Meditation

Mediation has been practised for thousands of years and is a simple, safe way to achieve greater balance and harmony in your life. It can also help in coping with stress or illness and is a valuable tool in the quest for self-knowledge, understanding and spiritual development.

A state of meditation is achieved when your attention is fully focused upon the experience of the moment and is often reached by the use of special techniques to calm the mind and body.

When you practice meditation, you learn how to relax and direct your attention towards exploring your self and learning about your emotional and mental responses. In meditation, the mind is in a state of restful alertness, and the body is relaxed. This enables natural healing and harmonisation to take place.

What are the benefits of meditation

The benefits of meditation can be found on three levels: physical, psychological and spiritual.

Physical benefits: It has been shown that the regular use of meditation can strengthen the immune system, making it better able to resist infections. Physiological problems that are stress-related, or influenced by stress, can also be helped, as you learn to cope better and to respond more positively to stressful situations.

Psychological benefits: Meditation can help most people feel more relaxed and better able to cope with life's events. It can promote a more aware attitude, leading to recognition of the choices one has in life. This can help you to understand that life is not something that just happens to us, but something that is to be embraced and can give you power.

Spiritual benefits: Meditation is a personal journey towards understanding and knowledge of self and of the source. It is an exploration that has the potential to reveal the secrets of life. To tell someone what to believe is to take away their freedom, whereas meditation will give you the freedom to find your own answers, and many more questions…

What types of meditation are there

Although there are several forms of meditation, most follow two basic approaches:

·        Focused (or concentrative) meditation

·        Mindfulness

Focused meditation narrows attention upon a particular subject, such as an image, mantra or other symbol. It could be compared to looking through a microscope, because it helps you go deeper into the experience.

Mindfulness concentrates more on observing the flow of experiences and sensations, without interfering with them. It could be likened to gazing through a window, noticing everything that passes and relating your own experiences to what is being observed.

Both approaches can be combined with great effect, so some forms of mediation are a mixture of the two.

Only an experienced and knowledgeable teacher – someone who will guide you through your inner journey, helping you to better understand what you encounter, and how to work with it – should teach meditation.