GhostWhoWalks
Posts: 84
Joined: 12/13/2006
Status: offline
|
Quote from Readers Digest magazine;
Meditation as Medication
“Meditators may seem serious, but taking time to clear your mind can boost your spirits—and your immunity.
That’s the word from scientists at University of Wisconsin. Psychologist Richard J. Davidson and colleagues gave 41 people a flu vaccine. A little more than half of the subjects learned to meditate and followed a regular schedule of “Om time” for an hour a day, six days a week. Another group just got the vaccine. After eight weeks, meditators had higher levels of flu-fighting antibodies than those who didn’t meditate. They were also better able to deal with stress and had increased activity in the area of the brain linked to good moods. The results weren’t temporary: the feel-good effects lasted for up to four months after the meditation training sessions ended.
Meditation produces measurable biological changes in the brain and body, said Davidson. It’s safe and can be of great benefit. It may be a useful complement to treatments already underway.”
Meditation
Place a hard back chair in front of a window with an unobstructed view of outside. Make sure all pets and children are elsewhere, so you will not be disturbed.
Sit in the chair with your feet flat on the ground. Put your left hand on your abdomen below your navel, and your right hand on top of it. Keep your back straight.
Focus your attention on your breathing. Breathe in through your nose, drawing the air deep into your lungs by pushing out your abdomen, rather than expanding your chest. When you are breathing in correctly, it should feel like the air is going all the way down to your womb/ lower abdomen. Breathe out through your mouth.
After you are doing this correctly, maintain your attention on your breathing, but shift some of your attention to looking at what is going on outside the window. Try to be aware of everything outside; the clouds, the sky, the trees, birds, whatever is there.
When you are able to do this, maintain your attention on your breathing and what you see, and shift some of your attention to what you hear. Noises from outside, inside, whatever they may be. Resist the impulse to decide what the noises are; just be aware that they are.
When you are able to do this, maintain your attention on what you are aware of as before, and shift some of your attention to what you smell. Don’t try to decide what the smells are; just be aware that they are.
When you are able to do this, maintain your attention on your breathing, what you see, what you hear, and what you smell, shift some of your attention on what you feel. Be aware of how the chair feels that you are sitting in, the floor under your feet, your posture in the chair, and anything else your body feels. If stray thoughts go through your head, don’t become angry or frustrated; just return to the exercise.
What you are trying to do, is to spread your attention to as many things in your environment as possible. Eventually, the part of your mind that insists on talking to itself silently will be overwhelmed with this effort, and shut down.
Try to do this exercise for 15 minutes the first time. Don’t become discouraged if you cannot; learning meditation takes time and effort.
Once you are able to maintain Inner Silence for a full 15 minutes, increase your meditation by 5 minutes, to 20 minutes. Once you are able to maintain Inner Silence for 20 minutes, increase it to 25 minutes.
Once you are able to maintain Inner Silence for 1 hour, you should start noticing improvements in yourself. You will find yourself more peaceful, more relaxed, no matter how stressful the day has become.
Once you are able to maintain Inner Silence for 1 hour, we will talk again about where you go from there.
It isn’t absolutely necessary to do this exercise at home; you can also do it outside, while sitting in the car and looking through your windshield, or if weather permits in a park, by a river, or any other place with natural beauty that you will not be disturbed. You can even do this on a bench at the mall, as long as you do not allow yourself to become distracted from what you are trying to accomplish.
|
Meditation 101 - 
Profile
), reading the paper...... 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread