Meditation has had significant effects on many kinds of health related issues. Many scientific studies and the medical records of long term meditators  prove that meditation for healing can be a powerful tool in solving many health issues. This is why many non Buddhists are embracing meditation as a means to better health and life. Thousands of medical practitioners are now including meditation as part of the medication process that patients should undergo in order to recover from their health problems. In this article, you will discover the top three types of meditations that are used for healing and the top five benefits of meditation in a healing practice.

The Top 3 Types of Meditations Used for Healing

There are many types of meditations used for healing. However the top three are the chakra healing meditation, transcendental meditation and the Buddhist meditation. We shall look at them one after the other.

Chakra meditation

Many people believe that when the chakras are not properly aligned or when they are blocked, the blockage is manifested in the physical body as ill-health. The health problem will be noticed in the body area where the chakra that controls that area is blocked. Chakra meditation is used to re-align and clear any chakra that is blocked. One of the chakra meditations used to unblock the chakras is by visualizing a white light as it flows into your body. You will visualize it coming into your body, energizing each chakra and balancing and healing each chakra. After doing chakra meditation, many people discover that their symptoms of ill health normally go away after some time of consistent practice.

Transcendental meditation

Transcendental meditation has been practiced by many people and is reported to confer many health benefits after consistent practice. People who want to practice transcendental meditation enroll in a seven-step guided course. It basically involves sitting quietly and bringing thoughts that cause stress and anxiety under control. Transcendental meditators can withstand frustration and have more tolerance to every day challenges. Some of the health issues that have been taken care of by Transcendental meditation include high blood pressure, stress, anxiety, cardio vascular diseases and cancer.

Buddhist meditation

Buddhist meditation also has significant health benefits when used for healing. By sitting quietly in the proper posture your body gets aligned in the right way. When you concentrate and stay focused on your breathing, mantra or light, you take your mind away from your illness and refocus it on your meditation and positive thoughts. When done regularly, the practice helps to heal you from whatever health problems you may have.

Now that you have seen the top three types of meditation used for healing, let’s explore the top five benefits of a healing meditation practice.

The Top 5 Benefits of a Healing Meditation Practice

Healing meditation practice has many health benefits for people who practice them. The top five benefits include better overall health, lower medical expenses, balancing of the chakras, longer life span and greater achievements in life. Let’s explore how each of these benefits can help you.

Better overall health

Stress, anxiety and blood pressure are health problems that have been known to lead to so many other health problems. Meditation directly influences and balances these conditions. During a deep meditative state, your brain waves will be in alpha. This state affects the nervous system and other body functions and helps the body system to rejuvenate and reduce negative effects from your body. Regular meditation will eventually result in better health because stress, anxiety, panic and high blood pressure will hardly be associated with you again.

Balancing of the chakras

Most experienced meditators know that a balanced chakra system will always affect your overall quality of life. This is because your health, your relationship with others, your emotions and your relationship with God will always be at the peak when your chakras are balanced. Chakra healing meditation will help you to achieve total balance in all aspects of your life.

Lower medical expenses

Everyone knows that when you are not sick you will not pay medical expenses. When you don’t pay medical expenses you save money and use it for better things that will help you. This is one of the reasons why healing meditation is very helpful.

Longer life span

Sickness that is not well taken care of can result to protracted illness which can eventually kill anyone. This means people who should have lived longer will die before their time if they don’t manage their health properly. Healing meditation has been known to assist people to live longer because meditation helps the body to heal itself faster. When combined with medical help the results are a better and longer life span.

Greater achievements in life

Most people have dreams of the future but most people cannot fulfill their dreams because of one health condition or the other. Once you practice healing meditation regularly, you will find yourself in better health and you will be in a condition to achieve anything you want in life.

Meditation can truly help you achieve better health. You have seen the top three types of meditation that are used for healing and the top five benefits of healing meditation. This knowledge will help you to take meditation more seriously from now on.

Zen meditation is also known as zazen (za means sitting; zen means meditation) in Japanese and it is at the heart of Zen Buddhist practice. By sitting in a way that will enable one to concentrate on meditating for some time, Zen Buddhists have been known to experience calm in body and mind and gain enlightenment into our very existence and the nature of the universe. We tend to see the body, breath, and mind separately, but in zazen they come together as a whole.

Zen meditation allows the mind to relax and experience peace. The first thing to pay attention to is the position of the body in zazen. The correct seated position allows the body’s muscles to be correctly aligned so that unnecessary stress can be prevented. In order to get the most from your time in meditation it is best that you practice Zen on a daily basis and at a time that best suits you either in the morning or at night. As you read on, you will discover where Zen meditation came from and the proper seated position for zazen.

Where did Zen Meditation Come From?

The practice of Zen meditation has been around for thousands of years and it is believed to have started in India and Japan. Relatively recently it has made its way to the West where it has gained more popularity and acceptance. Many people in the West have traveled to Asia to learn the art of meditation after which they return and introduce the art to others. Now that you know a little about the origins of Zen meditation, let’s see the proper seated position for Zazen.

What is the Proper Seated Position for Zazen?

There are many proper seated positions while practising Zen meditation.  You need to know about the different positions and select one that you will be comfortable with.

The different proper seated positions for Zazen are briefly described below;

1.      Burmese position: This is the first and simplest position. You cross the legs and rest both feet on the floor while in this position.

2.      Half lotus position: This is a position where you place your left foot onto your right thigh and your right leg is placed under your left thigh. Most beginners are encouraged to become used to this position before practicing the full lotus.

3.      Full lotus position: This is a position where your two knees will touch the ground. In order for this to happen, you have to place each foot on top of the opposite thigh. This can strain the ankles and lower back for people who are not used to it. For the more experienced, you will find that it helps you to maintain balance for a long time during meditation. You need practice and patience to be able to master sitting in this position.

4.      Seiza position: Sitting in a traditional seiza position can be very uncomfortable because it requires bending the knees and sitting on your heals. The best way to avoid this discomfort is to rest your buttocks on a pillow or seiza bench (a little bench that is specially designed for meditating in that position).

5.      Chair sitting: When it comes to chair sitting during meditation, you need to find a chair that will allow you to have a straight-up posture. Your seat can have a back rest which may or may not be cushion supported.  When sitting for meditation you should not allow your thighs to rest on the seat, you should only allow your buttocks. Your two hands should rest on your two thighs in such a way that your wrists are on top of your thighs. Sitting this way will allow your chi energy to flow freely and you can meditate for as long as you want.

Zen meditation is a very useful and popular form of meditation that helps the body and mind when practiced regularly. You have learned where Zen meditation originated and the proper seated positions while meditating.

People who suffer from panic attacks start off by having extreme fear of whatever thing they are anxious about. It normally starts without notice, reaches a peak within minutes and subsides again. How sufferers feel during attacks and how long the panic attacks last mostly depends on the cause of the attack. The causes of panic attacks have been traced to various things. Some may be due to hereditary, fear, phobia, medications, personal loss and many other causes.

Panic attack sufferers normally have shortness of breath, rapid heart rate, heart palpitations, dizziness, light-headedness, nausea, difficulty breathing, a sense of feeling smothered, tingling or numbness in the hands, hot flashes or chills, trembling and shaking, sweating, trembling, a feeling of choking, chest pain, nausea, and dizziness. Meditation has been known to assist in panic attacks in various ways. Some types of meditative practices go a long way to combat panic attacks as you would will soon discover. You will find out why meditation helps in panic attacks and the role of diaphragmatic breathing in solving panic attack problems.

Why Would Meditation Help Panic Attacks

Meditation normally allows sufferers to experience panic attacks with less fear so that they can see their way through the problem. This is why meditative practices like visualization where people are guided to visualize things is encouraged for people who suffer from panic attacks. Images that look disturbing during attacks can now be viewed with ease. With this new perception the image will pass through the mind without disturbing the victim. Regular meditation will enable the victim to get used to how panic attacks should be seen and handled.

Apart from this, meditation also plays an important role in easing the nervous system, the brain and the glands responsible for reacting to fear and panic. This is the main reason why experienced meditators don’t suffer from panic attacks. Some of the meditation techniques that are used for controlling panic attacks are guided meditation, muscle relaxation, yoga and diaphragmatic breathing. Techniques like yoga offer a wide range of stress-reducing tools. Now that you have seen why meditation would help panic attacks, let’s find out more about diaphragmatic breathing.

What is diaphragmatic breathing?

Diaphragmatic breathing is a popular breathing technique because of the meditative and health benefits it gives to people who practice this form of breathing. This breathing technique is also called belly breathing, deep breathing, abdominal breathing or costal breathing. Though this type of breathing has been called various names this breathing technique is simply the act of natural breathing that allows you to contract your diaphragm during breathing. This allows your lungs to expand downwards without increasing the size of your rib cage.

Diaphragmatic breathing uses the diaphragm muscle (a strong dome shaped muscle) located under your ribs and above your stomach. Your abdomen expands rather than the rib cage in your chest when breathing.

It is generally considered a healthier and better way to intake oxygen, and is often used as a therapy for disorders like panic attacks. People who panic will find that diaphragmatic breathing not only calms the effect of arousal at the time of panic, but also provides an way to focus attention on their breathing, instead of on their panic symptoms. As diaphragmatic breathing becomes a habit, the nervous system is less susceptible to panic in the first place.

The main benefits of diaphragmatic breathing are to;

• Strengthen your diaphragm
• Reduce the effort you put into breathing by slowing down your breathing rate
• Reduce your oxygen intake during breathing
• Use less energy during breathing

This breathing technique can be practiced while lying on your back or sitting on a chair. These are the steps to follow while lying down.

Steps to Follow:

1.      Lie down facing upwards either on a flat surface or bed. You can raise your knees by supporting them with a pillow.

2.      Place your two hands on two different parts of your body. One on your upper chest and the other one on your abdomen. This will enable you to monitor the movement of your breathing.

3.     As you breathe in through your nose, feel your hand on your stomach move upward. Keep your shoulders relaxed. The hand that is on your chest should not move at all..

4.      Exhale slowly and gently through your mouth, as if you were going to whistle or blow out a candle. The hand on your stomach should move in as you breathe out.

5.      Rest and repeat.

Learning diaphragmatic breathing takes patience and practice. As you become more comfortable breathing with this technique, you will notice that you will be using it all the time. It is the natural way to breathe. It usually takes about two weeks to become accustomed to the feeling of diaphragmatic breathing, and about six months of regular practice to make it a habit.

Meditation can help panic attack victims a lot. You have seen the reasons why meditation helps people who suffer from panic attacks and what diaphragmatic breathing is all about. This knowledge can help you to find a solution to your panic attacks.