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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 previous generations breathed in fresh air, enjoyed crystal 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 insane lives! We consume dead water and extremely harmful soft drinks, stuff our mouths with harmful food, inhale awful air and perceive constant urban noise around us. As for the emotional and nervous stress and strain, it is absolutely insufferable. Our speed of life makes us be in a hurry on a twenty-four hour basis, we are overworked and stressed in our family lives, we don’t have enough rest and sleep to do extra work and make our carriers. We never realize the fact that our body needs some time to relax and restore, what is more, our head needs some rest, too. Unfortunately, the majority of personalities realize the fact when they fall seriously ill. Don’t become one of them! Think ahead and try absolutely safe and highly effective practice known for centuries - meditation.

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

What it meditation? It is a unique concentrating practice where the major task is to slow down the normal stream of thoughts filling the mind. There are all kinds and types of meditation. Maybe you will be amazed to learn that a prayer is also a pure meditation as it is. In addition to this kind of focusing familiar for all believers there are Transcendental Meditation, mindfulness meditation, Zen meditation, Buddhist meditation and Taoist meditation.

Meditation is the realm of alternative medicine that unlike conventional medicine it does no fail to forget that persons have more than a mere ailing body. Meditation perceives men and women as unique creatures having an inseparable unity of intellect, body and soul. Meditation teachers understand that you cannot be healthy and content with your life if your head is filled with hate, anger and disappointment. The surprising fact is that more and more traditional doctors prescribe their patients meditation as a way of managing definite illnesses. With meditation you can:

- lower your blood pressure;
- improve the general state of personalities with angina including their exercise performance;
- let patients with asthma breathe easier;
- get rid of insomnia;
- relax after everyday disastrous day of life.

Meditation is a native activity for every human being, that is why it is up to you to decide where you will practice meditation. Some people choose to master meditation at home. It is very simple with all the instructional books and audio CDs available. Others choose to find a good teacher.

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

1. Concentrate on your breath - keep your attention on the feeling of the stream of air going 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 mind should be free of any judgments and reactions.

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

3. Focus on any word or phrase you like - keeping your attention on a word or phrase is called a “mantra”. Its main task is to keep your head free of any distracting thoughts.

It is wrong to think that you should always sit during meditation. It is normal 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 up-to-date meditative techniques are the product of years and years of work and mental experiments of persons around the world. The healing power of mediation has been known and practiced for thousands of years. Its cornerstone is tradition and religion; its effect is health and inner harmony! To tell you the truth, all religious groups turn to 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 type of meditation in the world. Buddhists apply the practice of meditation for reaching real wisdom and compassion and for understanding reality as it is. Buddha followers guess that our usual state of mind is very shallow - it is both limited and limiting. Meditation broadens human horizons and makes it possible to reveal our conscious and unconscious possibilities completely.

The sad fact is that despite its unique history and rich traditions, meditation has been wrongly ignored by the representatives of traditional medicine and only during the past thirty years the medical science concentrated on the studies of clinical effects of meditation on health. The 1960s started with surprising 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 started! The ironical scientific world was shaken when refined scientific instrumentation proved that incredible things can happen! 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 turned out to be a valuable means for stress reduction, and what is more, patients and physicians enjoyed both the process of healing meditation and the health benefits available with regular trainings!

But the biggest 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 facts 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 low heart and perspiration rates, low pulse rate, decreased concentration of cortisol in your blood (it is a major stress hormone) and high activity of the part of your brain responsible for rest and relaxation! Famous doctor R. Keith Wallace investigating Transcendental Meditation found out that during meditation the body receives 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 comprehension of the world is broader!

In contrast to Transcendental Meditation, Taoists believe that our emotions are ruled by the Fire energy of the heart. When you cannot control your emotions, this fire energy flares upwards and destroys your life energy and clouds 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. Through this right circulation of two energies and through this mental alchemy in the organism 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 men and women of all ages and states of health. However, you should know that in patients with bad psychiatric cases, there have been a few reports in which regular meditation has worsened the state of their mental health. If you have a psychiatric case, please, see your mental health practitioner before starting the practice of meditation.

One more necessary point - if you take meds on a regular basis never stop taking them before you have completed the course. The point is meditation cannot give you stable relief at once - in requires some time to work! If you cannot bear standing in line in the waiting room of your MD to get your prescription, find a reliable pharmacy online where you can order prescription drugs without prescription legally. Take definite steps to make your life better right now! And let healing mediation be your reliable guide.