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Meditation tips
There's no right way or wrong way to meditate, according to physicians at the Mayo Clinic.
Meditation can be as formal or informal as you like, last a few minutes or an hour, once or twice a day. It's up to you.
Just remember not to be too hard on yourself -- everyone's mind wanders -- and it takes time to develop a meditation practice.
Here are suggestions from the clinic some meditation techniques:
Breathe deeply. Focus on feeling and listening as you breathe through your nose. When your attention wanders, gently bring it back.
Scan your body. Focus on different parts of your body and be aware of sensations like pain, tension, warmth or relaxation.
Repeat a mantra. Create your own word or phrase or borrow one from a religious tradition.
Try walking. Seated meditation is not for everyone. Try walking and meditating by slowing your pace and concentrating on each movement of your legs and feet. Don't focus on a destination.
Engage in prayer. Use your own words or a written prayer from any spiritual tradition that is meaningful to you.
Read and reflect. Poems, essays or sacred texts may be used. Writing can be part of your meditation. Listening to music is another possibility.
Focus on love and gratitude. Concentrate on a person or object and the feelings they inspire in you.
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Someone you know meditates.
Almost four out of 10 adults do, according to a recent Pew survey.
They say it helps them cope with anxiety, pain, depression, stress and insomnia. Meditation improves their ability to think clearly, focus their attention and face difficult situations with greater peace and calm.
For some, meditation is a spiritual practice. It's part of almost every religious tradition. But for a growing number of Americans, meditation is not a matter of faith as much as it's a fact of life.
"People are really hungry for something that isn't religiously based," says Caren Prentice. "Either they have a religion and they're happy with it or, if they don't have one, they're happy that they don't."
"Meditation is not about religion it all," she says. "It helps us calm down, to find an oasis. That moment of calm, that fresh breath, can carry you throughout the day."
Prentice teaches meditation having studied it from a number of perspectives, many spiritual, but settled on her own eclectic approach about five years ago.
Prentice says. In a given meditation class, she may use a Buddhist technique or one she learned in a yoga session, but the essence is the same: gently reminding the mind, over and over, to come back to the present.
"Meditation keeps us in the moment so we become less reactive, less emotional, less judgmental," she says. "That simple little action is the key."
Brant Rogers, who teaches meditation, approaches the practice from a scientific perspective.
He'd practiced Buddhist meditation in Thailand and taken yoga classes in the United States, but it was meeting Jon Kabat-Zinn at Seattle's Eliot Bay Book Company that made Rogers a true believer.
Kabat-Zinn used scientific language to describe meditation and measure how it affected the brain and body.
"He stripped away the historical, religious and cultural language surrounding meditation and called it mindfulness," says Rogers, who completed the course Kabat-Zinn developed called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. Now Rogers teaches an eight-week MBSR course himself.
More than 18,000 people have taken the MBSR training, according to the
Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine.
Emphasizing mindfulness, the ability to focus on what is happening now in one's life, the course teaches individuals to work consciously and systematically with their everyday stress, pain, fatigue and even illnesses.
"We live in such a busy society, so bombarded by media and access to phones, computers, e-mail and all of that. Meditation gives you a quiet moment in your day to help you reflect. You give that moment to yourself."
Meditation also opens people up to joy they might otherwise miss, according to Donald Altman, a licensed professional counselor in West Linn, whose new book is titled:
"The Joy Compass."
He lays out seven kinds of meditation, depending on personal learning styles: whether one is drawn to sight, sound, movement, the natural world, etc.
An interactive primer on Mindfulness and meditation:
http://prezi.com/uzxlufuhqpae/mind-mechanics-mindf...
A succinct introduction to Insight Meditation (Vipassana):
https://www.facebook.com/notes/buddhist-humor/your...
and the *direct* neural benefits from meditating:
http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2012/06/22/11-hour...
Meditation -- spiritual or not -- calms storm-tossed lives | OregonLive.com
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