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**Nightmare** · 04-02-2006, 10:25 AM

Until recently the word "Meditating" only caused things like raised eyebrows, ideas of magical tricks and even feelings of irritation with most people.
What many people do not realise is that Meditating deals with mental power and selfcontrol. People use Meditation to enjoy life better because they become more aware of things and more relaxed. People use Meditation to live less on the "automatic pilot", to live more in the NOW, in the present moment and to be more observant. Life is great, but we must learn to appreciate that. In our present society where life becomes busier and busier, our brain has to deal with a constant flood of impressions and we experience an increased longing for relaxation and rest. Meditation can help us a lot with this and it is no surprise that of late it has become trendy to meditate.
Meditating is any technique which enables us to relax our body and our mind and, besides, to free our mind of unnecessary thoughts and brainactivity.
Meditating is not an end in itself or a special experience, but just a very
efficient technique which helps us to control our mind and to relax our body. In general any form of Meditation rests on the following three principles: In order to concentrate our mind we focus on one thing or object. This focus could be our breathing, a word that we repeat, sensations in our body or even our thoughts. When Meditating we often concentrate on our senses. When we smell, feel, listen or taste we escape from our puzzling thoughts and we live again in the now.
When our thoughts start to wander we take them back to our object of
Meditation or focus. We do not try to hide our thoughts or suppress them. Fighting to bring rest to our mind has nothing to do with relaxing. The whole process looks like focussing a camera on an object. The object comes to the fore and all other things are present but they disappear into the background. Every time we are distracted by objects in the background we again focus on our object in the foreground. This process may be repeated an endless number of times during a Meditation session.
During our Meditating we ignore all irrelevant thoughts and sensations.
When we meditate we still hear the sound of passing traffic, we still feel
yesterday's hangover, we still think of the jobs we will have to do tomorrow, etc. The big difference is that these distractions do not disturb us any longer. During our Meditation we try not to judge, not to draw conclusions or to think of trivial matters. We accept the present moment as it is.
Meditating differs from other forms of relaxation in the sense that during
Meditation we are more awake, more alert and better focussed. We are relaxed and still alert. Research has proved that the longer we keep practising Meditation the more we become basically relaxed. At the same time we also become more observant and more aware, something that other ways of relaxation do not achieve because they do not train our powers of concentration. Therefore we should not confuse Meditating with a dream, with sleep or a state of trance, for with such activities we are not concentrated and alert, but during Meditation we are.
During Meditation we focus on what happens now, at this very moment. Every thought has by definition to do with the past or the present and diverts us from what is happening NOW. When we focus we give our mind but one single demand. Because we only have to deal with one command this costs us little trouble and little energy. We are not faced with an emergency or a stressful situation and therefore our body and our mind can start to relax. As we are relaxed we can enjoy our experiences in a more conscious way and we get more aware in everything we do. Think of what this can mean for all the beautiful moments of your life and how intensely you can enjoy nice hobbies and simple things like pleasant moments. You will admit that all the best moments of your life take place when you are not thinking, but experiencing and thus are living the
present moment.

Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., a pioneer in the field of mind/body medicine, defines Meditation as any activity that brings us to the present and keeps us there.
The methods of Meditation we can also easily practice in our daily lives.
Meditating teaches us to become more aware and more observant, so that we spend more and more time in the NOW and the quality of our life improves. We achieve our end by simply BEING and not by doing something. That is the essence of Meditation.

04-02-2006, 10:25 AM	#2 (permalink)
Nightmare Golden Poster ++ Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: The deep south Nightmare is a glorious beacon of light!! My Mood:	What is Meditation? Until recently the word "Meditating" only caused things like raised eyebrows, ideas of magical tricks and even feelings of irritation with most people. What many people do not realise is that Meditating deals with mental power and selfcontrol. People use Meditation to enjoy life better because they become more aware of things and more relaxed. People use Meditation to live less on the "automatic pilot", to live more in the NOW, in the present moment and to be more observant. Life is great, but we must learn to appreciate that. In our present society where life becomes busier and busier, our brain has to deal with a constant flood of impressions and we experience an increased longing for relaxation and rest. Meditation can help us a lot with this and it is no surprise that of late it has become trendy to meditate. Meditating is any technique which enables us to relax our body and our mind and, besides, to free our mind of unnecessary thoughts and brainactivity. Meditating is not an end in itself or a special experience, but just a very efficient technique which helps us to control our mind and to relax our body. In general any form of Meditation rests on the following three principles: In order to concentrate our mind we focus on one thing or object. This focus could be our breathing, a word that we repeat, sensations in our body or even our thoughts. When Meditating we often concentrate on our senses. When we smell, feel, listen or taste we escape from our puzzling thoughts and we live again in the now. When our thoughts start to wander we take them back to our object of Meditation or focus. We do not try to hide our thoughts or suppress them. Fighting to bring rest to our mind has nothing to do with relaxing. The whole process looks like focussing a camera on an object. The object comes to the fore and all other things are present but they disappear into the background. Every time we are distracted by objects in the background we again focus on our object in the foreground. This process may be repeated an endless number of times during a Meditation session. During our Meditating we ignore all irrelevant thoughts and sensations. When we meditate we still hear the sound of passing traffic, we still feel yesterday's hangover, we still think of the jobs we will have to do tomorrow, etc. The big difference is that these distractions do not disturb us any longer. During our Meditation we try not to judge, not to draw conclusions or to think of trivial matters. We accept the present moment as it is. Meditating differs from other forms of relaxation in the sense that during Meditation we are more awake, more alert and better focussed. We are relaxed and still alert. Research has proved that the longer we keep practising Meditation the more we become basically relaxed. At the same time we also become more observant and more aware, something that other ways of relaxation do not achieve because they do not train our powers of concentration. Therefore we should not confuse Meditating with a dream, with sleep or a state of trance, for with such activities we are not concentrated and alert, but during Meditation we are. During Meditation we focus on what happens now, at this very moment. Every thought has by definition to do with the past or the present and diverts us from what is happening NOW. When we focus we give our mind but one single demand. Because we only have to deal with one command this costs us little trouble and little energy. We are not faced with an emergency or a stressful situation and therefore our body and our mind can start to relax. As we are relaxed we can enjoy our experiences in a more conscious way and we get more aware in everything we do. Think of what this can mean for all the beautiful moments of your life and how intensely you can enjoy nice hobbies and simple things like pleasant moments. You will admit that all the best moments of your life take place when you are not thinking, but experiencing and thus are living the present moment. Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., a pioneer in the field of mind/body medicine, defines Meditation as any activity that brings us to the present and keeps us there. The methods of Meditation we can also easily practice in our daily lives. Meditating teaches us to become more aware and more observant, so that we spend more and more time in the NOW and the quality of our life improves. We achieve our end by simply BEING and not by doing something. That is the essence of Meditation.