Can meditation help to reduce stress or to manage depression?
When you are fearful or sad, you can feel consumed by stress or depression. Meditation helps you to witness your mind, placing your fears and disappointments in perspective. Fears and disappointments, however vast, are temporary, like dark clouds in a vast sky. By observing the clouds, you begin to realize that the clouds are your own thoughts. The thoughts arose from your own mind. You can experience your own nature as peaceful, calm and quiet, like the sky on a still day. By paying less attention to your troubling thoughts you can experience power and peace.
Throughout the day, when we experience stress, our bodies automatically react in ways that prepare us to fight or run. In some cases of extreme danger, this physical response is helpful. However, a prolonged state of such agitation can cause physical damage to every part of the body. Meditation affects the body in exactly the opposite ways that stress does, restoring the body to a calm state, helping the body to repair itself, and preventing new damage due to the physical effects of stress.
Stress management has been associated with increased senior health and well-being. While retirement seems to be a time of little stress. After all, with job stress that’s been endured for decades out of the picture, one may wonder if there even is stress after retirement -- senior stress can still originate from relationships, finances, and retirement itself, as well as from many other areas of life.
Meditation is a one of the natural methods of relieving stress. Though meditation and stress are inter related now, it actually started as a religious practice. Meditation is a simple way to balance a person's physical, mental and emotional states. Meditation originated from Hinduism. It was also developed independently in Sufism. Meditation was later done for non religious purposes like exercises, martial arts and treatment of health conditions. In the present era, many religions especially eastern religions like Buddhism, Sikhism, and Judaism follow meditation. The recent attention on meditation is because it acts as a stress reliever.
Meditation and stress relief
1. Decreases the metabolic rate, lowers heart rate and lowers blood pressure
2. Lowers levels of cortisol and lactate-two. Both these chemicals are a buy product of stress.
3. Reduces free radicals damage to the body
4. Improves skin resistance which lowers with higher stress and anxiety l
5. Helps reduce high cholesterol levels which some with stress and lead to cardiovascular disease.
Our lives are overloaded
Exercise to Reduce Stress
1. As you breathe, let your abdomen expand outward, rather than raising your shoulders. This is a more relaxed and natural way to breathe, and helps your lungs fill themselves more fully with fresh air, releasing more “old” air.
2. You can do this just a few times to release tension, or for several minutes as a form of meditation.
3. If you like, you can make your throat a little tighter as you exhale so the air comes out like a whisper. This type of breathing is used in some forms of yoga and can add additional tension relief.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Meditation in Texas
By: reddheart1 | 13-06-2008
In the state of Texas can you take the other party to court still if you are not agreeing on the papers that were signed by both parties during meditation. The final divoirce decree has not been signed yet, can something still be done.
Is the brain growth from meditation in the cerebrum or the cerebellum?
By: MaryiJane | 21-03-2008
IS the part of the brain that develops more the cerebellum or the cerebrum... I know people who've had surgery to remove skull because of a larger than normal brain and/or smaller than normal skull and vertebrae system. CHiari malformation it's called. I am assuming this is the cerebrum and not the cerebellum, but I'd thought I'd ask. =)
How long does a basic Reiki training take?
By: benedeti | 28-02-2008
How long does a basic Reiki training take?
Is creative Valentines day present best?
By: hemplover | 31-01-2008
Would signing my husband and I up for a meditation class be a good V-day present?
Meditation fot busy people
By: becky | 26-12-2007
Which type of meditation is the least time consuming? I'm thinking about trying it but I don't have a lot of free time.
Does meditation improve health?
By: zxcvb | 24-12-2007
Does meditation really improve people's health? Is there scientific evidence for this claim?
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