Why Meditate? Meditation involves loosening the grip of the self or the ego. It connects the mind and body as one. This creates harmony and peace within and allows our unconscious self to connect with our conscious self. It is sort of like dreaming awake.
A quieting of the mind occurs during meditation which is usually a welcome respite from the typical mental activity we all experience in the modern world. This state allows us to think freely and more outside of the normal box we tend to inhabit in our minds. New solutions or possibilities can come forth from the unconscious and provide us with creative ideas or new ways of perceiving reality.
We connect to a flow in meditation that goes beyond mere concentration. You can abandon yourself to this flow and feel energy moving through you. Sometimes the flow is very strong and you don’t even realize you were in it until later. This is an altered state of consciousness. When you end your meditation session (typically 20 minutes) you will realize that you were in an altered state. It is similar to awakening from sleeping or dreaming.
If you connect yourself to a heart rate variability device during heart meditation you will see that you enter a state called cardiac coherence. This is a state of balance between the heart, mind and emotions. You have a heightened sense of well-being and you feel less stress.
Meditation enhances your presence and personal magnetism. You are living in the here and now. You actually bring peace and harmony into your own body and this radiates out into the space around you. Other people will be able to feel this presence and respond accordingly.
Meditation is a form of centering. It brings clarity of mind. Although it may seem like you don’t have 20 minutes a day to give to it you will gain by the way you can prioritize and eliminate things which are merely urgent and not really important. There is a lot of baggage we all have that meditation helps us let go of. Let your exhalation be a discarding, a casting off or a disposal of all you don’t need. Let your inhalation be a renewing and a rebuilding of what you really do need.
Meditation is a type of deep rest. If you take time regularly to dive into deeper levels of thought you will begin to experience a sense of peace that begins to impose itself on your daily life. Your perspective becomes greater than your usual self and this allows you to distinguish what’s really important and valuable.
In heart meditation you become more conscious of your emotions as well. Life becomes more emotionally rich and you become more comfortable with your emotional body. This is incredibly healthy for your heart and mind. Ultimately your experience of who you are begins to change and you can discover your true purpose in life.
Curtis Simpson has many more answers to the question why meditate and more tips on how to meditate for a healthier life on his site at Healthy-Heart-Mediation.com