Author: Akhil Aggarwal

Meditation is a mental exercise. It is a means to retreat from your daily routine in your own space of silence and peace. Meditation should not be seen as a religious practice or the latest fad. By practicing meditation regularly, you are in more control of your emotions, your energy levels increase, and your perspective on life can change (for better) because of the relaxation. Meditation is hard and it cannot be perfected. The key is being quiet in your mind. Below are a few simple things to do in order to meditate correctly.

Position: Sit down. Find a comfortable spot anywhere in your home or anywhere else where you can spend a few minutes without being disturbed. It is important to sit with your back straight. Following any special wrist or feet position is not a rule as any unusual body position can cause pain and hence distractions. Sit comfortably. Accessories such as incense, candles, or cushions can be added to the environment but remember meditation is what you're aiming for, rest are all superficial additives, which you will not think about or feel while you're in 'breathing'.

Breath. Breathing is what keeps us alive. We never think about it and we never really give nature the credit it deserves for making breathing so simple an effortless. While meditating feel your breathing. Feel the air moving up your nostrils as you inhale and feel is exhaling. You will notice a slight pause after exhaling and before inhaling. Do not experiment with your breathing rate; keep it as normal and natural as possible. This is the only activity or task that you do in meditation - breathe. As you focus on your breathing, you will realize that this effortless and natural process gives you the oxygen your heart, your brain and the rest of your body needs to function properly.

Get lost in the dark space. Close your eyes when you meditate. Do not allow any thoughts to wander in your mind and only focus on breathing. During all this, what is that you see? You may forget to notice what you see, which is perfectly normal. If however you notice the dark space inside your eyes, use that to let yourself lose. In doing so, you do run the risk of letting your imagination run and hence think – but remember thoughts are to be ignored. So do not be too imaginative, like do not imagine yourself flying in that space, but allow yourself to look deep into space. The deep darkness and the spotless fluency in you can bring peace to you with its silence.



Don’t be hard on yourself. Meditation is not easy. It cannot be perfected, so do not expect yourself to be perfect at it. By being imperfect I mean, that when you meditate you will get random thoughts, maybe even ideas. You will not notice when you strayed and started thinking about something. At this time you will let your judgmental side kick in and right yourself off as being incapable of meditating. That is not right. Everybody can (and should) meditate. The key here is not to judge as it is only natural to drift. When you notice yourself getting any thoughts, do not try to fight them, simply move the thoughts aside and get back to your breathing. Evan a regular practitioner's mind can go adrift every time she meditates, but she would know better than to judge herself.

Set an alarm: You can decide how much time you want to meditate. Usually 20 minutes a day is a good practice. When you sit down to meditate without a timer, you run the risk of thinking about the time and being tempted to peek at the watch sometime during meditation. When meditating its easy to lose track of time. Only after 1 or 2 minutes, one can feel that a lot of time has passed and perhaps one must check the time. All these thoughts are unnecessary distractions that you must make sure do not exist at all. The solution to this is to use a timer. Set the timer for as many minutes as you plan to meditate. If you set the timer at 10 minutes, you will not worry about exceeding the time limit, in case you have errands to run. Remember, your only activity is to sit down and breathe without thinking about anything. Therefore, to make sure that you prevent such distraction setting a timer is a good option.

Meditate when you can. (1) Traveling in a bus; (2) Waiting in a queue; (3) Waiting for someone to show up; (4) Taking a break from work.
Meditation, not necessarily, should only be done in the serene Himalayas, or in a quiet candlelit room. You can meditate wherever & whenever. Moreover, meditation can be done for just 1 or 2 minutes. All you need to do is, give yourself a moment, and just breathe. In just one minute you can feel relaxed and at ease. Repeat this couple of times a day, whenever you can and whenever you feel like it. Meditation is like your own personal retreat from the world around you, to a world of peace and quiet.

Best time to Meditate. There is no 'only best time' to meditate. Meditation should be done only when you feel that it is a good time to do so. Some like doing it in the morning, while others in the evening or even late at night. Moreover, it's not mandatory to meditate at the same time everyday, as long as you spend some time everyday with yourself in deep meditation.


Meditation is a skill. It requires regular practice. The study of Meditation is a science while practicing it is an art. Meditation takes away your stress. Meditation allows you to take some timeout from your daily routine of work and people, and provide your brain some time to rest. So, if you're suffering from anxiety, hypertension, excessive stress, emotional troubles, or you're simply overworked, Meditation can be a wonderful and simple way to help you by keeping your mind healthy.

About the Author:
Consultant and Business Analyst
http://akhilaggarwal.blogspot.com/

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - How to Meditate

Read more

Author: James Pendergraft

Stress is a difficult term to define. We react differently to stress because we all react differently to stimuli and some people are just not affected by it. Stress can either be a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes physical or mental tension and it can be a defining factor for the onset of a disease. Stress could also be the state of physical or mental tension that results from a series of factors that tend to alter an existent equilibrium.
Stress is an everyday fact of life and it can be harmful if this lasts for so long and there is no relief. The pressures of crises and everyday events have adverse effects on the health of a person. Women take on the stresses of home and the work environment. In the presence of stress, a woman can manifest certain conditions like headaches, ulcer, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Even when you are at work, all your unmanaged stress can lead to illness and even unsafe acts that may cost you your jobs. When stress is taking over your life, manage it immediately and find solutions that will help you reduce it.

Managing Stress

Stress management is critical to learn. You can make it a positive factor in your life. All you need to do is identify your stressors, understand them, and find solutions. You can also take charge of stress and prevent it. Know also that alcohol and drugs will not help you relieve your stress so never turn to them as the solution. Here are some guidelines when you are stressed.

* Accept the fact that you are stressed. You cannot control all things, and stress is not a controllable feeling. There are things that you can’t control and all you need to do is accept that and learn from experience. You can seek the advice of your friends and some professionals.

* Stay away from situations and sources of frustrations and stress. You can remove yourself from the environment by staying away and avoiding it.

* Let your feelings out and talk to a friend. Take time to change your feelings or even control it.

* Adapt to it. Learn to cope with the situations and look at it as an opportunity. Don’t let yourself be easily stressed and never let your stress take over your life and your personality. Focus on more positive things in your life and try to make time for the activities that you enjoy doing. You can maintain a healthy lifestyle by exercising daily, meditating and eating a healthy and balanced diet. You can fight off stress with a healthy and content body.

* Always keep a positive attitude. Never be a pessimistic person. An optimist can always find ways to reduce stress in his or her daily life.

* Always be assertive and never aggressive. You can always assert your feelings and opinions and beliefs instead of becoming angry and defensive.

* Practice and always learn new relaxation techniques like meditation and yoga. These mind and body exercises always make you feel better.

* Get enough rest and sleep so that you will not always be irritable and it allows your body to recover from stressful events.

* Seek out social support with your friends and manage your time more effectively.

About the Author:

Dr. James S. Pendergraft opened the abortion doctor in March 1996 to provide a full range of health care for women, including women's clinic , physical examinations, family planning , counseling, laboratory services.

Read more

Author: Carmen Beese

There is a tendency in people to think that yoga is just about stretching. Certainly stretching is an important part of yoga and it is called Asana. Be aware though that there is a lot more about yoga than you imagine.

All the misconception about yoga is due to the fact that when you go to yoga lessons in an environment of a classroom you have a very limited time to learn and perform yoga basic positions and other positions. It is a mission impossible for the instructors to be able to assist individually all the students. There is no time to explain the positions and make the students aware what they are doing and why. The other difficulty that the instructors face is the high levels of inconsistency in students’ levels and assiduity.

The great majority of establishments that offers yoga lessons are doing it more as a complement to the gym center. They are now offering yoga as a trendy way to lose weight or just to relieve stress.

Yoga has a lot more than just stress relief, a way to stretch or lose weight. Yoga is a science to take you to an optimum health and personal transformation. When you think that it can transform you into a better person emotionally and physically it is easy to realise the need to learn it properly. Respect your pace and take the necessary time to learn in detail the yoga basic positions.

The yoga online course is structured in a 3 week program that will give you a comprehensive and easy to follow guide to yoga basic positions. Three things struck me the most in this course first was clarity to show me what yoga is really about, the yoga basic positions were finally explained and showed properly and the results in my personal life became so obviously that I had people asking me what I’ve been doing.

Other advantage of the course is that you can learn at your own pace unlike in a classroom that you have to follow the group. This is a must because not everyone can perform the yoga basic positions at the same pace. Some people need more time to get to the proper position and sometimes you need to stay more in one position because it gives you the relaxation you need for that moment.

In the comfort of your home you will learn powerful positions that will allow your body to cleanse and purify plus all the techniques to stretch your body and stabilize your mind.

You will learn all about the foundations of a healthy diet according to the yoga principals.

This is an amazing program that you cannot afford to miss. It is a life changing course that will transcend your expectations.

About the Author:

For lots more information on yoga and the best way to begin learning the many different poses, go to http://yogabasicpositions.net

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Best Way To Learn Yoga: In Your Own Home

Read more