MEDITATION

Meditation isn’t about becoming a different person, a new person, or even a better person. It’s about training in awareness and getting a healthy sense of perspective. You’re not trying to turn off your thoughts or feelings. You’re learning to observe them without judgment. And eventually, you may start to better understand them as well.

It is, despite it's mystical connotations, first and foremost a tool to get to know your won mind. During our waking hours we are so engaged with our thoughts and perceptions that we don't have an awareness of the filter through which we receive them. When you sit in meditation you you step back from the analysing and and witness these mental processes taking place.

Benefits of Meditation:

• Meditating has been linked to stress reduction and stress has been widely acknowledged as a primary cause of disease

• Studies have shown that meditation facilitates neuroplasticity - your brains ability to build new pathways of understanding. Meditation can make you smarter

• Research has also shown that people who have a regular meditation practice develop a greater emotional intelligence. To have a greater ability to perceive their own thoughts and feelings and to harness emotions for the greater good

Meditation can seem quite serene and calm but it can be hard. When we sit we are asking ourselves to peel away the defense layers around our insecurities, losses and hurt - in meditation we are coming face to face with our raw, unguarded selves. And it is not always comfortable to engage on a deeply honest level, the majority of us will avoid introspection as it is a painful exercise, it is much easier to stick to the self-created image of a life of happiness, health a confidence we project to the outside world.

Modern Western researchers are exploring whether a consistent meditation practice yields long-term positive effects and benefits on brain and immune function. Yet an Eastern philosopher may say, the goal of meditation is no goal. It’s simply to be present.

In Buddhist philosophy, the ultimate benefit of meditation is liberation of the mind from attachment to things it cannot control, such as external circumstances or strong internal emotions. The liberated or “enlightened” practitioner no longer needlessly follows desires or clings to experiences, but instead maintains a calm mind and sense of inner harmony.