Used to promote relaxation and spiritual growth and enlightenment. It is believed to be beneficial to health, relieving stress and treating high blood pressure.
A process of focusing attention.
A mind-body technique that uses controlled breathing and quiet contemplation to induce a state of mental and physical tranquility. Meditation is used by conventional and alternative medical practitioners as a way to lower blood pressure, to help people with asthma breathe, to combat chronic chest pain, and generally to relax. Meditation has been used effectively to treat hypertension, anxiety, headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, and insomnia.
The art of contemplative thinking. It is used to control stress and improve relaxation, focus attention, and lower heart rate and blood pressure.
A way to bring about total relaxation, to slow down all mental processes until cares and strains are shed and inner peace is attained. Ideally, the mind becomes released from all disturbing memories of the past and from all worrying decisions to be made in the future, and is liberated into the present by staring into space and drifting. No drugs, alcohol, tranquilizers, anti¬ depressants, or sleeping pills are used. Advocates claim that stress-related conditions such as migraine and insomnia can be alleviated through meditation.
Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years in India and most of Asia, but was virtually unknown in the West until the 1960s, when it attracted popular attention with the growth in interest of Indian customs and music. The culture centered around the Beatles (an English pop group) and their guru, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who taught just one type of meditation, transcendental meditation (TM). The technique involves sitting twice a day for 20 minutes each, clearing the mind of all distractions through the repetition of a secret word, or mantra. Some 500 studies on meditation have been published since the mid-1970s; most of these relate to TM.
Meditation is a mental exercise that elicits the body’s relaxation response. The purpose of meditation is to gain control over one’s attention-to internally quiet down, allowing the individual to choose what to focus on and block out distracting thoughts.
Melanoma is a type of skin cancer that usually starts out as a dark wart or mole, has a tendency to metastasize, and may be fatal.
Stress-management technique used to gain control over one’s attention, clearing the mind and blocking out the stressors responsible for increased tension.
The practice of training the mind to concentrate on a solitary word or idea, resulting in lucid thinking and a decrease in anxiousness.
Focusing on an object, word, or concept to achieve a changed state of consciousness. In its most profound form, meditation can mirror a trance. Typically, it acts as a relaxing therapy, helping decrease stress and manage stress-related issues. Transcendental meditation (TM) is a popular meditation method in Europe and North America.