Defy Age Naturally

Clearing my headspace is not an option. If I want to live a vibrantly healthy life, I must have outlets such as yoga, meditation, and other headspace clearing activities. My mind can go off on one like there is not tomorrow. I notice that there are people I know that just seem to have a primarily uncluttered mind.

I am not one of these people. My mind can go from here (Brighton, England) to America, down to Australia and back through India in a matter of 2 seconds. Living in the present is not one of my natural skills.

And lately, due to a series of events, my mind has been even more active than usual. I have literally needed a holiday from my mind….and sitting on a beach in some tropical paradise just couldn’t do the trick as my headspace would have to come along with me.

I have a regular yoga practice that keeps my mind in check, but recent circumstances have required more…so I am back onto meditation. And I am happy to say that it is helping tremendously! I combine breathing meditation with scanning my body. I also like to listen to quantum mind power while I am at it…it definitely seems to make the meditation more profound. (Read more about Quantum Mind Power and how it has helped me)

Meditation Helps us Cope with Stress

A team of researchers from China and the University of Oregon have developed an approach for neuroscientists to study how meditation can improve a person’s attention and response to stress.

The study, done in China, randomly assigned college undergraduate students to 40-person experimental and control groups. The experimental group received five days of meditation training. The control group got five days of relaxation training.

Both groups took tests that assessed their attention and reaction to mental stress before and after their training.

The experimental group showed greater improvement than the control to dealing with stress, which was induced by mental arithmetic. Both groups initially showed elevated release of the stress hormone cortisol following the math task, but after the meditation, training the experimental group showed less cortisol release. This indicates a greater ability to cope with stress. The experimental group also showed lower levels of anxiety, depression, anger and fatigue than the control group.

And the study was only for five days. Imagine people who have been meditating for many years. I have meditated on and off for years and increasingly know that I need to carry on.

As my friend Mark said the other day… meditation is like training a puppy. You keep calling it back in the same way you keep calling your mind back to focus on the breath, body, mantra etc. If you keep doing it, eventually the puppy will come back straight away…or never leave. Currently my mind is in a puppy phase, but after only 4 days of ½ hour of meditation, I am feeling more clear and centred already!

Other Benefits of meditation include:

• Greater Health
• Ability to Control Your Own Thoughts
• Detachment
• Happiness and Peace of Mind
• Improved Concentration
• Spontaneity and Creativity
• Discovering Life Purpose, more life meaning

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• Quantum Mind Power…Meditation for Lazy People

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 12:33 pm and is filed under Brain/Mind Fitness, meditation.

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