Health and Meditation

Breathing is an important part of coping with and relieving anxiousness and stress. When you are anxious, you tend to breathe from your chest, a method called thoracic breathing.The rapid, shallow breaths tend to create a sensation of hyperventilating and tightening of the chest which in turn tends to cause anxiety and panic. Most people that are anxious are unaware they are breathing so shallowly. Sometimes, simply focusing on the breath and engaging in abdominal or belly breathing can restore a feeling of calm and reduce your anxiousness.Breathing is very important to both the psychological and physical comfort of our bodies. Yoga and meditation practitioners will be familiar with the importance of the breath and spend a great deal of time focusing on breathing in their practice. In fact if you are an anxiety sufferer of any kind, participating in yoga or meditation classes or programs can be a real assistance in coping. By learning and practicing relaxation techniques, you will be able to reduce the level of your anxiety and panic attacks. You may even be able to defuse an attack in the making. Our bodies automatically respond to the stress that we encounter throughout the day. In some cases the body prepares to run, in other cases it prepares to fight. When you are in extreme danger, this automatic reaction is helpful. However, if you are simply engaged in your normal daily activities and the fight or flight response is constantly being engaged, it can exact a heavy toll on your body. Meditation is a good way to exert the opposite effect on your body. Meditating restores the body to a clam state, helps the body repairs itself and prevents new physical and emotional damage due to the effects of stress. There are numerous benefits to meditation. As you meditate, both your heart rate and your breathing slow down, you blood pressure normalizes, oxygen is used more efficiently and you sweat less.1.  Meditating also causes your glands to produce less cortisol, your immune system will improve and you will have a greater sense of physical and emotional calm and well being. This feeling helps to combat the anxiousness, stress and worry that can invade your daily life. 2.  Meditating is easier than you think but it does take practice and dedication.  It begins with sitting in a relaxed position and clearing your mind of all thoughts. Silence and privacy are helpful at first but as you become experienced you will find yourself able to take a few minutes out anywhere, at your desk, in the theater, or on the ride home, to meditate. 3.  Meditation is a great tool in your fight against anxiety because it is free, always available and very effective in short-term stress reduction and long-term health. You will be able to feel the benefits after just one session and the effects will compound as you continue to practice.However, to be successful at meditation you will need to practice. Don’t get distressed if you don’t get it right away, you don´t feel comfortable with it or you don’t think it’s having an immediate impact. It is important that you stick with it and find the free time to engage in a little meditative practice each day. The time and effort it takes to learn and practice is well worth it in terms of the benefits it provides.For many people, meditating on their own sounds difficult and intimidating and confusing. There are lots of ways to learn. Yoga is a great way to get your meditation practice down and a little sweat going.Meditation and yoga don’t have side effects except a more positive outlook and a healthier body. You don´t need special equipment, anyone can do it. All it takes is a little discipline, commitment and practice.

Prayer and meditation have been proven in multiple settings to have a profound influence on peoples health and especially on hospital patients. People who pray and meditate daily have shown marked decreases in stress hormone levels. They have also been shown to age better, live longer, and handle adversity far better. Basically, people that believe in God and pray consistently are happier and have a better quality of life. Why is this?People that pray and meditate feel a sense of belonging. They are not alone to face the perils of this world. All major religions believe in a God and that through this prayer and meditation they can communicate with God. They can ask for forgiveness and ask for help. It has long been shown by psychologists and psychiatrists that it is essential to have a sense of belonging for proper mental health. People that are loners by nature tend to die early, not look and feel as healthy, and do not handle adversity and stress well. They tend to hold it in and then blow up on those that are actually trying to help them.Prayer and meditation let one detoxify their body and mind of toxic thoughts. Just like toxins we are familiar with, toxic thoughts can bring on depression, dark thoughts, hatred, mental illness and even suicide. Toxic thoughts and being alone are very negative for good mental health. By praying and meditating we are distressing our bodies and learning to put ourselves and our minds in a relaxed state. The best thing is that prayer and mediation are free. You can do it anywhere at anytime, in an elevator, in a quiet room, before going to sleep at night, the possibilities are endless. Prayer will help clean your mind of worry and stressful thoughts and replace them with thoughts of hope and serenity. Prayer before bedtime has been proven to reduce or entirely eliminate the need for sleep pills altogether in some cases.Prayer should not be thought of as a chore. It can be as simple as the infamous Lords Prayer:Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, As we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.Basically in the Lords Prayer one is asking for forgiveness, for deliverance, guidance and that God’s will be done. In Matthew 7:11 it says:So if you, weak mortals that you are, are capable of making good gifts to your children, do not you think your spiritual Father will give even better gifts to those who ask him?We need to realize that regardless of our religion, God is infinitesimally smarter beyond any human comprehension and knows what is best for each and every one of us. God may not always seem to answer our prayers in the way we would like, but that does not mean he does not hear us. God gave us the gift of prayer so that not only could we talk to him, but so we could heal our bodies and better cope with the stresses of daily life. Through our prayer and meditation we can learn patience, forgiveness, hope, love and true happiness. This is why some biblical scholars say prayer is Gods greatest gift to mankind.