Meditate Your Way to Better Health

Millions of people throughout the world right now are into something that is as natural as breathing – meditating. They are not monks and new age enthusiasts in lotus positions. They are ordinary people – businessmen, professionals, mothers, and students – who discovered the art of breathing consciously.

Alan Cohen said that to find God, hang out in the space between our thoughts. That is what meditation creates – an intense spiritual encounter with the God. But apart from that, meditation is a physical exercise in breathing that if done properly is an excellent path towards optimal health.

Conscious breathing is one of the most effective techniques for stress relief: it slows down the heart and calms the mind. In his book, “Memoirs of a Wandering Ninja”, martial arts and meditation instructor Terry Hodgkinson said, “While focusing your attention solely on this breathing process, you are beginning to train your mind on the principle of single-pointed attention or single-pointed concentration.”

Hodgkinson, who is also a personal development coach, teaches a series of meditation exercises which he learned from his various masters and gurus in over 100 schools, temples, churches, and ashrams which he visited as part of his personal journey. He wrote, “What you can accomplish with this meditation is heightened state of conscious awareness. Many people walk around all day simply reacting from the programming (habits and behaviors) and filters of their subconscious mind. It is the purpose of this meditation to help you be more aware and observe these subconscious operations, so that you can know more of how you are operating. Again, how can you make changes if you don’t know what to change? So instead of being plugged into your everyday rhythms and routines, where your brain is cycling in beta (the critical and reactive brain wave), this meditation guides you into alpha brain wave, where you can be more relaxed, aware and intuitive.”

This mindfulness, which integrates the body and the mind, is a product conscious breathing and is found to be effective against a range of medical conditions including depression, addiction, cancer, ulcers, and cardiovascular diseases.

Learn more about Meditation and Health. Stop by Terry Hodgkinson’s site where you can find out all about Guided Meditations and what it can do for you.