Meditation Can Reduce Health Care Costs | Psych Central News

Meditation Can Reduce Health Care Costs | Psych Central News

In these times of economic worry, from job loss, to costs getting out of control, meditation can reduce a lot of the stress that comes with it.

I have heard a lot of folks tell me that it is worthless, most will then tell me, they can not do it. I hear everything from I am to smart, or I am this type of personality, A, B what ever. Time is often given as a reason not to meditate, actually you can go in and out of a meditative state in seconds with practice. But the most I hear is I do not know how.

There are lots of free help on the web and in a library or book store, everything from smells, to music, to spinning wheels, more attuned to hypnosis. Actually all can be a help, I would have to say the biggest help is the fact you are trying.

I will not go into all the methods here, but to say, the biggest problem I normally see is trying to hard. I will say that you will get better with practice, but if you sit in a chair, lay down on a bed, sofa, any place you can relax your muscles with out falling down and close your eyes, you are already helping yourself, with the positives of meditation. After that is more breath control, and mental relaxation, than anything else.

Gently, close your eyes and relax, by this I , mean once again to, gently relax. Think, gently, about your breath and breathing, slowly concentrate on taking slow steady breaths, that are deep, but not uncomfortable. Concentrate, gently, on a relaxed slow deep easy breath. think about nothing (as best you can, don't force it) but the relaxed breathing. Now try and do that for 3 minutes or 100 or 200 breaths, maybe only 50 or 20 breaths the first time. Don't worry about how well you did, or that you do not feel better, you did fine, and you are better.

After that I will let the experts take over, but you are meditating, and you are helping yourself. You will hear about clear mind, empty mind, many words that are used to tell you that is a meditative state, they maybe right. But if you have been thinking a million thoughts a second, you actually may have come down to a thousand thoughts a second. That is all meditation is, slowing relaxing break, for a minute to how ever long you want or think you can do. Practice is nothing more that doing over and over, with out worrying about if you are doing it right.

More people have started their meditation practice in bath rooms, with the toilet as the relaxing seat. Not optimal, but if you are embarrassed, or not sure how it is going to look to even your family, great place to start. When I am going into an interview or be interviewed, I often still go to the men's room and relax for a second. I usually start with a short prayer, not needed, but it is my way. Slowing down my mind, relaxing and calming my body, gets me ready to do my best, at what ever the next task is.

With practice, you will be able to meditate better, but remember if you are already stopping for a second and countng and focusing on those breaths for 20 breathes, you are meditating and getting all the benefits of it. You hear about folks that slow down their heart rate, with meditation, happens a lot, ad it will happen to you, probably did, just hard to measure.

I some times teach this as a simple breathing technique, or way to increase your mental awareness for security training. I have taught executives on using it as a way to reduce stress, during violent incidents, like being held hostage, or being threatened. They normally tell me later that it helped them with other stressful situations, like big business deals, or other business actions they have to take. If you walk with me for a day, you will quickly notice me going in and out of a type of meditative state, during elevator rides, waiting in line, anywhere I want to take a break for a second.

I hope this helped, take a look on line there are lots of free help available, but just do it.

Rich