MEDITATION
The Link to Inner Peace, Tranquility and Conscious Awareness
The practice of meditation awakens you to the inner presence of God, putting you in touch with the divine desire to express through you limitlessly. Prayer enables you to carry God’s desire for unlimited expression through your consciousness and into your body and external affairs.
J. Douglas Bottorff
Sheila meditating by a waterfall on Mt. Shasta
Meditation is the attuning of the mental body and physical body to its spiritual Source. Meditation is the stilling of the chaos that perpetually involves itself in our human existence and the arrival at a definitive point of reference where we meet as one with God. It is the “click” as the cylinders in the safe which has locked away our Truth, fall into place and open the door to our spiritual existence. (Sheila Gautreaux-Lee, Praying Through a Storm)
In my travels presenting workshops on prayer and meditation, many people tell me that they pray every day but find it difficult to meditate. Some say they don't really understand meditation or how to get started. They pray, isn't that the same thing?
Prayer is a time of communion with God, where we are making our requests for guidance, forgiveness, healing, prosperity or just plain "help." We are talking to God.
Meditation is the time to allow God to give us the insights and inspiration for realizing that "help." We fall into God and simply listen and just "be" there.
Our lives today are so busy that we rarely find the time to simply "be." That is why the process of meditation is so helpful. Just 10 minutes of silent or guided meditation can give the experience of hours of rest.
Meditation is not only relaxing but also healing. Teachers of this ancient practice have been espousing the benefits of meditation for thousands of years. Now science and the medical community are discovering and supporting the power of meditation in helping people heal.
The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine tells us that:
Meditation for health purposes is a mind-body practice in complementary and
alternative medicine (CAM). . . Meditation can be practiced for various reasons—for example, with an intent to increase physical relaxation, mental calmness, and psychological balance; to cope with one or more diseases and conditions; and for overall wellness.
People use meditation for various health problems, such as: Anxiety, Pain, Depression, Mood and self-esteem problems, Stress, Insomnia, and Physical or emotional symptoms that may be associated with chronic illnesses and their treatment, such as: Cardiovascular (heart) disease, HIV/AIDS, and Cancer.
Meditation is also used for overall wellness. A large national survey on Americans’ use of CAM, released in 2004, found that nearly 8 percent of the participants had used meditation specifically for health reasons during the year before the survey.
Practicing meditation has been shown to induce some changes in the body, such as changes in the body’s “fight or flight” response. The system responsible for this response is the autonomic nervous system (sometimes called the involuntary nervous system). It regulates many organs and muscles, including functions such as the heartbeat, sweating, breathing, and digestion, and does so automatically.
Scientific research is using sophisticated tools to learn more about what goes on in the brain and the rest of the body during meditation, and diseases or conditions for which meditation might be useful. There is still much to learn in these areas. One avenue of research is looking at whether meditation is associated with significant changes in brain function. A number of researchers believe that these changes account for many of meditation’s effects.
www.nccam.nih.gov/health/meditation/meditation.pdf
In an article for Psychology Today, Colin Allen writes:
Maybe meditation isn't so mysterious after all. Neuroscientists have found that meditators shift their brain activity to different areas of the cortex - brain waves in the stress-prone right frontal cortex move to the calmer left frontal cortex. This mental shift decreases the negative effects of stress, mild depression and anxiety. There is also less activity in the amygdala, where the brain processes fear.
The brain waves of meditators show why they're healthier. Neuroscientists have found that meditators shift their brain activity to different areas of the cortex—brain waves in the stress-prone right frontal cortex move to the calmer left frontal cortex. In other words, they were calmer and happier than before.
Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, recorded the brain waves of stressed-out employees of a high-tech firm in Madison, Wisconsin. The subjects were split randomly into two groups, 25 people were asked to learn meditation over eight weeks, and the remaining 16 were left alone as a control group.
All participants had their brain waves scanned three times during the study: at the beginning of the experiment, when meditation lessons were completed eight weeks later and four months after that. The researchers found that the meditators showed a pronounced shift in activity to the left frontal lobe. In other words, they were calmer and happier than before. The study will be published in the next issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.
Psychology Today, April 24, 2003
Article ID: 2716
There are many types of meditation and many ways to meditate. You may meditate to some type of serene instrumental music or simply sit in the silence and focus on your breath as it enters and leaves the body.
In one type of meditation, Vipassana ("to see things as they really are"), you focus on the tip of the nostrils and the breath as it moves in and out at that point. This is also referred to as
"awareness" because it brings your awareness to what is happening in the present moment. Each time your mind begins to wander, you simply bring your focus back to that point. The more you practice this, the better you get and the easier it is to stay focused on the breath. It is also helpful to breathe audibly to keep your focus steady.
Meditating to beautiful music can be a powerful experience as long as the music is supportive and not intrusive. There are now thousands of CDs and Downloads available of what is referred to as New Age music. Artists such as Shajan, Chuck Wild, Aeoliah, Merlins' Magic and Anugama. The song you hear on our web site, Sounds Into Silence by Merlin's Magic, is one such example. There are many, many more. It is not a good idea to meditate to music with vocals unless it is a guided meditation.
Guided Meditation is a type of meditation where someone who is speaking in a modulated tone, gently guides you through a process of getting into a relaxed state and keeping you there with well-chosen words, phrases and descriptions of peaceful images. Many times there is instrumental music playing in the background. It is important that you choose guided meditations where the guide is not constantly talking, but where you are given sacred pauses between words or phrases and also allowed to have some time in the silence for personal reflection or receiving inner guidance.
On my CD of guided meditations Light Visions I was blessed to have Master Percussionist, Michael Bayard, providing organic background music aligned with my long history of facilitating guided meditations, which morphed into a powerful composition many people enjoy meditating to. The CD is also recorded at Theta level to take the listener deeper into the meditative state. To purchase Light Visions, visit our Store.
Whatever path to meditation you choose will be the absolute perfect one for you. There is no wrong way to meditate as long as you are experiencing the Presence of Divine Spirit and feeling peaceful, calm, renewed, refreshed and revitalized.
At Spirit Awakened, we want you to have an opportunity to experience this powerful process. By clicking on the link below, I will guide you through a brief meditation that will help you begin your day peacefully and carry you through the rest of the day poised and centered in your own divine consciousness. Of course, you may listen to this meditation at any time of the day or even at night before you go to sleep.
If you would like more meditations, go to our Store where you will find CDs for purchase.
Click "play" button for Meditation
Music: "Spheres of the Angels" Track 1 from Healing Touch by Shajan. Available from iTunes.
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