Meditation

I am a student that attends high school and is taking this psychology course. I am intrigued with the mind and enjoy learning about it. I picked the topic on relaxation and meditation because it is involved with the mind more than any other topic and I thought it would be interesting to see if meditation actually relaxes the mind. Now, what is meditation? Meditation can be considered a technique, or practice. It usually involves concentrating on an object, such as a flower, a candle, a sound or word, or breath. Over time, the number of random thoughts occurring

diminishes. More importantly, your attachment to these thoughts, and your identification with them, progressively become less. What is the purpose of meditation? The purposes for which people meditate vary almost as widely as practices. Meditation may serve simply as a means of relaxation from a busy daily routine; as a technique for cultivating mental discipline; or as a means of gaining insight into the nature of reality, or of communing with one's God. Its ritual and contemplative qualities are similar to prayer in Western religions, but prayer emphasizes communication with a higher being, whereas meditation focuses on developing oneself. Many report improved concentration, awareness, self-discipline and equanimity through meditation. Meditation has also been and still is a central practice in eastern religions, for contacting "God" or one's higher self. Christianity also has semblances of meditation, such as the biblical statement "The kingdom of heaven is within you" and because of this churches have a meditative atmosphere. It is said that the more familiar our mind is with virtue, the calmer and more peaceful it becomes and when our mind is peaceful we are free from worries and mental discomfort. I did not have any experience with meditation prior to this assignment but I thought it was a very intriguing topic that I could learn a lot about. Although, most people in the world have already meditated. If you have relaxed looking at a beautiful sunset, allowing your thoughts to quiet down, this is close to meditation which is explained as being peaceful and a part of the meditation process. Therefore, I decided to test this idea that meditation relieves stress and leads towards a more peaceful life.

As my first resource, I watched a video by Jyotish Novak called Meditation Therapy For Stress And Change. This video helped me prepare for my meditation therapy. Novak states that if you have stress in your life meditation can be an immense help. He said to first release yourself from all baggage that you carry around from the past to the present, surround yourself with optimist people and you will live a happy life. He also states to do activities that uplift your mind, eat healthy, exercise regularly, go outdoors often, have enough rest and try deep breathing in times of pressure. In the final section of the video Novak teaches practical meditation techniques to use. The one I used was called the ‘deep yoga breath’. In this procedure you address yourself to a calm place where you feel at ease and breathe in slow, slowly bend over and gradually exhale. Then, straighten up yourself bringing your hands slowly along your body, over your head, hold your breath and lastly, exhale completely. Recommended, if you do this at least twice in a row you will feel relaxed and calm. I gradually tried some of these activities including the ’deep yoga breath’ technique and increased the number of times doing them certain days a week for six weeks. In my case, I’m not an optimist all the time so another approach I used to prepare myself was to not dwell on the negativity from my past and in my life right now. A few days later after I thought about the now rather than the past or future, I felt that I can get more accomplished taking things day by day. However, it did not erase the negativity in my life completely and I figured that to simply be called life. After that, each day for those six weeks I moderately ate breakfast in the morning, lunch in the afternoon, and dinner in the evening as part of a healthier diet. On Wednesdays before work, for the first two weeks, I went for a bike ride around my neighborhood. For the last three weeks, I went for a bike ride both Wednesdays and Fridays. I also went to the gym, which I haven’t gone in over a month, every Tuesday and Thursday for those six weeks. Considering I don’t participate in any sports that made me feel better about my health.