The Benefits of MeditationMeditation has many benefits, and they are all involved with the reason that the person is doing the meditation in the first place- ... in other words the USES of meditation - (that we will be looking at in the next page of the website). That sounds kind of vague, so I will try to explain by giving an example of the benefits in each particular case -
Imagine that you have a very high stress job, ... that keeps you busy most of the time - ... so that you have little time to relax. Over time this is going to affect you both mentally (psychologically) and physically.
MENTALLY - you will find that your temper will become shorter, and so you will tend to lose it more often. ... You will become easily irritated, and this will begin to affect your relationships with all of those around you.
... probably high blood pressure, increased muscle pains from tension, and possibly headaches as well !
All of these bad side effects can benefit from meditation in one form or another. Meditation will tend to minimise these bad side effects of the job, and therefore allow you to do the job more efficiently, ... and without it 'screwing up your life' in the way that it did before.
****Who knows ? You might even start to like your job !!****
So in this particular case, the reason that you started doing meditation was to try to minimise the effects that the job stresses had on your mental and physical health. In other words, the benefits were your reason for starting to meditate in the first place....does that make it clearer for you ?
For example - in this case we just looked at - we could therefore say that the benefits were as follows;-
------ Better ability to deal with stress.
------ More efficient and rapid relaxation from that stress.
------ Improved relationships with those around you.
------ Improvement in physical and mental health. ------ More positive outlook about your job.
------ Positive changes in your life overall.
So we will see, that in each case we can talk about the USE and the BENEFIT as being - in most cases - very much linked together, so lets look at several examples;-
Benefits of Meditation in Martial Arts
Meditation is an important part of the practice of nearly all of the martial arts. - ... And the benefit is, ...that it often allows the system of each martial art itself to be more easily learned, and greatly increases its power when used at the same time as the martial art.
Many martial arts use breathing meditations, and nearly all use focussed-self-awareness.
... And some use sudden explosive meditation sounds as a means of focussing on a particular movement - ...so that the meditation and the martial art movement are combined together as one whole united single entity.
Benefits of Meditation in Religions and Spiritual Philosophies
Meditation is used in by far the majority of the religions and spiritual philosophies. In each case the common main benefits are these;
... An increased faith in, and/or understanding of, the particular religion or spiritual philosophy, and therefore being more comfortable and at ease in following that particular religion or philosophy.
... An increase in patience and compassion, and other similar virtues, and therefore better relationships with all other persons that you meet.
... An increase in feelings of inner calm and peace, (and sometimes even moments of blissful joy may be experienced).
... A greater understanding of the concepts of temptations, sins, remorse, and feelings of contrition or sorrow or regret for one's actions in the past
Benefits of Meditation NOT Connected with Religions Etc.
This covers the benefits of meditation as an end in itself, which is the main reason that many people are learning to meditate in this day and age. They do not particularly want to be involved in any particular religion or philosophy, but they do wish to reap the benefits of doing meditation.
These are the ones that are receiving the most attention by people and organisations that are studying the effects of meditation.
This is partly because these good effects can be achieved so easily from doing meditation - ... and are so useful in our high tech, high speed, multi-tasking world - ... and partly because of their long term positive health effects.
Let's look at a few of these kinds of benefits. (We will see some overlap with the benefits that we have already looked at in the other paragraphs above, as well)
------ Increased relaxation and reduction of stress effects.
------ Tendency to lower raised blood pressure and/or pulse.
------ Makes the brainwaves have a more relaxed type of rhythm.
------ Helps with insomnia, or disordered sleep.
------ Can reduce the need for strong pain medications. ------ Can improve the functioning of the immune system.
------ Can give an improved sense of wellbeing.
------ Some strong evidence to suggest that it may be of benefit for children and adults with ADHD.
------ Often leads to leading a more ethical lifestyle.
------ Can be very useful in drug rehabilitation regimes.
------ Can help give a better understanding of life in general. ------ Also of course, your outlook on life in general is of #1 importance, if you create the mindset of a loser for yourself - then sure enough you will be a loser! But if you begin to recognise and encourage your own uniqueness and greatness - then you will automatically become unique and great !
There are many ways that you can do this - apart from using meditation - for an excellent overview on ways to 'stand up and make yourself great'- just click on this link.
The Non-Beneficial Effects of Meditation
Although by far the majority of the effects of meditation are beneficial, it would be wrong of me to ignore mentioning the very rare cases of non-beneficial side effects. These may include -
------ Rarely - increased sensitivity to certain forms of lighting, especially those with 'flicker'- like fluorescent lights or computer screens.
------ Rarely - increased perception of the senses, such as more acute hearing, taste, smell or touch - which can almost be too acute to be entirely comfortable.
------ Rarely - remembrance of previously buried memories, which sometimes may be of unpleasant ones.
------ Rarely - experiencing extra-sensory things, such as strongly increased perception, visions of gods, devils, saints and so on.
------ Rarely - non-normal, almost miraculous abilities such as levitation, which may be disturbing.
------ Rarely - side effects with people who are taking medication for the control of nervous system disorders like Epilepsy.-- (With such people, it is probably better to check with your doctor before starting any kind of meditation).
------ Very rarely - psychotic episodes
I must emphasize a couple of things very strongly however
- FIRSTLY - that these 'negative' type of effects are indeed Very rare, and are almost always brought about by meditation students 'going at it too hard' ... and meditating way longer and more often than recommended.
- and SECONDLY - that if approaced gradually, and done in the way that is recommended ... meditation has no more dangers than crossing the street.
Let's face it, everything that we do has potential for unpleasant side effects, ... but that doesn't mean that we have to live life as though we were wrapped up in cotton batten all the time !!
Meditation can be learned and used by anyone from about the age of 5 onwards - ... right up until and including old age, and all will reap the benefits of doing it.
With the only caution being those on anti-convulsant medications as mentioned above.
As I also touched on briefly above, it is super important to start off meditation slowly.
The usual recommendation is to start meditating for about only 10 minutes twice daily - ... and then increase to 15 minutes twice daily after about two weeks. ( By which time almost certainly you will be beginning to feel the meditation benefits), ... and then increasing to a final volume of 20 minutes twice daily.
It Is Important Not To Exceed This Maximum
- unless you are at a meditation retreat with an experienced teacher, or something similar.
Similarly, if on the unlikely chance that you do experience ANY unsettling side effects - ... then you should cut back on the length of each meditation session by five minutes or so - ... and not increase back up again for a week or two, and that will take care of the problem in by far the majority of cases. I Cannot Emphasize The Following Too Much -
1. T hat Meditation can be a very powerful tool. 2. That it will take a while for your system to get used to it. 3. - Therefore it must be treated with respect.
As long as you keep this in mind, the chance of ANY unpleasant side effects is very very rare, and you will enjoy the varied and pleasant benefits of meditation with no problems whatsoever
Remember....meditation has been around for thousands of years, and been used by countless millions of people with no problems.
So don't be concerned about the very rare posibility of unpleasant side effects - it is just that I would not be 'doing my job' properly if I neglected to mention them, and 'swept them under the carpet'.
In summary then......Approach Meditation With Respect........Learn Slowly........And Enjoy The Good And Positive Effects That It Will Bring You !
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PHYSICALLY - after an unknown period of time you will start to get physical problems -
