Sitting in a cross legged position, palms resting on your thighs or placed at your knees in gyan mudra, and focusing you mind – you have just begun transforming your entire being – body, mind and soul.
Meditation has been practiced for centuries, but how exactly does it affect our body and mind? As difficult as it is to list out the benefits of meditation on a single page, here are the most important ones:
- Increases the ability of the body to fight diseases. Regular practitioners of meditation are able to produce more antibodies to fight infections and have an increased immune function.
- Increases Mindfulness, making one more aware of the here and now rather than what could be.
- Improved concentration and focus in daily life, even when not meditating.
- Improves memory and self-awareness.
- Improves brain function to the extent of postponing the onset of old age.
- Decreases anxiety, depression and increases tolerance to pain.
- Leads to physical changes in the brain. Increases the density of grey matter in areas of the brain associated with learning, memory, processing, and emotion regulation.
- Reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and cancer.
- Meditation not only benefits the mind and body, but also the soul, increasing feelings of empathy. Meditators have higher alpha waves, which reduce negative mood swings, stress, sorrow and anger.
- Helps clear emotional pollution from the mind
- Increases life energy or Prana making one more alert and energetic
Ways to Meditate
There are various ways to meditate, most common one being the focused or mindful meditation, which is where you focus on any one specific thing – your breathing, a sensation or a particular object. The idea is to focus strongly on this one aspect and continually bring the attention back to the focal point when it wanders.
At Yoga Central, Meditation is practiced with Chants once a week. Listening with complete focus and singing along with these meditative chants helps the mind, body and soul in all the ways mentioned above. A variety of chants helps keep the sessions varied.
Prayer is when you talk to God;
Meditation is when you listen to God.
The affairs of the world will go on forever. Do not delay the practice of meditation. Join Yoga Central to attain complete health of mind, body and soul.