Self is Divine and One with God.

All serious meditators know how much their brain function has been enhanced by meditation. Now, empirical studies every day are indicating this link. Meditation will undoubtedly increase your awareness and will significantly increase your intelligence.

Take your time and practice meditation today so that you can start feeling better real soon. This is going to be a life-changing experience for you if you can make the most out of it and really start being a much more positive person, there is no doubt about that.

Now, empirical studies every day are indicating this link. Meditation will undoubtedly increase your awareness and will significantly increase your intelligence.

FREE Online Meditation Course! – Your Meditation Journey

Good luck and enjoy your meditation practices each day.

In teaching meditation, I have found that we humans (my self included) are the worst at delaying our instant gratification desires, even if its the best thing to do for our greater good. Will we ever change this behavior, probably not. But, here’s my best shot at it…

Why Should You Start Meditating Today? We all lead very busy crazy lives, but if you want to achieve life mastery, it is important that you feel a sense of balance, in our body, mind, and spirit. This balance is critical to moving forward with our truest desires. Take the time to invest in yourself. Dig deeper for the results you want and embrace the power of meditation.

It is vital that you meditate on a daily basis. If you can meditate more than once a day, by all means, do so. Having a daily meditation practice generates momentum each and every day you meditate and makes your life experience more natural powerful, more compassionate, and effortless.

Here’s a beautiful concept of being human if you have never heard this before.

“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in The Joy of Kindness

Meditation is nothing more than a method for calming the mind, allowing concentration to increase and inner peace to emerge in the midst of a world full of turmoil. It can be a clear pathway to self-discovery, as well as a restorative and healing process for the mind, body, and soul backed by science.

To understand how this constant turmoil can negatively affect your mind, you need to look at your mind like a lake.

When someone throws a rock into the lake, or a boat passes through it, ripples and waves are created, rising until they reach the shore and disappear. Now imagine your thoughts are the waves inside your mind.

Just like throwing something in the lake will create ripples and waves, being regularly exposed to the negative thoughts and overthinking what happened in the past or the future, will distort your mind’s calmness and leave you
feeling anxious, tense, worried and stressed.

Unfortunately, in a desperate attempt to conquer these negative thoughts and restore calmness to our lives, we end up allowing our thoughts to control our minds instead. When you find yourself plagued by negative thoughts, anxiety, or worry, it is important to remember, that like the ripples in the lake, those in your mind will rise and fall in intensity.

Instead of judging your thoughts and trying to stop your mind’s chatter, you need to allow your thoughts to come and go, watching them float away. One way to do this is through meditation.

While there are many different kinds of meditation, they all share universal benefits. Here are five compelling reasons why you should start meditating and cultivating it as a daily habit.

The Ability To Gain Valuable Inner Peace Every Day

Just like your house, your mind needs to be cleaned. Every day, we fill our minds with negative thoughts, emotions, energy and a ton of junk that piles up, filling our body, heart, mind, and soul.

These negative thoughts can come from many different sources; the media, interactions with other people throughout our day, the environment, our job, and even from within ourselves.

If you don’t participate in regular meditation, this negative junk accumulates inside of you over time. You end up becoming a living trash container filled with negative thoughts and emotions.

During regular meditation practice, you clear all of this junk out of your system, just like you do when cleaning your house. You get rid of the negativity and return that energy back to the earth to be converted into positive energy. After a single session of meditation, you are no longer bogged down by the turmoil in your life.

If you haven’t been meditating on a regular basis, it will take time to remove the negativity. After several weeks of consistently practicing meditation, you will find that you’ve reached an absolute calmness in your mind. This calmness in your mind will lead to an increased level of self-awareness.

Increase Your Self-Awareness To Recognize Your Inner Desires

Every day, you have approximately 60,000 thoughts running through your mind. With these many thoughts running through your mind on a daily basis, it can be hard to know what you are thinking all the time. You may experience a constant inability to understand what you are thinking of or what you want.

Meditation gives you the clarity to know what you are thinking and provides you with the ability to recognize your inner desires. Meditation brings you an increased self-awareness.

The thoughts in your mind include those that you are actively engaged in, as well as those that you aren’t conscious of, but are always there. For those that don’t meditate on a regular basis, they are only able to pick up on a few of the thousands of thoughts that run through their mind in an hour. Those who meditate regularly can pick up on even more.

The more you practice meditation, the more self-aware you become. It allows you to become more conscious of what you think, the way you think, what you want, and what you feel. This kind of clarity is essential regarding your decision-making process and in your life.

Without the sort of clarity and self-awareness, you gain from meditation, you can become easily swayed by the external factors that surround you.

Become More Grounded and Calmer, You Become A Third-Party Observer Of Your Own Life

As you begin your meditation practice, you become more unattached to the physical world, and you start to observe
your own reality like a third-party observer. You begin to observe the kinds of feelings and thoughts that run through you. You begin to observe how people act around you, and to the things in your environment.

Meditation allows you to stop being ruled by your ego, and instead, you become more aligned with your higher self. This kind of detachment allows you to become more grounded, calmer, and level-headed. The chasm between the stimulus and your response to the stimulus grows wider.

With meditation, you can find the time to observe, process, and assess everything that is happening around you. In the past, there might have been events that resulted in consciousness lowering behavior, where you automatically
reacted like you always do out of your typical persona.

Practicing meditation will enable you to, moving forward, better deal with these events, without having your consciousness lowered. It allows you to handle them more objectively and in a more detached manner without having to worry about your ego interfering.

A Very Real and Possible Cure For Insomnia

Sleep disturbances, like having a hard time falling asleep or staying asleep affects millions of Americans daily. The daytime sleepiness that follows can leave you feeling unproductive and lousy and may even harm your health. A recent study has revealed that participating in mindfulness meditation, a mind-calming practice that focuses on breathing and awareness can help.

One of the main reasons why people suffer from insomnia is because of the bombardments of thoughts in their minds. This can result in dealing with constant stress, anxiety, and depression.

Regular meditation helps to clear out this clutter, allowing you to slip more easily into sleep and helps you to stay asleep through the night as well.

In addition to helping ease you more easily into sleep, meditation helps to improve the quality of sleep that you experience. When you are asleep, your mind is sorting through all the mental clutter that you’ve accumulated throughout the day.

Taking the time to meditate before you go to sleep helps to remove this clutter and set your mind at ease for a more peaceful rest.

Engaging in mindfulness meditation before going to sleep will help you in consciously resolving emotional issues that happen throughout the day, allowing your subconscious mind to become restful and alleviates the need for it to wake you up during the night.

The end result is longer and more restful sleep, allowing you to wake up energized and refreshed.

A Great Source of Inspiration For Your Most Powerful Ideas

A majority of us are probably only utilizing about one percent of our brain. Our physical selves and our ego are what controls this one percent. That means that the remaining 99 percent of our intelligence lives in our subconscious mind.

It is this 99 percent where our most powerful ideas lie. This is the part of the brain where we get our inspiration, our best solutions to problems, and our greatest ideas.

The power of the subconscious mind is what many great leaders used in their daily lives to find the clarity and insight needed to succeed.

Those who work in jobs that require a significant amount of creativity, such as musicians and artists, have either learned how to access their subconscious mind or are naturally able to do it. Meditation allows us to tap into that 99 percent, which is usually shut out from our physical lives.

Being able to tap into the 99 percent is like a secret pass that allows us to gain instant, new ideas, and solutions that we couldn’t have generated with our conscious mind. If you are looking for new ideas for something you are working on or are trying to work through a frustrating problem that you can’t seem to solve, try meditating on it and see what you get.

Through constant practice, you will be able to strengthen the connection you have with your subconscious mind.

After a time, you will find the solutions that have been generated by your subconscious mind are often more insightful and better than those that your conscious mind has created.

You Can Gain Mastery of Yourself, Become More Positive and Rejuvenated

Overall, the different benefits that can be gained by regular meditation will combine to give you a more fulfilling life. Meditation allows you to gain increased mastery of yourself, to enable you to become more positive and
rejuvenated.

With regular practice, meditation places you in the position of getting even more out of your life every day. Getting started on the path to a happier and healthier life through meditation doesn’t take a lot of work, just the motivation and dedication to fitting in regular practice.

RELATED QUESTIONS:

How do you meditate every day?