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Meditation is one of the five principles of yoga. It an important tool to achieve mental clarity and health. An overview of the different beginner and advanced meditation techniques will aid in choosing the right meditation exercise for you.

Introduction

Meditation and mindfulness are great when you have enough control over your time to enjoy them. But what happens when a crisis requires immediate action? Using scientific findings in the physiology of relaxation, Dr. Robert Cooper has developed a six-step program that minimizes the negative effects of stress the moment the body begins to feel stressed. He calls it the Instant Calming Sequence.

Instant Calming Sequence

Step 1:
Practice uninterrupted breathing. When stress strikes, immediately focus on your breath and continue breathing smoothly, deeply and evenly.

Step 2:
Put on a positive face. Smile a grin that you can feel in the corners of your eyes. “The conventional wisdom is that happiness triggers smiling,” Dr. Cooper explains. “But recent studies suggest that this process is a two-way street. Smiling can contribute to feelings of happiness, and in a stressful situation, it can help keep you calm.” Try this simple test: Smile a broad grin right now. Don’t you feel better?

Step 3:
Balance your posture. People under stress often look hunched-over, hence the oft-repeated phrase “They have the weight of the world on their shoulders.”. “Maintaining good posture works like smiling,” Dr. Cooper says. “Physical balance contributes to emotional balance.” Keep your head up, chin in, chest high, pelvis and hips level, back comfortably straight and abdomen free of tension. Imagine a skyhook lifting your body from a point at the center of the top of your head.

Step 4:
Bathe in a wave of relaxation. Consciously sweep a wave of relaxation through your body. “Imagine you’re standing under a waterfall that washes away all your tension,” Dr. Cooper says.

Step 5:
Acknowledge reality. Face your causes of stresses head-on. Don’t try to deny it or wish that it hadn’t happened. Think: “This is real. I can handle it. I’m finding the best possible way to cope right now.”

Step 6:
Reassert control. Instead of fretting about how the stressor has robbed you of control, focus on what you can control and take appropriate action. Also, think clear-headed, honest thoughts instead of distorted ones.

Yoga Health are two words which are very closely related. The yoga health benefit is widely known. Yoga is there to aid both your physical and mental health. Therefore, most people who are interested in practising yoga do so for health reasons. They want to ease their back pain or want to know a method to relieve stress. This yoga and health section takes a closer look at how your body functions and how yoga can benefit your body.

Introduction

A healthy nervous system enables you to meet every event of life with calm and resilience. It keeps all the muscles, organs and tissues of the body working at full efficiency, gives sharper sensory perception and creates a sense of vitality and energy in your whole being. The nervous system is made up of large numbers of individual cells or neurones, each with a cell body and long projecting fibres that transmit rapid trains of nerve impulses or signals.

Yoga and the Nervous System

Bundles of fibres together form the large nerves, which are stretched and purified by yoga asanas. By clearing toxins from the tissues, the asanas benefit neurotransmissions at the fine nerve endings, and at synapses between nerves. Yoga has been shown to stabilize the response of the nervous system to stress, removing the constant muscular tension produced by the repeated alerts from the central nervous system, and calming the involuntary symptons of threat – racing heart, sweating, anxiety – roused by the sympathetic nervous system.

Peripheral Nervous System
The spinal nerves leave the cord in pairs from either side of each segment, and branch finely to form the peripheral system. The motor (efferent) fibres carry instructions to every muscle, the sensory (afferent) fibres bring in information from every receptor.

Central Nervous System
The central nervous system in the power house and communications center of the body. From their deep roots in the cord, the spinal nerves spread out to serve every part of the system. Within the cord, ceaseless intercommunication takes place, and impulses travel rapidly up and down the sensory and motor fibres, to and from the brain.

Meditation is one of the five principles of yoga. It an important tool to achieve mental clarity and health. An overview of the different beginner and advanced meditation techniques will aid in choosing the right meditation exercise for you.

Meditation Background

Research has shown that Meditation can contribute to an individual’s psychological and physiological well-being. This is accomplished as Meditation brings the brainwave pattern into an alpha state, which is a level of consciousness that promotes the healing state. As discussed in the section “How Meditation Work?”, there is scientific evidence that Meditation can reduce blood pressure and relieve pain and stress. In the coming sections we have divided the health benefits of meditation in three parts: (1) physiological benefits; (2) psychological benefits’ and (3) spiritual benefits.

Physiological Benefits of Meditation

• Deep rest-as measured by decreased metabolic rate, lower heart rate, and reduced work load of the heart.
• Lowered levels of cortisol and lactate-two chemicals associated with stress.
• Reduction of free radicals- unstable oxygen molecules that can cause tissue damage.
• Decreased high blood pressure.
• Higher skin resistance. Low skin resistance is correlated with higher stress and anxiety levels.
• Drop in cholesterol levels. High cholesterol is associated with cardiovascular disease.
• Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing. This has been very helpful to asthma patients.
• Decreases the ageing process.
• Higher levels of DHEAS in the elderly. An additional sign of youthfulness.

Psychological Benefits of Meditation

• Increased brain wave coherence.
• Greater creativity.
• Decreased anxiety.
• Decreased depression
• Decreased irritability and moodiness
• Improved learning ability and memory.
• Increased self-actualization.
• Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation.
• Increased happiness.
• Increased emotional stability.

Spiritual Benefits of Meditation

The longer an individual practices meditation, the greater the likelihood that his or her goals and efforts will shift toward personal and spiritual growth. Many individuals who initially learn meditation for its self-regulatory aspects find that as their practice deepens they are drawn more and more into the realm of the “spiritual.” In her work with many cancer and AIDS patients, Dr. Borysenko has observed that many are most interested in meditation as a way of becoming more attuned to the spiritual dimension of life. She reports that many die “healed,” in a state of compassionate self-awareness and self-acceptance.

Each Yoga Exercise is designed to improve your body, quiet your mind, and increase the flow of vital energy in your body. The practice of these poses aids in developing your body by toning and stretching the muscles.

Other Asanas massages and improves the Circulation of Blood and nutrients in the body which is essential to Health. It also relieves some irregularities in some of our vital organs. Relaxation Poses like the Corpse pose relaxes not only the body but also the mind and serves as a great tool in managing stress. The practice of Yoga Exercises also increases your awareness of yourself and your environment.

Practicing Yoga takes willpower and perseverance since you need to practice it everyday and some poses are a bit difficult, but the rewards you reap for hard work are all worth it.

You achieve good health, energized body, increased resistance, improved mental awareness, and a positive outlook towards life. Just remember not to strain yourself. Get in tuned with your body, know when to stop and when to move further on a pose. If you feel pain, stop and try again. Bear in mind that you are not competing with anyone else so there’s no need to push yourself too far.