A Beautiful Life A blog about anything and everything for a beautiful life.

Meditation is based on the latin word meditatio, which means consideration, pondering and contemplation. Meditation is a spiritual discipline, practiced since antiquity, whereby you attempt to move into a deeper state of conciousness and awareness. 

According to healthandyoga.com meditation provides a number of health benefits.  Some of these benefits are listed below:

• It lowers oxygen consumption.
• It decreases respiratory rate.
• It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate.
• Increases exercise tolerance in heart patients.
• Leads to a deeper level of relaxation.
• Good for people with high blood pressure as it brings the B.P. to normal.
• Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate.
• Decreases muscle tension (any pain due to tension) and headaches.
• Builds self-confidence.
• It increases serotonin production which influences mood and behaviour. Low levels of serotonin are associated with depression, obesity, insomnia and headaches.
• Helps in chronic diseases like allergies, arthritis etc.
• Reduces Pre-menstrual Syndrome.
• Helps in post-operative healing.
• Enhances the immune system. Research has revealed that meditation increases activity of 'natural-killer cells', which kill bacteria and cancer cells.
• Also reduces activity of viruses and emotional distress.

According to Dr Oz, "meditation seems to the release of melatonin to soothe your body (and protect your own tissue-friendly stem cells)." and can help you sleep.  So why not igve it a try today?

How do you meditate?
This video by Deepak Chopra on Dr Oz's website provides a good introduction to meditation.  Another good resource to review is healthandyoga.com's How To Meditate Guide.