Meditation-It's Benefits

 

Meditation  has been a part of India's spiritual practice since eons.Today's hectic lifestyle and concomitant travails impel many in India and across the seas to try it as a soother or a benefactor.It enables the followers to fathom the pitfalls and intricasies of daily life which goad them.

• Lately science too has taken note of this tendency and one such research came up with the following result-

"Modern diagnostic and imaging techniques, like electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, show that meditation can positively affect your brain and mental health."

By https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21521-psychosomatic-disorder

In a nutshell, meditation implies sitting straight in a comfortable position and focusing upon  a single object like your breath, heart, the space between your eyes, or a mantra. In the beginning, your mind will be overcome by many thoughts of different kinds.You should merely take it back to the target you have decided to focus upon each time with a smile. It can take many days or weeks to achieve success but the benefits will certainly be there!

The Benefits-

• Meditation calms the mind and eases tensions.When you sit down to meditate, various thoughts will flicker through your mind but when you focus on a single object unrelated to the hassles of daily life, you forget them for a while.You learn to shelve them.The brain can only think about one thing at a time.Focussing on your chosen target enables you to forget your worries, and peace prevails. The feelings of guilt, shame, anger or frustration arising from the past subside, and you are able to fathom the cause of those problems.This is an excellent tool for nixing anxiety.
• It increases the power to concentrate on any one thing. It primes our sense faculties and also helps us to control them. Focusing upon a single object day after day teaches us to concentrate upon the work at hand, which is essential for achieving success in daily life.
• Meditation improves the power of memory.Research at The Massachussets General Hospital in Boston found that regular meditation increases blood flow to the cerebral cortex which controls mental functions like attention,learning,concentration and memory.Find this at -https://www.memory-improvement-tips.com/meditation-and-memory.html

Meditation increases self-awareness. Strange though it may seem, we bumble through life committing the same mistakes, misinterpreting reality and drawing wrong conclusions.When we meditate we become aware of  the quirks in our personality, the deep-seated complexes, irrational prejudices, unfounded fears and unreasonable expectations. Intrusive thoughts which could have been the precursers of a severe emotional problem are nixed. When the labyrinths of our unconscious mind are laid open, we can understand the emotional turmoil which lies at the root cause of our anxiety, and sort it out.

• It promotes the understanding of others. When we become aware of our own fault-lines we feel more attuned to those with whom we had been at cross purpose till now.Meditation confers a largeness of heart-an ability to overlook others' foibles and transgressions, to relate to them on an equal footing.
• It augments our confidence and will-power.It has a miraculous effect upon our self esteem.The sharpening of our mental faculties results in greater confidence and will-power. We feel in control.
• Meditation can off-set many physical ailments like migraine, hypertension, aches and pains, allergies and addictions.WHO says nine out of ten diseases are psychosomatic.When meditation calms the mind and eases anxiety the diseaes too vanish.

Today's lifestyle,with it's countless aspirations and hassles is tailor-made for mental turmoil and restlessness.Meditation is a great tool for easing the mind and gaining  tranquility.

Use It Or Lose It

This adage is nowadays drumming in my ears.I have come across many individuals who used to be fit,smart,active and communicative but these days there is barely a faint glimmer in them of what they used to be.The spark which defined their personalities is absent.No doubt Covid 19 and the resultant isolation is responsible for this change.But totally?I don't think so.

Lock-downs and the ancillary restrictions compelled (?) us to give up many activities which had earlier made us who we were.In due course their advantages began to deplete.Seeing the repercussions of this change in my own life and that of my acquaintances,I was convinced about the veracity of this adage-"Use it or Lose it".

Take fitness for example.The compulsion to stay indoors led many of us to give up our exercise regimes.Some tried to replace them with exercising or walking indoors,but not with the same gusto.The time which used to be spent in vigorous work outs came to be spent in restful past times too.No wonder aches and pains surfaced and muscles sagged.

Equally deleterious has been the effect of these circumstances on sports or outdoor games .Absence of cricket,tennis,football or basketball etc in the daily routines of so many has led to loneliness, lethargy and loss of  agility.

 And what about social interactions? Social visits,friendly get-togethers,parties and myriad outings of various kinds suddenly came to an end.We tried to achieve the same connectivity through social media but by and by this changeover generated a kind of nervousness and antipathy about speaking out loud our reactions and feelings--whether positive or negative. Emojis took up this role.This habit detracted from our expertise in the field of social interactions.As a result making polite conversation,sharing feelings,helping friends or even asking for help-all this took a blow. Our speaking skills rusted.

Coming to my own experience,I took a long break from writing and blogging,as many of you might have noticed.To my horror when I finally did take up pen and paper I found that my vocabulary had dried up.It was very distressing. I immediately picked up pen and paper and got to work.Slowly the flow returned.It was not as bad as I had feared.Thank God I woke up in time.But I am convinced of the role of practice in maintaining our abilities at optimum levels.Hence this piece.

It is not merely a question of practicing an ability to save it from  from deterioration.An amalgam of interests and activities must have joined together to form our personalities before this epidemic invaded our lives.They all contributed to our health,happiness and prosperity.Obviously when we gave up some of those activities we also lost a part of the shine. 

Unforeseen events often barge in to spoil the pitch.We gain some and lose some.But  the factors which are essential for our health and happiness should not be neglected.Do,share your own experience, how has this calamity changed you and what has helped you to sail through these difficult times?