Unit 6

Meditation can become an effective tool, equipping you to enjoy your life and handle tension. Its benefits extend beyond your meditation room and can affect every aspect of your life from emotional health and well-being to physical health and management of chronic conditions. Some emotional benefits of meditation include:

·         Reduced negative thoughts and feelings

·         Increased awareness of self

·         Ability to focus on the moment

·         Gaining stress management skills

While meditation can benefit anyone, those with anxiety and depression may find it especially helpful. Mediation helps teach individuals to develop emotional stability. The meditator gains insight into his feelings and becomes confident, as he learns to manage his emotions. Those who have mastered this tool are able to find more pleasure in life and their relationships.

Scientific research supports meditation as a therapy. Conditions that may worsen with stress improve with meditation. The following conditions are examples:

·         Asthma and Allergies

·         Cancer

·         Heart disease

·         High blood pressure

·         Insomnia

·         Substance abuse and binge eating

In addition, meditation may help decrease fatigue and reduce the occurrence of chronic headaches. Migraine sufferers may experience fewer debilitating headaches with regular meditation.

Meditation utilizes relaxed breathing techniques. These exercises allow the meditator to strengthen and flex the diaphragm muscles. Taking in more oxygen while breathing also helps nourish the body, releasing endorphins and ultimately, reducing pain while feelings of pleasure increase. For this reason, meditation can be an effective manner of coping with painful conditions like arthritis and fibromyalgia. Regular meditation can help reduce the symptoms and can be achieved by setting aside time to practice techniques like visualization, positive thinking and deep breathing in an undisturbed environment.

I currently use meditation to help me quiet my mind at the end of the day, and to assist me living with anxiety and depression, both of which I have lived with most of my life. While normally mediation is helpful, there are times when it makes me feel more anxious than I usually do. Also, as mediation is not the absence of thought but rather the acknowledgement and release of thoughts, sometimes negative thoughts creep into my meditation and those are very hard to release. Overall, though, meditation is a key component in living with these issues. Meditation allows me to focus more on the positive than the negative.