Have you ever wondered how meditation can improve your mind, health, relationships and sense of self?
The Effect of Meditation on the Mind:
Improved memory, mental clarity, and creativity are all understood in terms of brain functioning. The chart below illustrates that the brain itself begins to function in a unique and highly organized way during the practice of meditation.
Initially, this is seen only during the meditation period. However, over time, the brain is able to habituate to this more powerful way of functioning. This means that the peaceful, restful, contented feeling that is experienced during meditation becomes a reality that can be lived during our active life.
The video below explains the chart above and how the brain is affected by the regular practice of transcendental meditation techniques.
The Effect of Meditation on Health and the Body:
When the mind quiets down during meditation, the body quiets as well. This is due to the fact that the mind and body are connected. The rest gained during meditation has been shown to be deeper than the deepest part of sleep.
Since deep rest is the mechanism by which the body repairs and regenerates itself, the deeper rest obtained during meditation accelerates the repair and revitalization process. This is the reason meditators have more energy, greater stamina, and greater resistance to disease.
In a study that came out of Blue Cross and Blue Shield, 2,000 meditators were tracked over a five-year period and compared with a control group of 600,000 (who did not meditate). Doctor visits, hospitalizations, and missed days of work were about 50% less for the meditation group. In addition, the two primary causes of death in the Western world–heart disease and cancer–were reduced by 87% and 55% respectively.
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The Effect of Meditation on Relationships:
Have you ever noticed that the quality and quantity of your sleep can impact your behavior the next day? Just this simple observation allows us to realize something important. Our relationships are impacted by our behavior, and our behavior is impacted by whether we feel fresh and rested, or tired, worried, and stressed.
Relationships are reciprocal. What we put out we get back. Reducing the stress in our lives through meditation allows us to interact with others in ways that are beneficial to everyone. It is an inevitable result of the mind becoming more expanded and the body becoming more relaxed and balanced. It happens for everyone, and it is one of the great long-term benefits of having a regular meditation practice.
The Effect of Meditation on the Sense of Self:
When I was five years old I looked in the mirror and saw a little boy. When I was 20 I saw a young man. At age 40 I saw a middle-aged man. When I turned 60 I saw an older middle-aged man. If I live to be 100 I will see an older-still middle-aged man!
Who is the seer? What is the nature of that continuous awareness that has existed all these years? How is it that the “I” that has had all these life experiences over all these decades may remain hidden, or at least not known very well?
Many of us might define ourselves by our bodies, our minds, our occupations, our families, our citizenship, our beliefs, our belongings or our interests. Since all of these are transitory–and subject to change at any moment–that can’t be who we are.
The direct experience of the knower is the only way any of us can come to know that unchanging part of ourselves. And for this to happen, the mind needs to be quiet.
If the mind is chattering all the time–analyzing the past, and worrying about the future–our entire life will someday be over without ever having glimpsed our true inner nature.
Meditation is the place where we come to know (through direct experience) that unchanging part of ourselves; the part that has been present all along, but sadly, overshadowed by life’s details.
Discovering this is the great freedom all spiritual teachers have spoken about.