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There are a variety of meditation techniques used today. The Chinese, who originated many of the meditative techniques, describe meditation in simple terms as “sitting still, doing nothing” or “mental fasting.” The basic idea is to clear you mind of all of thoughts and give your conscious mind a rest. By doing this, we begin to be able to train the two aspects of our temporal mind that govern our lives: emotion and intent(1). Here are some of the many techniques used for meditation. Keep in mind that you may find that one type of meditation works better than another for you. So feel free to try a few of them until you find the one that fits best:
- Transcendental Meditation – This is probably one of, if not the, most popular and well studied form of mediation.
- Concentrative Meditation – The most simple form of meditation. You sit in a relaxed pose and clear your mind of all thoughts. You then focus on your breath – in – and out -. You keep focusing on your breath until all you are thinking about is the air coming in and going out.
- Mindfulness Meditation – This is, in some ways, the opposite of Concentrative Meditation because rather than focusing on just one thing, you focus on everything – all of the thoughts, feelings, sensations, sounds, etc. that pass through your mind. In this form, you sit in a comfortable position, in a quiet spot, and witness all of the thoughts passing through your mind. The goal is to not react to, think about, or become stuck on any of them. Rather, you would simply become aware of them as they pass through.
Herbert Benson, a professor at Harvard Medical School, documents a significant “relaxation response” after studying the effects of meditation on the body. The research of R Kieth Wallace at UCLA demonstrates that the state of rest and relaxation when meditating is actually deeper than deep sleep. Most importantly, meditation has been shown to have a positive effect on fighting cancer. For example, Dr. Ainslie Meares, an Australia psychologist performed a study on 73 patients who were fighting cancer, and found that there was a positive effect on slowing tumor growth, and that in many people it reduced stress, tension and depression.1
The ability for meditation to help patients reduce stress and find peace around their condition makes this a wonderful treatment for many conditions, including different forms of cancer.
In the past 50 years, the health benefits of meditation have been well studied and documented in the West. In fact, some studies suggest that when you are meditating you are actually in deeper relaxation than when you are fast asleep. Meditation can become even more powerful when you combine it with other therapies like positive thinking and visualization – it can make those techniques even more powerful.
The ability for meditation to help patients reduce stress and find peace around their condition makes this a wonderful treatment for many conditions, including different forms of cancer.
Meditation |
The Latin root of meditate is "meditatum" meaning "to ponder." Meditation is therefore the act of focusing one's mind in some internal and specific way. There are hundreds of forms of meditation many of which are directly or loosely associated with a religious practice. Generally speaking, those who practice meditation can calm and relax their mind and physiological state such that healing occurs.
Find other natural remedies for depression.
Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years by many different cultures. A personal meditation practice therefore, can take many forms; you may want to look into having a practitioner help you set up a personal daily practice that is right tailored for you. Or, you can take some meditation classes where the meditative experience is led by an instructor. ( If you practice a more ancient form of yoga, your practice will include a meditative component as yoga was initally created as a "moving meditation" practice for those who sat in one position meditating all the time!) ." Asana, is a specific cross-legged and sitting body position used in yoga for meditation.
When you first start meditating, you'll want to work on developing full and focused awareness while your stream of thoughts (mental chatter) goes on without you dwelling on it. You may want to focus on simply observing your breathingindividual thoughts. Many people simply observing their breath.
Working with an expert in the field of meditation, or preferably a mental health specialist who has such credentials or background would be ideal.
Some ancient cultures have a way of slowing the mind to help curb the circular and obsessive thinking patterns that often accompany depression. Meditation can be used to focus your mind, quiet the 'chatter', and observe your own thought process, if done properly. Done incorrectly, it could cause you to amplify the depressive cognitive self-talk, overly focus on it, and lead to more entrenched depression. Depression, by it's nature, lends to a clouded view of the world and oneself, and I would posit meditation asks one to set one's entire ego-self aside, which is one of the biggest difficulties of depression--one's own thoughts and emotions are negatively locked into themselves when depressed.
Most of us use our minds at work (and not our bodies), we never let our minds rest (since we feel that 'haste makes waste'), we 'relax' by watching TV (which actually drains us of mental energy instead of building us up after a day of constant thinking), we move our bodies much less than our ancestors, we find it uncomfortable to just 'be' with someone without 'doing' something, and then - to top it all off - we try to THINK our way out of our sadness through so-called 'rationalization'.
It takes work - in the form of mental-training - to help our minds stop obsessing. Many people find that a daily meditation practice helps to quiet the mind.
Over time you will build a capacity to be aware of all that happens in your mind allowing you to relax from focusing on specific (often negative) thoughts. Instead, you'll simply observe the stream of thoughts from a place in consciousness outside of your immediate ego. Practiced meditation can help treat depression along with sleep, exercise, diet, rituals, herbal supplements, professional help, and if necessary, possibly prescription drugs .
Also, the treatment for depression called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction includes some meditation.
Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years by many different cultures. A personal meditation practice therefore, can take many forms; you may want to look into having a practitioner help you set up a personal daily practice that is tailored for you. Or, you can take some meditation classes where the meditative experience is led by an instructor. If you practice a more ancient form of yoga, your practice will include a meditative component as yoga was initally created as a "moving meditation." Asana, is a specific cross-legged and sitting body position used in yoga for meditation.
When you first start meditating, you'll want to work on developing full and focused awareness while your stream of thoughts (mental chatter) goes on without you dwelling on individual thoughts. Many people simply observing their breath.
Working with an expert in the field of meditation, or preferably a mental health specialist who has such credentials or background would be ideal.
Some ancient cultures have a way of slowing the mind to help curb the circular and obsessive thinking patterns that often accompany depression. Meditation can be used to focus your mind, quiet the 'chatter', and observe your own thought process, if done properly. Done incorrectly, it could cause you to amplify the depressive cognitive self-talk, overly focus on it, and lead to more entrenched depression. Depression, by it's nature, lends to a clouded view of the world and oneself, and I would posit meditation asks one to set one's entire ego-self aside, which is one of the biggest difficulties of depression--one's own thoughts and emotions are negatively locked into themselves when depressed.
Most of us use our minds at work (and not our bodies), we never let our minds rest (since we feel that 'haste makes waste'), we 'relax' by watching TV (which actually drains us of mental energy instead of building us up after a day of constant thinking), we move our bodies much less than our ancestors, we find it uncomfortable to just 'be' with someone without 'doing' something, and then - to top it all off - we try to THINK our way out of our sadness through so-called 'rationalization'.
It takes work - in the form of mental-training - to help our minds stop thinking 'way too much.' This is where meditation comes in. obsessing. Many people find that a daily yoga, meditation , tai chi, or qi gong practice often helps them to ' quiet the mind. '
I think properly guided or practiced meditation can aid, along with sleep, exercise, diet, rituals, herbal supplements, professional help, and if necessary, possibly prescription drugs (though I would personally only advocate their use in a 'stepping-stone' fashion, in conjunction with other action, on limited term basis. ie: don't use anti-depressants alone, in a permanent fashion). Meditation can be used to focus your mind, quiet the 'chatter', and observe your own thought process, if done properly. Done incorrectly, it could cause you to amplify the depressive cognitive self-talk, overly focus on it, and lead to more entrenched depression. Depression, by it's nature, lends to a clouded view of the world and oneself, and I would posit meditation asks one to set one's entire ego-self aside, which is one of the biggest difficulties of depression--one's own thoughts and emotions are negatively locked into themselves when depressed.
My experience has been when you first start meditating, working on developing full and focused awareness (such as on a candle flame, breathing technique, visualization of a process) while the stream of thoughts (chatter) goes on is what you do. Over time you will build a capacity and repository of awareness, so to speak, so that you may to be aware of all that happens in your mind allowing you to relax from focusing on something so specific, and can instead simply maintain awareness and actively specific (often negative) thoughts. Instead, you'll simply observe the stream of thoughts from a place in consciousness outside of your immediate ego. At this juncture, that the opportunity to identify negative self-talk and constraining thought-patterns may occur, which has the possibility for you to yield major or minor breakthroughs in self-awareness and altering your cognitive patterns to be a happier person. Working with an expert in the field of meditation, or preferably a mental health specialist who has such credentials or background would be ideal. Practiced meditation can help treat depression along with sleep, exercise, diet, rituals, herbal supplements, professional help, and if necessary, possibly prescription drugs
Also, the treatment for depression called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction includes some meditation.
Meditation |
The Latin root of meditate is "meditatum" meaning "to ponder." Meditation is therefore the act of focusing one's mind in some internal and specific way. There are hundreds of forms of meditation many of which are directly or loosely associated with a religious practice. Generally speaking, those who practice meditation can calm and relax their mind and physiological state such that healing occurs.
Find other natural remedies for depression.
Some ancient cultures have a way of slowing the mind to help curb the circular and obsessive thinking patterns that often accompany depression. Meditation can be used to focus your mind, quiet the 'chatter', and observe your own thought process, if done properly. Done incorrectly, it could cause you to amplify the depressive cognitive self-talk, overly focus on it, and lead to more entrenched depression. Depression, by it's nature, lends to a clouded view of the world and oneself, and I would posit meditation asks one to set one's entire ego-self aside, which is one of the biggest difficulties of depression--one's own thoughts and emotions are negatively locked into themselves when depressed.
Most of us use our minds at work (and not our bodies), we never let our minds rest (since we feel that 'haste makes waste'), we 'relax' by watching TV (which actually drains us of mental energy instead of building us up after a day of constant thinking), we move our bodies much less than our ancestors, we find it uncomfortable to just 'be' with someone without 'doing' something, and then - to top it all off - we try to THINK our way out of our sadness through so-called 'rationalization'.
It takes work - in the form of mental-training - to help our minds stop obsessing. Many people find that a daily meditation practice helps to quiet the mind.
Over time you will build a capacity to be aware of all that happens in your mind allowing you to relax from focusing on specific (often negative) thoughts. Instead, you'll simply observe the stream of thoughts from a place in consciousness outside of your immediate ego. Practiced meditation can help treat depression along with sleep, exercise, diet, rituals, herbal supplements, professional help, and if necessary, possibly prescription drugs
Also, the treatment for depression called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction includes some meditation.
Meditation helps connect mind with body to achieve a state of being “present”. This state promotes deep relaxation and sense of connectedness with our purpose and goals. Several different methods of meditation are can help promote relaxation and connectedness that will promote fertility.
The Latin root of meditate is "meditatum" meaning "to ponder." Meditation is therefore the act of focusing one's mind in some internal and specific way. There are hundreds of forms of meditation many of which are directly or loosely associated with a religious practice. Generally speaking, those who practice meditation can calm and relax their mind and physiological state such that healing occurs.
The ability for meditation to help patients reduce stress and find peace around their condition makes this a wonderful Melanoma treatment.
Experiences
Meditation |
Meditation has absolutely helped me in fighting depression! It seems that often a contributing factor to our depression in the west (I know that is a generalization, but it is often true) is our persistent and circular thinking patterns...we never let ourselves have a moment's rest. Some, especially ancient, cultures have a way of slowing the mind so as not to get so caught up in the mind (the use of which is after-all, only one way of "knowing").
Most of us use our minds at work (and not our bodies), we never let our minds rest (since we feel that "haste makes waste"), we "relax" by watching TV (which actually drains us of mental energy instead of building us up after a day of constant thinking), we move our bodies much less than our ancestors, we find it uncomfortable to just "be" with someone without "doing" something, and then - to top it all off - we try to THINK our way out of our sadness through so-called "rationalization".
It takes work - in the form of mental-training - to help our minds stop thinking "way too much." This is where meditation comes in. Many people find that a daily yoga, meditation, tai chi, or qi gong practice often helps them to "quiet the mind." I have ABSOLUTELY found this to be the case. A simple yoga practice that focuses on the breath and ends in a meditation has changed my depressed state immensely. This is not to say that I am never depressed anymore, but they come less frequently, and I am more able to accept them as part of the normal ups-and-downs of life. (This sounds cliche until you try it and know how profound it really is.)
Someone once explained it to me like this when I first began learning to meditate; They said, "Thoughts will come when you're sitting in meditaiton - it is inevitable. But you can choose not to dwell on these thoughts that arise. It's kind of like when a plane goes overhead; you know that it's there because you hear it, but it doesn't necessarily cause you to stop whatever you're doing and you don't have to look up at it, and eventually it passes. The same is true with your thoughts. When a thought comes up and you may get a little lost in it, just remember to focus on your breath and not on the thought. Practicing this in meditation will make it easier not to focus on negative thoughts in your real life." - Easier said than done, I know. Practice!
But helping train your mind to be less "chatty" as I call it, can help calm your soul as well. It's helped me with my depression (specifically my circular-thinking), but it takes time to find a practice that works well for you. And once you find one, only then does the journey actually begin.
Meditation |
Meditation has absolutely helped me in fighting depression! It seems that often a contributing factor to our depression in the west (I know that is a generalization, but it is often...
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