Practice Mindful Meditation for Better Health

The health benefits of meditation, whether secular or spiritual, have long been recognized in the East, and now these benefits have successfully been tested in the rigors of the scientific community with excellent results. More and more peer reviewed research on meditation confirms that it is a viable method of improving health and psychological/emotional well being, helping with issues ranging from cardiovascular disease, inflammation, immune activity, to pain, anxiety, depression, mental imbalances, and more.

As a relaxation technique, meditation offers many benefits, and it is well known in the medical world that reduction of stress improves the condition of many disease states and helps to greatly reduce health risks related to physical, mental and emotional overload. Risk factors for a multitude of diseases including life threatening heart disease and stroke have been improved with the regular use of meditation as a balancing and strengthening self-care modality.

The benefits of meditation are most noticeable when it is practiced on a regular, preferably daily, basis. The most important thing to remember is to start out at a pace that is reasonable for you, say, 10 minutes every evening before bed. If you place a lofty goal of meditating for two hours every morning, and are unable to reach it, it is very easy to give up, and as they say in Buddhism, your mind is always looking for an excuse to avoid meditation. Commanded by our egos, the resistance of our hyper-active minds to the gradual and gentle quieting influence of our natural inner calm, our true essence, is one of the greatest challenges to a successful commitment to meditation.

By gaining control over this hyper-reactive mind state through the gentle discipline of a budding meditation practice, we can experience greater and more profound access to our natural inner essence, leading to increased awareness and a more profound experience of being. The health benefits that this expanded depth of experience can provide are numerous, but most often they are marked by a greater mental and emotional stability, and a balancing and strengthening of our physical energy. For more insight on meditation and its healing effects, visit www.DrEliaz.org.