Here’s a really good question…why do people meditate? To get the answer, welcome to the modern world – a world of stress, tensions, hectic lifestyles, multi-tasking, constant media exposure, never-ending desires, demanding kids, competitive work environment, relationships, blah, blah, and blah. Where’s your peace of mind?

You might have imagined how those charming Hollywood stars and other big personalities manage to look oh-so-cool in spite of their busy schedules and media paparazzi hounding them! Well, mediation is the secret to their balanced professional and personal lives. If they can improve their life through mediation, why can’t you?

Top 10 Reasons To Meditate

If you are still curious as to why people meditate, then here are 10 good reasons. These reasons are not out-of-this-world. They are a way of life of today’s generation and many of them might be familiar to you.

• To alleviate stress and attain deep relaxation.
• To mitigate pain, either physical or emotional, that arises out of tension. This includes headaches.
• To decrease anxiety attacks by reducing blood lactate levels.
• To enhance serotonin production. Serotonin controls mood and behavior. When its levels are low, people tend to get depressed, become insomniacs, obese, or suffer from headaches.
• To assist in weight loss.
• To help drug users break their addictions.
• To strengthen the immune system. Medical studies have proved that meditation enhances natural killer cell activity that wipes out cancer cells and other deadly viruses.
• To increase self-esteem and motivation levels.
• To improve relationships.
• To discover inner peace and happiness.

The Benefits Of Doing Meditation

Meditation helps to get rid of random thoughts floating in your mind. It calms your mind leading to more productive results and increased zest for life. You are able to concentrate better and on more important things of life and not get bogged down by unnecessary worries and anxieties.

As you meditate on a regular basis, you will realize that you have become more focused on your goals, be it at the workplace or at home. There will also be a change in your behavior, thus, improving the way you deal with people around you. Meditation is the key to stress management. And once you are free of stress, you almost get a new life!

Doctors have also recorded physiological effects of meditation on people practicing meditation regularly. The effects are reduced pulse rate, lowered blood pressure, lowered metabolic rate, and alterations in levels of serum of different substances.

In addition to the above bodily effects, you achieve an in-depth understanding of your own self. This is because, during meditation, you get to scrutinize thoughts hovering in your mind. You get close to your subconscious that guides you towards knowing who you are and what your purpose of life is. In short, people who mediate are happy!

Now that you have got the answer to “why do people meditate”, isn’t it time you started meditation too?

I hope you found this article helpful! To discover how to create a meditation garden that will be your own private haven of peace, and to uncover how to ingrain the four noble truths of buddhist meditation, please go to: http://www.OnlineMeditationGuru.com/

Author: David Barrett
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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In this article, I’ll tell you how I discovered the secrets of Core Energy Meditation(TM). I’ll describe the roots and development of this technique so you’ll understand how and why it works. This information will help you use Core Energy Meditation(TM) to realize your ideal possibilities.

The more you know about something, the more you believe in it, and the better it will work for you.

Core Energy Meditation(TM) is designed to:
· Relax your body and boost your energy,
· Release negative emotions and increase your positive feeling,
· Clear and focus your mind, and
· Strengthen your sense of spiritual connection and life purpose.

Core Energy Meditation(TM) empowers you to shift your state of being and it gives you skills that will help you in all areas of your life. These include the ability to relax, concentrate, observe and detach from limiting thoughts and feelings, visualize, feel, and sense your inner guidance. As you develop these skills, you’re better able to know “who you are,” “what you’re here to do,” and how to manifest that in the world now.

Core Energy Meditation(TM) is rooted in the energetic anatomy of qigong, the philosophy of Taoism and Kriya Yoga, the latest research in physics, biofeedback, and HeartMath(TM), and my interactions with countless teachers and students. From this complex web, Core Energy Meditation emerged as a universal and comprehensive system for personal growth and spiritual development. It is the most powerful transformational tool that I have found.

Beginnings

My journey with Core Energy Meditation began in the summer of 1984. I had just graduated from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia and I was inspired by the idea of going on a backpacking trip out west. I was definitely a city-boy and hadn’t done anything in the way of backpacking and had never been beyond the Mississippi.

For the month of August that year, I took a trip by car and foot through Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Wyoming. I explored the Canyonlands, the Grand Canyon, and Yellowstone National Park. What struck me most on that trip was the clear spacious sky (you can see for miles in that part of the country), the quiet, and the stillness. I absorbed those three qualities during that month.

I can remember quite distinctly what I felt as I sat on the plane flying home. I had an overwhelming feeling of contentment. I was completely peaceful, my mind was still, and I felt no attachment to anything. I was free. Out of that transcendent experience three things came clear:
1. I discovered that such a state was possible,
2. I found that I needed to take a break from my busy-ness to arrive at that state, and
3. I wanted to stay in that state and find ways to reproduce it, deepen it, and expand it.

Coming back from my trip, I was in a new position of readiness to learn and grow. I was on the lookout for how to make that transcendent experience a part of my life. About a week after I returned a continuing education catalog arrived in the mail. Browsing through it, I came upon a class called T’ai Chi, a teacher named Andrew Heckert, and Secret #1.

Secret #1

I began T’ai chi that Fall of 1984.

In T’ai Chi I learned to relax deeply and sense my internal energy. I began to learn about energetic anatomy and about daily practice. I discovered that, by doing something a little every day, I could learn a completely new skill and shift my life experience. I learned the first secret of mind-body training-the lower dantian, an energy center in my lower abdomen. T’ai chi taught me to focus on the lower dantian as a way to re-orient and develop my awareness. I learned to practice lower dantian breathing and to be more present and aware internally and externally.

I discovered that the lower dantian was part of an intricate set of energy centers, accupoints, and paths or meridians that circulated life-energy throughout my body. T’ai chi recognizes three main energy centers, the lower dantian or Body Center ( in the lower abdomen), the middle dantian or Heart Center (in the center of the chest), and the upper dantian or Mind Center (in the center of the brain). T’ai chi focuses on the abdominal energy center, the Body Center, to build presence and vitality.

I pursued the study of T’ai chi and the related practice of qigong meditation for the next twenty-five years. Through these practices, I learned to be aware of my posture and let go of tension. I learned to sense, gather, move, and store vital energy. I learned Secret #1: lower dantian breathing.

Secret #2

In 1998, a book called “The HeartMath Solution” was published. Though I had been exposed to heart-centered training in other disciplines, HeartMath hit the nail on the head. In HeartMath I discovered extensive research and solid practices for training the power of the heart. HeartMath research demonstrates that the electro-magnetic energy field of your heart is by far the strongest field generated in your body. It is up to 5000 times stronger than the field generated by your brain.

Furthermore, by generating core heart feelings in the space of your heart, you can dramatically shift your experience to the positive. Core heart feelings such as appreciation, gratitude, and trust bring your heart, your physiology, and your brain into synergy, so that your whole system works together. Your brain waves slow down, your heart-rate becomes more coherent, your respiration deepens, your digestion and immune response improves, and you have a general sense of positivity and well-being. You can learn to self-generate this state and use it to release negative emotions and solve challenges in your life.

Focus on your Heart Center with core heart feelings enables you to shift your energetic vibration to a positive state at will. This is Secret #2.

Secret #3

In 1994, I began training in the Reiki system of self-healing. During an initiation ceremony for this practice, I experienced a tingling sensation in the center of my brain. Over the course of the day, this tingling became stronger and stronger. It was as if the center of my brain, and then my upper brain, lit up with energy. To this day, whenever I focus on the center of my brain, that energetic sensation is there immediately. My Reiki instructors said that I was experiencing the opening of my higher brain centers, but they didn’t have much more to say about it, so I began to investigate the meaning of this event.

In 1997, I was leafing through a magazine when I came upon an ad for a book by Roy Eugene Davis, a teacher in the Kriya Yoga tradition. The book was called “Seven Practices for Conscious Living.” I felt a strong pull toward this book, like the feeling I had when I first saw the ad for T’ai chi. I knew this was something I needed to explore.

The Kriya Yoga tradition is a wholistic practice in that it involves your mind, body, energy system, diet, and meditation. However, the emphasis in Kriya Yoga practice is on developing the upper brain centers, the Mind Center. The fruit of Kriya Yoga practice is calming the nervous system and opening clear awareness. In that clear awareness you come to understand that you are an expression of the One Life that we all share.

In 2008, I discovered how to fine-tune the cues to develop the Mind Center. Dr. Les Fehmi of the Princeton Biofeedback Institute had found that through Open-Focus training you can develop an inner sense of space, silence, and timelessness which facilitates your experience of open, clear, spacious awareness. This diffuse immersed style of attention relieves stress and clears your Mind Center quickly and efficiently.

Through Reiki, Kriya Yoga, and Open-Focus training, I discovered how to energize, clear, and focus the Mind Center. This is Secret #3.

Secret #4

As a result of these journeys into the first three secrets, I was left with three distinct practices, each of which developed one aspect of my being. What I was looking for was a practice that tied it all together, that developed and integrated all three at once.

So I began to work these three practices into a logical sequence. I did qigong breathing to strengthen the vital energy of my Body Center, generated core heart feelings in my Heart Center, and focused into a sense of open, clear, spacious awareness in my Mind Center. To connect them together, I focused on a Central Channel running vertically through my body that connected these three. Opening and clearing this Central Channel is Secret #4.

As I was having good personal success with this sequence, I looked for a model to explain and teach it to others.

In Qigong, there was the energetic map of three energy centers and the Central Channel that connected them, but no formal practice which simply and directly worked this pattern. I realized that what I had discovered was an ideal way to work with the qualities of each energy center and a way to connect them through the Central Channel. Each of these features of your energetic anatomy adds a quality, a dimension to your energetic vibration: the Body Center adds strength and vitality, the Heart Center adds positive emotion, the Mind Center adds clarity, and the Central Channel adds coherence by connecting the energy centers together, so that you function as a synergistic whole.

As I worked this inner energetic template, I found myself expanding and integrating. I felt whole and well. I now had one practice that addressed each aspect of my being and integrated them energetically. Because this energetic template represents the core of who we are, I called the practice Core Energy Meditation(TM). In Core Energy Meditation you become aware of these four dimensions of your being and learn to use the sensing qualities of these four energetic features to guide your life. Through this practice you discover “who you are” and are able to discern “what you are here to do now.”

Daily Practice

The key to personal transformation is attentive daily practice. While you will likely feel relaxed and more at peace after a single practice session, significant and enduring transformation are the result of consistent practice over an extended period time.

I’ve also come to understand that you need a clear, simple, effective method if you are going to practice consistently. Without a good method you won’t be able to focus your attention and get results. That is what Core Energy Meditation gives you-an efficient and effective way to develop your inner being. In as little as 20 minutes a day you can stimulate your growth as a whole person and improve the results you get in your life.

The second key to practicing daily is motivation. If you are going to do something every day, your “why” has to be strong. The final piece to this puzzle came together as I investigated my motivation for practicing.

Manifesting & the Law of Attraction

In order to understand why I was so passionate to discover the ideal meditation practice, I had to go back to my initial experiences on my trip out West. Back then, I was looking for a way to feel the vitality, well-being, freedom, and connection that I had experienced on that trip. I wanted a way to reproduce this experience at will, so that I could learn to live from that state. Intuitively, I knew that this was the key to realizing my ideal possibilities. Since then, I have learned the principle that explains why this is so.

In that past few years, “The Law of Attraction” has become a popular field of study. Basically, the Law of Attraction says that “energetic vibrations tend to attract like vibrations.” We have learned from “The Secret” and many other sources that the key to success in all areas of life is to shift our vibration to match that which we desire. In other words, minding your inner state is the foundation for realizing your ideal possibilities.

If you want prosperity, shift into prosperity consciousness, and prosperous circumstances flow more easily to you. If you want health, shift into a healthy inner state to promote healthy cells.

Core Energy Meditation(TM) enables you to shift into a strong, positive, clear, and coherent energetic vibration or what I call a Core Energy State. In this ideal state you connect deeply with “who you are” and “what you are here to do now” and you open yourself to receive that in your life. You release your personal limits and act with a greater sense of ease and purpose.

In the final stage of Core Energy Meditation(TM) you spend some time sensing, imagining, and feeling your ideal possibilities. You allow those possibilities to arise from the core of our being, you experience them as real here and now, and you listen for appropriate action.

Core Energy Meditation(TM) is a universal process to help you live the life you are meant to live. It will also enhance the effectiveness of any other therapy, personal growth technique, or spiritual practice.

To learn how to get started with Core Energy Meditation(TM) visit:

http://www.CoreEnergyMeditation.com

Kevin Schoeninger graduated from Villanova University in 1986 with a Master’s Degree in Philosophy. He is certified as a Reiki Master Teacher, Qigong Meditation Instructor, and Personal Fitness Trainer.

Kevin has worked with clients in the field of holistic fitness, meditation instruction, and spiritual growth for the past 27 years.

He is Editor of SpiritualGrowthMonthly.com and the author of the “Learn Qigong Meditation Home Study Program,” “The Power of Practice Program,” and the visionary novel, “Trackings: A Message for the Third Millenium.” Kevin is also the developer of Core Energy Meditation.

Kevin can be reached through his website: http://www.thepowerofpractice.com

Author: Kevin Schoeninger
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
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