An Introduction to Meditation
The growing popularity of yoga, mindfulness and meditation within the U.S., and why this is a positive movement
As human beings evolve and become more complex, as does the variety of methods needed for healing. It has been studied that as much as 90% of illnesses are stress related. Such a shockingly high percentage can lead one to more deeply examine what stress is, and where it occurs in the body-which is, within the brain.
Amazingly, brain-health optimization, learning how the brain works, and utilizing tools to cultivate mental ease have not been widely known or practiced within American society-up until now, that is. This is amazing, because quite literally, a person’s mind is with them in all that they do in life, from mundane tasks like washing the dishes, to important ones like spending quality time with friends and family. Believe it or not, the quality of the mind within can be tuned towards balance, peace and ease, in ways that can be quite transformative for the individual, when yoga and meditation practices are applied.
Along the road of mindfulness, one begins to see the quality and speed of their thoughts, the thoughts that are repetitive, the thoughts that are analytical, the ones that are pleasant, or unpleasant. In meditation, we sit with ourselves as we are, and simply focus on the breath. The breath becomes our anchor, the point of focus. Undoubtedly, thoughts will arise-as it is the nature of the mind to think thoughts. The job of the mind is to think thoughts, and fighting against those thoughts becomes an incredible strain. ‘Why would I want to sit and be with all the busy thoughts in my mind?’ one would ask. Because, when we allow our breath to be our primary focus of attention, we see the thoughts come and go. We allow them to be present. We see the impermanence of them. And before we get too caught up in the past or the future, this or that, we catch ourselves, and bring our focus back to our breath. That moment of catching ourselves contains the freedom of change- for every time we re-direct our attention to the breath, we strengthen our connection to Present Moment Awareness. Over time and practice, we begin to not resist the thoughts (because as we know, what we resist, persists) and our relationship to them begins to change. We begin to get to know ourselves in a deeper way. It is very much within our capabilities as human beings, each and every one of us, to change our relationship to how we relate to our minds, should we feel ready to do so. “The mind is a wonderful servant, and a terrible master,” as Robin Sharma quotes. The brain is the master of our bodies, and contains our unique, individual perceptions of our world. Meditation helps to release us from our narrow perceptions, and opens us to seeing beyond what we thought we knew, and who we thought we were.
The benefits of meditation are becoming more widely known by the scientific community, with a skyrocketing number of controlled studies pertaining to mindfulness meditation. A model known as MBSR, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, spearheaded by Jon Kabat Zinn, has been gaining in popularity within major companies and hospital care systems. Studies have shown that meditation is helpful with mood disorders by lowering levels of depression and anxiety, as well as PTSD. Meditation has been shown to aid in better quality of sleep and insomnia, as well as lowering blood pressure and lowering the stress that leads to many illnesses.
Brain scans show that meditators have increased activity in the areas of the brain involved in compassion, as well as learning and memory function, and a decrease in activity in the fear response areas of the brain. As the science is backing up what has been experienced by meditators, mindfulness meditation is being explored in a richer way than ever before, with promising results ahead, especially by those in a high stress environment and society.