These days, going to the doctor when you are ill is not the only way you can feel better. We cover many alternative “feel better” ways on our site especially the why’s and the how-to-avoids.

According to the National Center for Complementary Medicine, meditation is among the top 10 alternative therapy treatments. But before we get into that, let’s review some meditation facts.

First, meditation means awareness.

Why? Your senses are heightened as you concentrate on your breathing and your hearing becomes sharper than before. Through meditation, you ask your mind to block out distractions so you are able to find inner peace. You can actually carry that with you when you open your eyes, too.

Some think that meditation is a religion when, in fact, it’s a science. Numerous studies done in the past show that those who practice it, feel relaxed, are more physically fit, have improvements in their academic standing and have an increase in their productivity at work.

Where did the word “meditation” come from?

It comes from two Latin words. The first is, “meditari,” which means to think, dwell upon or to exercise the mind. The second is, “mederi,” meaning, to heal. If you put these two together, it describes basically what this activity is — a time for you to reach deep into your mind and recharge.

As you can see, meditation has benefits that are physiological, physical and psychological. You don’t have to take any pills or get a prescription. It’s free and it doesn’t consume much time. It can be done in 5 to 20 minutes a day. Sit comfortably, quietly and close your eyes while focusing on your breath for 5 to 20 minutes then continue on with whatever you were doing before.

A fact about all meditation…it’s a focus to silence the busy mind.

It does not remove the stimulation which you feel around you but rather directs your concentration to something else to achieve increasing inner peace and improving wellness.

Keeping an open mind is essential so that this science can have its tremendously powerful effect.

Aside from all the benefits that we have covered here, on our website and in some of our other blogs, one of the greatest things that I have found with meditation is that the more I do it, the more I am able to bring incredible things into my life. Sometimes it is something physical and sometimes it is guidance, stronger intuition, answers, insight that enables me to help someone else, or, perhaps, it brings me in contact with people that I am meant to meet.

The possibilities are endless and the effects can be so subtle that you barely notice them at first, but once you pay attention to how much better your day goes when you meditate, you will probably find it’s definitely worth sticking with.

Next we will cover easy ways to meditate.

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 8:37 pm and is filed under Meditation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.