I’ve always been intrigued with anything to do with the power of the mind over body and how, if properly prepared mentally, human beings can accomplish amazing feats and pass insurmountable odds.

As for meditation, I’d heard stories of monks in Tibet sitting in freezing cold streams and drying wet blankets with their body heat. But, other than that, the only other things I knew about it were that it was for hippies and David Carridine did it in the TV series ‘Kung Fu’!
About a year ago I reached a point in my life where I was sick of running around like a headless chicken and being so quick to react to negative situations. A friend of mine told me meditation had worked for him so I decided to give it a try.

Before I go on any further I’ll try and explain in simple English about meditation.
There are many different forms of meditation but basically they all have one thing in common, they all focus on quietening the mind.

With concentrative meditation, the attention is focussed on the breath, an image or sound in order to direct the mind from other distractions and allow a greater awareness and clarity to emerge.

Yoga and meditation practitioners believe there is a direct correlation between one’s breath and state of mind. For example when a person is anxious, frightened, agitated or distracted the breath will be shallow or uneven. On the other hand, when the mind is focussed, calm and composed, the breath will tend to be slow, deep and regular.

Mindful meditation is the other major form of meditation. This involves opening the attention to become aware of the continuously passing parade of sensations, feelings, images, thoughts, sounds and so forth without getting involved in thinking about them.

To do this, the person sits quietly and simply witnesses whatever goes through the mind, not reacting or becoming involved with thoughts, memories, worries or images. This helps to gain a more calm, clear and non reactive state of mind.

Some of the benefits of meditation are as follows:

Meditation is proven to lower the body’s core temperature, which prolongs your life expectancy.

Stress Control: when a person meditates they are calmer, therefore less stressed. How an individual sees things and how they handle them makes a big difference in how much stress they experience.

Pain Management: anxiety decreases the threshold for pain and pain causes anxiety, the result is a vicious cycle. Compared with those who are more relaxed those under stress experience pain more intensely and become even more stressed.

High Blood Pressure: practising meditation has helped people with elevated blood pressure to relax, reducing their risk of stroke and heart attack.

Now that I’ve explained a bit about meditation and a few of the benefits to you I hope you try it. I know that since I’ve started it I’m a lot less anxious, less stressed, less likely to react to people and a lot more content. Though not quite drying off blankets with my body heat yet but, it’s a start!