What is meditation?
Meditation is really just a way of systematically tuning out mental chatter. We all meditate from time to time, but the term itself is usually used to describe an exercise in sustained concentration that you can use to calm your body and quiet your mind – in short, to reduce stress. Historically, meditation has roots in both Eastern and Western spiritual traditions, but you don’t have to be Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, or religious at all to practice it. Today, many people use meditation outside of its traditional religious or cultural settings, for health and wellness purposes.

In meditation, a person learns to focus his attention and suspend the stream of thoughts that normally occupy the mind. This practice is believed to result in a state of greater physical relaxation, mental calmness, and psychological balance. Practicing meditation can change how a person relates to the flow of emotions and thoughts in the mind.

Most types of meditation have four elements in common:

• A quiet location. Many meditators prefer a quiet place with as few distractions as possible. This can be particularly helpful for beginners. People who have been practicing meditation for a longer period of time sometimes develop the ability to meditate in public places, like waiting rooms or buses.

• A specific, comfortable posture. Depending on the type being practiced, meditation can be done while sitting, lying down, standing, walking, or in other positions.

• A focus of attention. Focusing one’s attention is usually a part of meditation. For example, the meditator may focus on a mantra (a specially chosen word or set of words), an object, or the breath.

• An open attitude. Having an open attitude during meditation means letting distractions come and go naturally without stopping to think about them. When distracting or wandering thoughts occur, they are not suppressed; instead, the meditator gently brings attention back to the focus. In some types of meditation, the meditator learns to observe the rising and falling of thoughts and emotions as they spontaneously occur.

Health benefits of meditation:

- Breathing. The deep breathing that is associated with meditation increases your lung capacity. When you are stressed there is a tendency to breathe heavier. But when you are in a calm state, you breathe slowly and allow your lungs to take in more air.

- Pain management.  Undoubtedly you may have seen Yogis who lie down on a bed of nails. They are in a deep state of transcendental meditation. They feel no pain. During meditation, whether your pain is internal or external, it will dissipate the longer you are in a state of deep meditation. The mind is focusing on an object or an image, and as your body relaxes, the pain you may have felt slowly disappears.

- Stress Control. Most of the people who get on meditation do so because of its beneficial effects on stress. Stress refers to any or all the various pressures experienced in life. These can stem from work, family, illness, or environment and can contribute to such conditions as anxiety, hypertension, and heart disease. How an individual sees things and how he or she handles them makes a big difference in terms of how much stress he or she experiences.
Reduction of stress translates directly into a reduction of anxiety and tension. Literally dozens of studies have shown this.

- High blood pressure. Meditation lowers blood pressure to levels comparable to prescription drugs for those who are normal to moderately hypertensive.
As soon as Dr. Benson learned that TM reliably reduced blood pressure in meditators, he taught the relaxation response to 36 people with moderately elevated blood pressure. After several weeks of practice, their average blood pressure declined significantly, reducing their risk of stroke and heart attack.

- Heart disease. Meditation is a key component of Ornish therapy, the only treatment scientifically proven to reverse heart disease.
In a study of health insurance statistics, meditators had 87% fewer hospitalizations for heart disease, 55% fewer for benign and malignant tumors, and 30% fewer for infectious diseases. The meditators had more than 50% fewer doctor visits than did non-meditators.

- Infertility. Couples dealing with infertility may become depressed, anxious and angry. To help them cope, Alice D. Dome, Ph.D., a psychologist at the Mind/Body Medical Institute, taught the relaxation response to one group of infertile couples. Compared with a similar group of infertile couples who did not learn deep relaxation, the meditators experienced less distress-and were more likely to get pregnant.

- Respiratory crises. Asthma, emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) all restrict breathing and raise fears of suffocation, which in turn makes breathing even more difficult. Studies at Dr. Kabat-Zinn’s clinic show that when people with these respiratory conditions learn breath meditation, they have fewer respiratory crises.

- Cancer and Other Chronic Illness. Meditation and other approaches to deep relaxation help center people so they can figure out how they’d like to handle the illness and proceed with life. Dr. Ainsle Mesares, psychiatrist who uses meditation with cancer patients, studied seventy-three patients who had attended at least twenty -sessions of intensive meditation, and wrote: “Nearly all such patients can expect significant reduction of anxiety and depression, together with much less discomfort and pain. There is reason to expect a 10 percent chance of quite remarkable slowing of the rate of growth of the tumor, and a 50 percent chance of greatly improved quality of life.”

- Fibromyalgia.  According to one study, meditation may relieve the discomfort of fibromyalgia, a condition that causes fatigue and intensely painful “trigger points.” When 77 men and women with fibromyalgia followed a ten-week stress-reduction program using meditation, all reported that their symptoms improved. And half described their improvements as “moderate to marked.

Psychological (mind) benefits of meditation:

- increased patience,

- curing of various allergies,

- strengthening of willpower,

- enhancement of the power of thought,

- refinement of personality,

- rapid calming of the mind,

- mood stabilization,

- raised interest and efficiency in activity,

- elimination of various bodily illnesses

- attainment of enlightenment

- increased happiness.

- improved learning ability and memory.

Potential hazards:

There is anecdotal evidence that meditation can cause some people to experience psychotic episodes, particularly in those with a history of mental illness, or those who submit themselves to long meditation retreats without prior meditation experience.

Documentation source: http://www.onecer.net