Health comes first
Us women have to deal with lots of things and anxiety never leaves us alone. Be it at work, managing our families or having the same routine and not getting a break. We can never blame someone else or the circumstances for things going on in our heads because reality is explained by Mark Manson that “the more we choose to accept responsibilities for our lives, the more we will exercise power over our lives” Ask yourself (without blaming others) what are you suffering from and going through right now?
This blog is to apprise you with taking control of the emotions and bringing changes in life by rewarding your mind and soul with tranquillity, which is possible only with meditation. I will discuss the benefits and healing power with overcoming anxiety and stress, so put that burden aside for a while and move your mind towards the healing ideas.
“MEDITATION IS NOT SOMETHING TO BE LEARNED FROM A THERAPIST, IT’S A SKILL, IT IS SOMETHING THAT WE PRACTICE DAILY TO RELAX OUR MIND, JUST LIKE PLAYING TENNIS TO CHEER US UP ”
What is Meditation?
A process of sitting comfortably and breathing naturally while observing the thoughts to pass on without any judgements. In particular, meditation is about being present at the moment to get a heightened sense of perceptions and train self-awareness. It is an ancient tradition which was practiced for thousands of years and still practiced in many cultures globally giving people a sense of calmness and inner peace.
Amid a busy and hectic schedule meditation has become popular to reduce stress and anxiety, at the second place it is not necessary to practice right or wrong way as it cannot be perfect but the form of practice must be in favor of your personality. Meditation is a set of consciousness-changing techniques that benefits our psychological well-being.
There are 9 forms of meditation:
- Spiritual Meditation- Similar to prayer where we reflect on the silence around us calling on a deeper connection with God or the universe.
- Focused Meditation- Counting mala beads, staring a candle flame, or listening to a gong. These help with focusing on our breaths with help of external influences.
- Mindfulness Meditation- We pay attention to our thoughts as they pass with no judgements nor becoming involved, just observing and focusing on breathing.
- Mantra Meditation- This allows us to experience deeper levels of awareness simply by enchanting a phrase or a word, the popular one is “Om”.
- Transcendental Meditation- Customizable with mantra meditation using mantra or series of words which are specific for the practitioner.
- Loving-kindness Meditation- It is intended to share love, kindness and compassion just like opening our mind to receive love and affection and then sending the same to them.
- Visualization Meditation- The practitioner has to imagine positive scenes or images vividly that helps enhancing feelings of relaxation and peace.
- Movement Meditation- A practice that involves gentle forms of motion like walking through woods, gardening, qigong and others.
- Progressive relaxation- Practice also known as scan meditation that aims at reducing tension throughout the body. This form involves slowly tightening and relaxing one muscle group at a time.
How it benefits us?
Research at (NIH) National Institute of Health showed some remarkably improved symptoms of several medical conditions covering irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), insomnia and high blood pressure. Not only these but meditation has many properties that benefits a woman’s body.
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Heart Health- Results have shown a significant improvement in women with high blood pressure because the breathing style and focus attention in meditation helps to calm the heartbeat rates.
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Improved immunity- Meditation fights back to prevent illness and any sort of infections. In a study, flu test was given to volunteers practising meditation for 8 weeks and their blood tests showed antibodies produced at a higher level to fight against the flu virus.
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Women’s health problems- Women that deals with anxiety, depression are due to several deficiencies in the bodies and they suffer from PMS, infertility, thyroid, hot flashes and many more. So a study was conducted and meditating women who were infertile had less depression, anxiety and fatigue.
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Our brain- Buddhist monks who practised meditation showed a significantly greater brain activity called ‘gamma wave’, involves mental processes. The test was associated with areas of positive emotions that is happiness and learning. So this is what meditation does to our brain.
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Physical pain- Any type of physical pain is healed by daily meditating because it purifies our soul and mind that eventually maintains our breaths and eating habits by controlling the cravings for junk food. It has properties of getting relief from back pain as well.
The research has also linked other health benefits in women with meditation.
- Heal and control pain
- Makes us social and happy
- Remove anxiety and depression
- Focused attention
- Help warding-off addiction
- Improved self-awareness
- Cope up with stress
- Manage emotions
- Increase overall well-being for longevity
MEDITATION IS SCIENCE- STUDIES ON Buddhist MONKS SHOWED A LONG-LASTING CHANGE IN BRAIN ACTIVITIES
Results of meditation
Meditation tends to heal our soul, it’s a fact, we both know. Practicing meditation gives us the advantage to recover from whatever we had been holding on for years or months. It connects us spiritually with our body and conscious mind. Medical science has proved results, with a study on ‘mindfulness meditation’ performed on people practicing it, and for instance, the practice helped them cultivate moment-to-moment awareness of themselves.
Meditation improves various areas in our lives like; self-image and behaviour, it sets us free from addiction and depression, helps getting rid of any physical pain, gives us a purpose with clarity of understanding things, reduces impulsive behaviour and controls the body weight.
One of my colleagues is a meditation practitioner, having experience of a course in ‘Yes+’ programme from the Art of Living, Bangalore (India). It was a three-day course and she states that those were the best days of her life because she felt so strong and calm yet enchanting at the same time, she had gone deep while meditating. Furthermore, the programme included several forms of meditations having different benefits and the results were notable, her confidence was boosted with more clarity of memory, she developed a positive outlook towards life, positive impacts on her relationship with us and her family, she started knowing herself better, learned managing behaviour and moods, she felt more determined and compassionate.
Meditation is a skill. This poem will make it more clear.
I found myself into an ocean diving deep,Unable to breathe, Still alive and breathing. Searching for happiness with hands tied to burden and guilt,But realised no one here sings.
A warmth I felt inside my stomach, Is it my spark which was lost? It was me who I was searching for. The warmth felt stronger,Because I was comfortable with darkness,So I nourished it and gave the ocean a light. Paused for a moment I looked up and saw my boat,I swam towards it, And grabbed the rope. Looking down while climbing up,
Saw the reflection of a woman, Bright big eyes,Long wet hair, Looked like a soldier who just won the war.The reflection showed myself a true image of happiness residing in me, in the name of gratitude, which was found.
