All traditions and cultures talk about living spiritually. There are so many theories and writings on spirituality that a common man gets confused. Spirituality is a way of living your normal daily life in synchronisation with the laws of the Universe, doing your ordinary, everyday activities in a spiritual manner, living in present. Forgetting the bad memories of the past and leaving aside the worries of the future. The only way to achieve this is to cultivate spirituality and follow spiritual disciplines in your daily life, that include prayers, meditation, chanting, breathing exercises, and rituals. Though you may see that a fully aware and conscious spiritual person is not following any of these rules yet they are required until a certain level of awareness is attained. Few simple things can help you understand meditation in a better way.
Join a Prayer or Meditation group
Spiritual development is the growth of a person as a whole. For that one needs to focus on all aspects of daily life. As physical and breathing exercise are necessary for keeping the body fit, prayer is a basic requisite for keeping the mind fit. In fact your every thought is a prayer, but for beginners praying with complete focus and awareness helps to climb the higher steps. Modern day psychiatrists also believe that one can be uplifted spiritually if he prays regularly. Praying, joining prayer and meditation groups, attending gatherings of like-minded believers helps in creating better communication with the higher power that governs the Universe.
Share your Skills
Sharing and helping spreads love. It creates a harmony that is of paramount importance in spiritual development. One should offer his skills and time to help others. It is considered to be better than donating money in charities as it makes you humble and more generous. When the focus is on inner self, then the outer self automatically starts radiating positive energies that are emitting from the core of the heart. A person who wants himself to be uplifted spiritually should resolve to himself ‘Yes! I will Help’.
Be Healthier and Happier
The First Step – A few minutes of inward exploration of your self. This doesn’t relate to the physical body but to the subtle body, the mind, the soul. Explore who you are? Body, mind or soul. This inward exploration can be through prayers, meditation, introspecting one’s actions or by merely watching the breath going in and coming out.
For centuries Indian Saints have been propagating the benefits of meditation on health and well being of humans. Modern science has now started accepting it and trying to prove it. There are various clinical studies to prove that meditation has helped people stay healthier physically and mentally. Recovery from diseases, accidents and operations can also be faster in the people who follow meditation techniques.
Meditation slows down your breathing rate, blood pressure and heart rate. There is sufficient evidence to prove that meditation aids in the treatment of anxiety, depression, high blood pressure and other related ailments and makes one healthier. Cortex, the brain part that is associated with awareness, attention and emotions is found to be thicker in the people who meditate regularly. Studies suggest that certain brain regions that are used in meditation, grow, bringing about a positive change in the brain structure. This results in better functioning of the brain in worldly matters, making you healthy and happy.
Remedy for Emotional Outbursts
Scientific Studies have proved beyond doubt that meditation promotes detachment. Even labelling the emotions during meditation helps a lot. This is the same concept that our scriptures talk about ‘Being Sakshi’, being witness, the seer, watching all actions and emotions. Tests through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that is used to record and pinpoint the brain activity, found that assigning names to negative emotions turns down the intensity of activity. This emotion defusing ability of meditation is beneficial in providing relief in various psychosomatic illnesses. Insomnia is one them, that can be treated very effectively with ‘Samarpan Yog’ meditation techniques.
Treating Insomnia with Meditation
Be seated comfortably on floor or on a chair with your spine in an upright position. Relax your arms and bring your both hands together softly, thumbs touching each other on the tip, making the shape of a heart. Hands should be slightly above the waist. Close your eyes. Concentrate on the spine from top to bottom for 2 minutes. If your position is changed, again come back to the same alertness and make your spine upright. Experience that you are getting the positive energy from the earth and merging that energy with the energy from the heart, let your breath grasp that energy and flow freely inside your lungs. Watch breathing in and out. Follow inhalation and exhalation to the last point where it can be felt inside or outside you. Make inhalation and exhalation, the centre of your awareness for 5 minutes. Say to yourself, ‘I am present. I am not the past. I am not the future. I forget and forgive all that had happened in the past. I have no expectations from the future. I am the present. I am the present.’
Every cell of your body will absorb this breath and this feeling. Mind will start relaxing and experiencing the peace and calmness of the present. Now, you are in a perfect harmony with universe. Open your eyes softly and thank the Supreme Self for divine bliss and the present he has given you in the form of present.