meditation
Meditation is in the news these days. Oprah meditates. You see meditation and prayer rooms at airports. You read countless websites offering meditation classes. So whats the big deal?
Because it helps you do a whole lot better with your life
The pressure is driving us all nuts. Heart disease is the number one killer. It’s just unbelievable how much pressure there is these days. The kids are late for school but you’ve got to pop one e-mail out before you leave the house. Whose needs do you look after? Its sometimes a gut-wrenching choice. So where do we go for answers?
William Shakespeare said: Of all knowledge, the wise and good seek most to know themselves. <- click to tweet
So here are 5 reasons why meditation classes are a good idea. Learn to meditate!
- You will feel better. 15 to 20 minutes of meditation makes you feel better. There is no doubt about it. And it’s not only the chilling out that helps. If you do it regularly you gain an overlay of feeling good that gets you through the crises. Believe me, you will feel better.
- You will get your act together. What happens when you meditate is you have all these thoughts (and a decent meditation technique will teach you how to deal with these). And while you’re meditating it’s as if the day organises itself spontaneously for you. So you get saner. We’ve all got “stuff”. What happens during meditation is that stuff gets resolved. Spontaneously. So you will be less crazy if you meditate regularly.
- It gives you more energy. The research on meditation, Transcendental Meditation in particular, is quite unambiguous. The level of rest during Transcendental Meditation is about double what you gain during sleep, and deeper than that found during other forms of meditation. Deeper rest means more energy. Meditation will give you more energy.
- Its a break and it improves concentration and creativity. Everyone knows you are more productive and creative after a break. Trouble is, mostly we take a break and get hooked straight into some other work which uses the brain’s resources. Like reading a paper (bad news—no good for your mindset) or doing some filing (useful but still more of the same). So meditation as a form of structured break is a really good idea because you’re not doing anything. So the brain unwinds. This is got be a good idea. And it’s supported by science. There is a memory phenomenon known as the reminiscence effect. Ever had the experience of trying to remember someone’s name and it doesn’t come? So you let it go and go to bed and there it is halfway through the night the name pops up? So it is with meditation. The useful ideas float to the surface, ready for testing in the light of day.
- Your health improves. This is huge. Taken together, the scientific research on Transcendental Meditation suggests that regular meditators (meditating for more than five years regularly) have a health care expenditure of around half the general population. So this is a really good reason to meditate regularly. And a brand-new heart disease study finds a 48% reduction in the risk of death by heart disease or stroke.
So it would be a good idea to learn to meditate. Look for meditation classes near you. If you are in Joburg visit the Houghton TM Centre. If you’re out of town, there are countless books, articles, and YouTube videos purporting to teach you how to meditate. They contain mostly so-so advice. Hopefully you can find a Transcendental Meditation centre near you. This will give you the most systematic meditation classes and delivers the most proven benefits.
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