Health And Fitness -- Key To Healthy & Active Life - Secret of Good Health : Meditation

Health : Meditation

Secret of Good Health : Meditation

Calm the mind

Secret to obtaining a good health -- A quiet mind. A quiet mind leads to a more thorough understanding of your body and with that understanding comes knowledge of health.

How to help the mind to become quiet ? The answer is Meditation.

The purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful. Calm & peaceful mind means true happiness & good health.

Practicing meditation regularly will make us more and more peaceful. We will experience a purer form of happiness. Regular practice of meditation will enable us to stay happy all the time.

It is difficult to believe, but it is true. Meditating for just 20 minutes a day can contribute significantly to your health & true peace.

Meditation draws you inward which is the state necessary to improve your health.

There are many varieties of meditation. To discover which one suits you, simply try out different methods. It may be best to start out without a Guru or a mantra or a religion or a list of what is right and what is not.

Two simple Meditation processes are given below.

1) Basic Meditation Process

Just sit down & close your eyes. Try to stop thinking about your daily life and try to clear your mind.

In the beginning, quieting the mind may seem difficult. But with practice you will be able to do that.

Meditation is not about performance. It is about letting things flow.

What is the best way to meditate? Find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed. It does not matter if you sit down, lie down or stand up --feeling relaxed is all that is required.

Wear something simple and comfortable that will not distract you. Close your eyes to block out the senses.

Stopping your thought processes takes discipline, but it is not impossible. As thoughts appear do not pay any attention to them. You will not be able to keep hundreds of thoughts from popping up into your mind.

Let the thoughts come. Do not hang on to them. Just let them go. They will come and go. Just witness them. Count ONE silently in your mind. Keep counting ONE gently & continuously ..... ONE, ONE, ONE, ONE, ONE .......

Thoughts are bound to appear again in mind. Let them come & go. Witness them and just let them go.

Keep repeating in mind ONE, ONE, ONE continuously & slowly..... If mind wanders and it will, gently bring your attention to repeating ONE, ONE, ONE.........

Bring your awareness gently back to counting ONE, ONE, ONE .....when mind wanders and next thoughts keep coming.

With this practice, number of thoughts will decrease. Progressively you will experience more & more peace.

Practice this for 20 minutes a day.

2) Simple Breath Meditation

Sit in a comfortable position.
Simply watch your breath come & go through your nose.
Simply watch. Do not force anything.
Many thoughts will come & mind will wander. But every time gently bring your mind back to an awareness of your breath.
Spend about 5 minutes to start with. Increase this to about 10 minutes and then eventually 20 as your practice grows over a few days.( Sit for 20 minutes in meditation, every day, after an initial period of a week or so, till you get comfortable with this practice ).
Maintain this simple awareness. Watch simply your breath coming in & breath going out.
Relax. Simply watch. Do not force your breath in or out. Let it flow naturally.
End this meditation, every time, by opening your eyes. Return to every day awareness of the surroundings. Stretch out slowly.
Spend about 2 / 3 minutes sitting in the same place & then proceed for your daily activities.

By: Pradeep Mahajan

Last updated : Feb 18, 2011