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Believe it or not, but we leave in the mad world where everything is not like it was a just a couple of centuries ago. Our ancestors breathed in fresh air, enjoyed clear water and grew natural food. What do we have today? Having the same physiology as it was 4 or 5 generations ago modern humans lead mad lives! We consume dead water and extremely harmful soft drinks, stuff our stomachs with junk food, breathe in polluted air and perceive constant urban noise around us. As for the emotional and nervous tension, it is absolutely unbearable. Our speed of life makes us be in a hurry twenty-four hours a day, we are overworked and downtrodden in our family lives, we don’t have enough rest and sleep to do extra work and make our carriers. We never give a thought to the fact that our body needs some time to relax and restore, what is more, our head requires some rest, too. Unfortunately, the majority of men and women realize this simple truth when they fall seriously ill. Don’t become one of them! Think ahead and try totally safe and highly effective practice known for centuries - meditation.

“Did it occur to you that patients who meditate daily are more optimistic, healthier and live longer than those who don’t?” This utterance is rather natural today, but is it true or not?

What it meditation? It is a unique concentrating practice where the essential task is to slow down the normal whirl of thoughts occupying the mind. There are all kinds and sorts of meditation. Maybe you will be shocked to find out that a prayer is also a pure meditation as it is. In addition to this kind of focusing clear for all believers there are Transcendental Meditation, mindfulness meditation, Zen meditation, Buddhist meditation and Taoist meditation.

Meditation is the realm of complementary medicine that unlike official medicine it does no fail to forget that humans have more than a mere aching body. Meditation views patients as unique creatures with an inseparable unity of intellect, body and soul. Meditation teachers understand that you cannot be healthy and pleased with your life if your brain is full of spite, anger and misery. The amazing fact is that more and more conventional doctors recommend their patients meditation as a way of managing numerous health problems. With meditation you can:

- lower your blood pressure;
- improve the general state of men and women with angina including their exercise performance;
- let humans with asthma breathe easier;
- forget about insomnia;
- relax after everyday stressful day of life.

Meditation is a inherent activity for every person, that is why it is up to you to make up your mind where you will practice meditation. Some personalities prefer to master meditation at home. It is very simple with all the instructional books and audio CDs available. Others prefer to find a good teacher.

With all its simplicity meditation can offer you a number of options. There are several approaches to meditation. Here are some prompts for you how to meditate.

1. Focus on your breath - keep your attention on the sensation of the stream of air passes in and out of your nostrils. This is so called “mindfulness meditation” - the meditator should learn to be “mindful”, i.e. aware of the present moment of time, but his or her consciousness should be free of any judgments and reactions.

2. Focus on your body - keep your attention on the feelings in your body: pain, warmth, discomfort, tension etc.

3. Concentrate on any word or phrase you like - keeping your attention on a word or phrase is called a “mantra”. Its general task is to keep your mind free of any dangerous thoughts.

It is wrong to believe that you should always sit during meditation. It is possible to lie down, to stand or even to have a strall. If for some reason sitting still is difficult for you, feel free to combine meditation with other practices such as yoga or tai chi - you will get double pleasure and positive effect!

The use of meditation for healing human body and soul is rather old. All present-day meditative approaches are the product of years and years of work and mental experiments of personalities around the world. The healing power of mediation has been known and applied for thousands of years. Its cornerstone is tradition and religion; its effect is health and inner harmony! Actually, all religious groups apply meditation in one form or another.

It is doubtless that of all the religions Buddhism is a “father of meditation” - it is the best known and the most practiced kind of meditation in the world. Buddhists use the practice of meditation for reaching real wisdom and compassion and for seing reality as it is. Buddha followers think that our ordinary consciousness is very shallow - it is both limited and limiting. Meditation broadens human horizons and makes it possible to reveal our conscious and unconscious possibilities profoundly.

The stunning truth is that despite its unique history and rich traditions, meditation has been unfairly ignored by the representatives of conventional medicine and only during the past thirty years the medical science focused on the studies of clinical effects of meditation on health. The 1960s started with shocking medical reports of yogis and meditation masters from the mysterious East who could demonstrate extraordinary bodily control and could consciously stay in altered states of their minds - and this is where studies of self-regulation and voluntary control over the autonomic nervous system launched! The pompous scientific world was deeply shocked when refined scientific instrumentation proved that incredible things exist! Now doctors specializing in stress-related disorders had a unique way of treatment without ruinous side effects typical for drug treatments - it was the art of meditation! It proved to be a valuable means for stress reduction, and what is more, personalities and physicians enjoyed both the process of healing meditation and the health benefits available with regular trainings!

But the greatest surprise was still to come! After some time of scientific investigation of meditation this activity turned out to be perfect not solely for changing the brain’s function in the short term. The medical data demonstrated that regular practice of meditation produces a miraculous long-term positive effect! So, Transcendental Meditation in particular guarantees you a healthy state of relaxation including decreased heart and perspiration rates, low pulse rate, decreased concentration of cortisol in your blood (it is a major stress hormone) and increased activity of the part of your brain responsible for rest and relaxation! Famous MD R. Keith Wallace researching Transcendental Meditation found out that during meditation the body gets the most profound rest possible. Paradoxically, your brain and mind become clear and more alert - your reactions are faster, your creativity and efficiency is greater and your view of the world is broader!

As distinct from Transcendental Meditation, Taoists consider that our emotions are governed by the Fire energy of the heart. When you cannot control your emotions, this fire energy flares upwards and devours your life energy and confuses your mind. But you can manage that! Your willpower, on the contrary, is controlled by the Water energy located in your kidneys. If you do not control this energy, it flows down through your sexual organs, weakening your spirit and ruining your life. So, Taoists think that when you sit motionless doing nothing and thinking of nothing, i.e. when you are meditating your Fire and Water are well balanced. Water energy from the kidneys goes up to your head via the Central and Governing channels. At the same time Fire energy from the heart goes down into the Lower Elixir Field in the abdomen. By means of this right circulation of two energies and by means of this mental alchemy in the body your mind becomes calmer, cooler and more controllable, while your sexual energy becomes really enjoyable!

Meditation is obviously one of the safest activities imaginable. It is good for humans of all ages and states of health. However, you should know that in people with bad psychiatric problems, there have been a few reports in which regular meditation has worsened the state of their mental health. If you have a psychiatric problem, please, ask your mental health doctor before starting the practice of meditation.

One more essential point - if you take meds on a regular basis never stop taking them before you have completed the course. The truth is meditation cannot give you stable relief immediately - in requires some time to work! If you cannot stand queuing up in the waiting room of your MD to get your prescription, find a trusted online drugstore online where you can purchase pills without a rx legally. Take definite steps to make your life better right now! And let healing mediation be your best guide.