Meditation: What Does It Mean To You?
Meditation can take on many meanings, definitions, and practices. Let's take a look at how society can complicate a simple term.
The English word meditation is derived from the Old French, ( if that confuses you take a look at my Anglish blog) and in turn takes it from the Latin word which means to think, contemplate, devise, or ponder.
In popular usage, meditation is often used imprecisely to designate practices found across many cultures. These can include almost anything that is claimed to train the attention of the mind or teach calmness and compassion. Claudio Naranjo noted that the word meditation has been used to designate a variety of practices that differ enough from one another so that we may find trouble identifying what meditation really is.
There are several body postures and positions that are used when meditating. The most popular one is sitting cross-legged. But other postures such as sitting, laying or standing are also used. Some even meditate while walking.
Some recommend you should meditate for 20 minutes twice per day. Others suggest less time is beneficial when just starting out. Some find it best to meditate at the start of the day. I prefer to meditate in the evening, clearing my mind before going to sleep.
Through health studies, meditation has shown to lower the heart rate, lower oxygen consumption, helps breathing frequency, helps with stress hormones, lactate levels, and sympathetic nervous system activity. It also shows a modest decline in blood pressure.
There are many definitions, practices and techniques to meditation. To me meditation is clearing your mind and connecting you to the universe. Meditation has helped me enter into a higher state of consciousness, travel between dimensions, meet spirit guides and myself from the matrix of this society..
In future blogs I will start breaking down what meditations means to other cultures and how it was applied in ancient civilizations.
Meditation. What does it mean to you and how do you practice it?
By Michael Walters
The Ancestor's Fire
Writing the voices of the unheard
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