What is Meditation?

Meditation is a form of mindfulness and has been practiced since antiquity. It is central to almost every method of self-cultivation, ancient and modern, Eastern and Western.

Meditation can be defined as a family of practices that train attention and awareness, usually with the aim of fostering psychological and spiritual well-being and maturity.

Meditation does this by training and bringing mental processes under greater voluntary control, and directing them in beneficial ways.

This control is used to cultivate specific mental qualities such as concentration
and calm, and emotions such as joy, love, and compassion. Through greater
awareness, a clearer understanding of oneself and one’s relationship to the world
develops. Additionally, it is held that a deeper and more accurate knowledge of
consciousness and reality manifests.

Most meditation methods* fall into 2 basic categories:

• Concentrative Meditation – Practicioner focuses on a single object, image, sound, mantra, or their breathing.
• Mindful Meditation – Practicioner doesn't focus on any one thing specificially; rather, they are mindful/aware of all thoughts, feelings, sounds, or images that enter and pass through your mind.

*Most forms of meditation help practitioners focus their attention and become more aware of their thoughts, feelings, and sensations by observing things without judging them.

Attributes and Benefits of Meditation

Over the past 10 years, an estimated 2,000+ studies have been done working with meditation. Today, meditation is recommended by virtually every domain of health professional throughout the world. Although we have learned a lot about this ancient practice, we are still waking up to some of the greatly beneficial mysteries surrounding this "universal medicine."

Prevailing science suggests that meditation has the capacity to evolve practitioners on virtually every level of the human experience.

Combination of attributes that make meditation truly unique:

• High levels of awareness, mental alertness - and very low levels of physiological arousal
• Utilize much less oxygen (whole night of sleep is equal to as much as 3 minutes of deep meditation)
• More blood to extremities
• Breathing slows
• Have more alpha and beta brain activity

Proven physical and psychological benefits:

• Lower cholesterol
• Curb insomnia
• Boost the immune system
• Reduce depression
• Relieve anxiety and compulsive behavior
• Alleviate stress levels
• Improve decision-making ability
• Enhance memory  
• Treat drug and alcohol abuse
• Lower high blood pressure
• Ease pain of arthritis
• Speed up the healing response
• Relieve digestive disorders
• Reduce symptoms of PMS and menopause

Benefits of meditating overtime (1+ years) include:

• Have a younger physiology (bio markers of aging are 5-12 years younger)
• Improvements in hearing
• Improvements in seeing
• Lower levels of cancer and heart disease
• Accelerated stages of development*

Stages of Development are major developmental markers over the span of someone's life, i.e. maturation. Most people go through only 5, 6, 7 stages; even well developed people. Someone who's really trying to grow and wake up to higher levels of development can maybe go through one stage in 5 years... meditators can go through 2 stages in as little as 2-3 years.
Meditation is the only technique that has been scientifically validated to accelerate this kind of vertical growth.

Ready to Try Meditation?

For those of you who have little or no experience with meditation, you will have to build up your “meditation muscles” so that you can meditate for any length of time. Many meditation practitioners recommend starting with 3-5 minutes per session and working up to at least 15-20 minutes.

It's important to meditate on a regular/daily basis. Meditation is no different than physical exercise in terms of development and maintenance, it takes consistency.

Regular practice of most types of meditation usually requires a quiet location; a specific, comfortable posture (lying, sitting, standing or walking); a focus of attention, such as the sensation of breathing or a word or phrase; and an openness to the experience, allowing thoughts to come and go naturally.

This article will help you with the basics: Getting Started With Meditation

After a successful meditation, your energy levels will rise similar to the increase in energy that caffeine produces. However, unlike caffeine, meditation doesn't make you crash after its effects subside, leaving you with inadequate energy levels.

When you create the right conditions you will tend to naturally go into a meditative state very quickly. Here are some suggestions:

• Try not to eat a big meal within an hour prior to meditating because a full stomach has the tendency to repress the relaxation of mind and body.

• Wear comfortable clothes and take off your shoes. Find a quiet place, turn off the cell, and dim the lights.

• If at all possible, use this same location every session. Over time you can actually condition that space to have a higher Gauge symmetry state, which activates the indwelling consciousness of that space (quantum physics stuff, more on this later).

• Sit with your back straight, legs crossed, and place a pillow underneath your buttocks so that your hips are elevated. Alternatively, you can sit upright in a chair.

• Remember not to put any kind of pressure on yourself for getting it right, you can't go wrong here... just relax and observe, that's all.

• Go beyond your thinking mind and rest in pure consciousness. This does not mean that you will have no thought, but rather that you will not be identified with the thoughts that arise.

• Whenever your mind wanders, it is no big deal and perfectly natural. Expect that it will happen and don't get frustrated when it does. Simply return to the aliveness of NOW, the present moment.

Coming soon...

OK, so we've been holding back... this is a just a taste of what's to come in the near future. The next evolution will be an eBook, which will expand upon the overview we just presented and include MUCH MORE information. It is scheduled to be released in a couple months. If you would like to get a free copy (for a limited time only), join our mailing list and we will reserve your copy and notify you when it becomes available. Just enter your email* below:

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