Page 27 - Kallima spiritual Centre - Newsletter - September-October 2020

Physical benefits of meditation
To appreciate the profound physical benefits of meditation, it’s important to understand how chronic stress can wreak havoc on the body.
Stress stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, causing a surge of natural stress hormones (think: epinephrine (a.k.a. adrenaline) and cortisol) in the bloodstream, which can negatively affect the body. For example, too much epinephrine can increase the risk of heart attacks and strokes; too much cortisol can increase blood sugar levels, suppress the immune system, and constrict blood vessels. Eventually, chronic spikes in stress hormones can lead to an increase in blood pressure, heart rate and cholesterol levels, disrupting immunity, energy levels and sleep.
When the body and mind are relaxed, however – i.e. through meditation - the parasympathetic nervous system is stimulated, causing the body to stop releasing stress hormones. Many people who meditate regularly have learned to condition their body to relax on demand.
According to from the University of California, people who used meditations have lower levels of cortisol.
Why is stress reduction so important? It lowers blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen consumption, which results in higher energy levels and better immunity and sleep. Plus, stress reduction is key for diminishing the physical symptoms of many health conditions, for example inflammation, which is linked to stroke, heart disease, cancer, diabetes and other serious diseases.
Emotional benefits of meditation
The brain is the part of the body where meditation can really work its magic. It’s certainly true that we become more capable of coping with negative emotions when we meditate and practice viewing heightened emotions as passing states. But one of the most profound advantages of meditation is that it can not only change our mindset and perspective, it can also physically alter our brains, rewiring them toward more positive thoughts and emotions.
The experience of meditation
The process of meditating is easy (with a bit of practice) - all you have to do is close your eyes, stay focused on your breathing, and let your mind do its thing. This is the one skill where you don’t
have to strive to achieve something, just a place of stillness, no other effort is required.
Most meditations begin by sitting in a quiet place, closing the eyes, calming the mind, and focusing on the breath. But there’s more to meditating than sitting quietly and breathing. When we meditate, we are essentially cultivating awareness and compassion; we are training the mind to stop being easily distracted and instead be more focused in the present moment. Using the breath as our anchor in the moment, we simply sit and gradually learn to let thoughts and feelings come and go.
Of course, it’s completely normal when we start to meditate for the mind to jump all over the place. Just because you’ve chosen to sit and meditate doesn’t mean you’ll suddenly experience uninterrupted calm from the first time. The mind’s nature is to think, so it’s going to think - meditation is not about stopping thoughts.
We sit and practice to observe our thinking without getting caught up in our thoughts and emotions. We learn to tame this restlessness by developing an awareness for those moments when our attention has wandered off. Each time we notice we’re distracted, we build our awareness, and we bring our attention back to the breath. Through the process of meditation, the mind becomes more comfortable with this idea of sitting still, and we can begin to learn how to integrate the qualities experienced during meditation practice - calmness, focus, compassion, mindfulness - into the rest of our day.
There is no such thing as a good or bad meditation. There is only awareness or non-awareness. The moment you realize you’re lost in thought, that’s awareness, and that’s when you return to the object of focus (usually the breath). This is all you have to keep doing - return from your distracted thought to the breath, all the time honing your awareness. With perseverance, the periods between awareness and distraction will get longer and longer.
Changing Perspective
Meditation doesn’t promise to solve your problems, and there’s no guarantee of everlasting happiness. Life, with all its challenges and uncertainty will still happen.
What meditation can do is change how you choose to relate to, react to and view the circumstances happening around you. It offers a pocket of stillness amid all the outer chaos.
With a consistent practice - and with a certain
amount of open mindedness and a willingness. 26