Meditation Brings Inner Peace and Happiness to the Practitioner

Meditation is gaining mainstream acceptance as a beneficial preventative health program. It is an effective stress buster. Its effectiveness comes from the fact that you can achieve a state of deep relaxation in just a few minutes. When you settle down into a state of deep relaxation, the body and mind are refreshed and revitalized.

What is meditation?

It basically means awareness. The human mind is full of thoughts and ideas. It gets distracted easily and loses its awareness. There is so much going on in the human mind that it gets cluttered. As a result of our cluttered minds, we are unable to see the wood for the trees.

How do you meditate?

You can meditate in many ways. You can meditate while you walk or while you sit in a quiet place. You can sit on the floor or on a chair, whichever is more comfortable to you.

Whichever method you decide to choose, you need to concentrate and focus your mind on one object. It is common to maintain a one-pointed mind by focussing on one's breathe. You empty your mind of all thoughts and just concentrate on your breathe.

Breathe in slowly through your nostril. Hold the air in your lungs for a few seconds before exhaling it. Continue breathing in and out slowly as you relax. Gradually push out all thoughts from your mind by focussing on your breathe.

Keep focussing on your breathe. If you lose your concentration and get distracted by other thoughts, you can re-focus your mind by counting 1 - 10 slowly in your mind. By counting the numbers slowly, other thoughts and distractions will pushed out of your mind.

Stop meditating when you are ready to do so. Initially 5 - 10 minutes would be a good effort. You can meditate longer as you progress. Don't give up, just keep practising and you will enjoy the inner peace and happiness that it brings.

What are its main benefits?

Its benefits are endless and certainly deserve your consideration. Many doctors promote it as a stress management tool to deal with many stress related illnesses and anxiety attacks.

• It helps to lower stress levels and is good for the heart and circulation.
• It recharges your "battery" and raises your energy level. You will feel energised even after meditating for only 10 minutes.
• It gives you inner peace and happiness. Inner peace and happiness are linked to good health and wellbeing.
• It helps to balance your physical, emotional and mental state of health. When you meditate, you are spending time with yourself and you get to know the "real" you.
• It helps you to increase your concentration and maintain your focus. This is especially important to professional sports people to keep them at the highest level of their profession.
• A calm mind helps you sleep better at night.
• It helps to control your anger and emotions. When the mind is settle and calm, we can see situations better. Anger and hatred brings about ill-will within us and affects our emotional balance. This can cause stress and depression. Forgiveness will drive anger and hatred from our system and restore our emotional balance and good health.
• It reduces anxiety attacks as it lowers the level of blood lactate.
• It increases serotonin which influences moods and behaviour. Low levels of serotonin are associated with depression, headaches and insomnia.
• It helps to clear the air-ways so you can breathe better.
• It helps to unclutter the mind so you can organise you life and time better.
• It helps to restore hormone levels naturally during PMT.
• It is beneficial for people looking to boost their creativities (designers, composers, artists, etc)
• It will help those who have recently suffered the loss of loved ones. When one is mentally calm, one will learn to accept the loss as a fact of life.

Millions of people are suffering from stress and depression due to work and modern day lifestyle. Many of the health problems are caused by attachments and the unwillingness to "let go". The practice of forgiveness in daily meditation is an effective way of dealing with these problems. The achievement of inner peace and happiness is key to living a healthy and fruitful life.

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Alternative therapies provide a wide range of therapeutic treatments.
Alternative therapies include acupuncture, aromatherapy, massage therapy, meditation, reflexology.