What happens when we are stressed? 

More Benefits of Meditation 

Below is a partial  list of benefits, as reported in the increasing number of research studies and also reported anecdotally. 

1. Decreases blood pressure and hypertension

2. Lowers cholesterol levels

3. Reduces production of stress hormones, including cortisol  

    and adrenaline

4. More efficient oxygen use by body

5. Increased production of the anti-aging hormone DHEA

6. Improved immune function

7. Decrease in anxiety

8. Decrease in depression

9. Helps with insomnia   

10. Greater ability to relax

11. Improved concentration   

12. Helps children and adults with ADHD   

13. Improved test scores for college students

14. Increased creativity.    

15. Greater psychological well-being  

Even the Mayo Clinic recommends meditation to help with such ailments as: asthma, cancer, heart disease, depression, anxiety, high blood pressure AND TO PREVENT DISEASE!  

Some Common Myths About Meditation 

1.  Meditation is Difficult.   Actually, meditation can be easy and certainly can be simple, as simple as focusing on one's breath, silently repeating a manta,  listening to a guided meditation...  And one can do it almost anywhere: at work, at the park, on a plane, in a car.  

     Many people who find it hard are (1) often attached to the results of the meditation (a "good meditation" versus a "bad meditation"), (2) trying too hard (3) unsure they are doing it correctly.  Learning meditation from a qualified and practiced teacher can help enormously. And finding a type of meditation that works for you can help.   

2. You must quiet your mind in order to have a successful meditation/meditation practice.    

This myth alone often  causes  people to give up meditating, which is why I gave it up long ago! Meditation cannot stop all of our thoughts. It is not designed to do that.  

What meditation does is provide us with the breath, a mantra, an image or some other object of attention that we use and go to when the thoughts or  "monkey mind" or "chatter" naturally arise. Thoughts in meditation are NORMAL! 

So what are we doing when we meditate? Many meditation traditions might  respond by saying something like this:   In between our thoughts, there is Silence. There is a Gap. As we dip into that Gap, our body/mind/spirit is nourished and refreshed. As counter-intuitive as it may seem, even though the time spent in the Silence/Gap may only be seconds and at times imperceptible, it is still happening AND we still benefit.  

Note: Alot of people aren't even aware that they are having all these thoughts, so discovering how busy their mind is is a huge step toward greater awareness of the Self.   

3.  It takes years of dedicated practice to receive any benefits from meditation.  

The research by Dr. Lazar alone disproves this idea. Within 8 weeks,  16 newly-trained meditators received significant benefits in their brains, let alone the other benefits they received during their days.  

4.  I don't have enough time to meditate. In our busy and driven Western world, it is hard to fight this perception. But consider this:  The state of restful alertness -- meditation -- is extremely refreshing for the body and mind. And it is often noted that as people stick to a meditation ritual/practice, they often accomplish more during their day.  

    But if you feel your schedule is too full, a few minutes of meditation is better than none!  Try five, and add one minute more each week?  

5.  Meditation is a spiritual or religious practice.   Meditation requires no spiritual or religious beliefs. Atheists meditate. Agnostics meditate. The breath has no religious affiliation! Neither does walking, nor focusing on a candle or learning to be mindful! It is true that some meditation schools of thought are spiritually oriented. If this concerns you, pick a kind of meditation that works for you.  

6.  I am supposed to have a transcendent experiences in meditation. This does happen to some, but I don't think that this is the norm, the normal experience day after day. The real benefits of meditation are what happens in the other hours of the day as we go about our daily life.        

What kind of meditation should I engage in?   

For the purposes of this newsletter I have spoken about meditation as if it were one thing... but in reality there are all different kinds of meditation. A whole world! Here is a small sampling:    

• Breath meditation
• Mantra meditation
• Chanting meditation.
• Mindfulness meditation
• T'ai Chi, Qi Gong, Yoga 
• Guided mediation  
• Heart-based meditation

There is no one-size-fits-all, although some traditions are more well-known than others. For example:Tibetan Buddhism, Vipassana/Mindfulness, Transcendental Meditation.  For me, I chose Transcendental Meditation because I have been curious about TM for 30 years (Deepak Chopra)   

A few last thoughts on getting started....   

1. Take a class. There are many classes available in the Ann Arbor area. Google it. Google  Crazy Wisdom Journal, which has a partial list of meditation classes available in Ann Arbor area.   

    A class will give you a structure and fellow students, and a teacher who is then available to answer your questions and to normalize your experience.    

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