Meditation can be practiced in many ways and there are several meditation exercises available for people with different objectives. For people who are body-oriented, there various physical forms of exercise can be used to get in touch with the inner self. For the heart-oriented, prayer is considered the best form of attunement; for the intellect-oriented, meditation is their path to enlightenment. All types of meditations follow the same pattern where they begin with transforming the body, then move through the heart, next they arrive at the mind and then they go beyond. Meditation exercises are designed for reducing stress, building self-confidence and self-esteem, and maintaining good health.

One of the most popular meditation exercises is the breathing exercise where the meditators have to focus on inhalation and exhalation. The idea here is to become aware of the gap between inhalation and exhalation that is present for a fraction of second. Breathing meditation is popular as it is easy to understand and practice. The benefits of this exercise are also visible after a relatively shorter span of time when compared with other meditation exercises. This type of meditation can be done either by quietly sitting in a posture or by coupling it with other actions such as walking and eating.

Another type of meditation is the objective kind of meditation where the meditators choose any object to look at and then meditate on its origin. Meditators can allow their thoughts to wander to the origin of the object, the process of its making and then various stages involved in bringing the object to its present situation. This type of meditation is ideal for beginners as they may find it easier to relate to things that they can see than to something abstract.

Meditators who may be unsure about the benefits or the way of performing meditation exercises can consult qualified health professionals, specialists, or reputed teachers for advice.

By: Eddie Tobey

Also known as Himalayan bowl or cup gong, a singing bowl, is a musical instrument used in Buddhist meditation and are traditionally played in monasteries by Buddhist monks. Singing meditation bowls were historically made in Tibet, Nepal, India, China, Japan, and Korea, and.

The singing meditation bowl is made of metal, and may include precious metals such as silver and gold; while other can have a metallic makeup which includes copper, tin, zinc, lead, iron, and nickel. Commonly used singing meditation bowls are an alloy of different metals.

Singing meditation bowls are played by hitting, striking, or slowly rubbing or stirring a wooden striker or mallet within or on the top of the outer surface of the bowl. The bowl produces a continuous harmonic sound when struck correctly. This sound is said to be relaxing and good for chakra, a form of meditation. The singing meditation bowl has been adopted by various other forms of meditation and is also used for yoga, healing, sound massage, sound therapy and chakra balancing.

Singing meditation bowls come in different shapes, sizes, designs, colors, carvings and crafting. Some can be found with various religious themes and symbols like the Tibetan mantra chant of Om Mani padme hum, dragon carvings, mandala carvings, Buddhist religious symbols, among others. The art of making traditional bowls is now considered a lost art and most old bowls contain very little or no ornamentation at all.

The bowls are mostly hand made, and fall into two categories: the hand-hammered (beaten) singing bowl, mostly used in Nepal and India and manufactured in the traditional processes; and the colored, carved and crafted bowl, which are popular for gifts, decorations, and souvenir items, mostly coming from the Himalayan region.

Today, singing meditation bowls have become very popular, so much so that even people who don’t really meditate display it for its ornamental value. They can’t really be blamed as this singing meditation bowls come in such fascinating and exquisite designs. However, for people who use the singing meditation bowl for a much higher purpose, like meditating, see it as symbolic of human spirituality, representing human spirit as a vessel containing only the limiting nature of who and what we are.

The outward appearance of a singing meditation bowl represents our constantly changing nature; from one moment to the next we are never the same even as events and interactions cause deeply influence these changes within us. While some events may lead to a complete upheaval in our lives, others may just create a subtle ripple that is forgotten as soon as it occurs.

Whether or not we use them for them for meditation, a singing meditation bowl is timeless symbol of human spirituality and the frailty of the human nature.

By: Radhakrishnan K Gurudas

Meditation helps us to relax our minds and bring clarity and focus to what we want. It helps to ease that internal chatter that is always going on. It is a tool that helps us enter a deeper state of relaxation and we are also a lot more creative after a period of stillness. Meditation also increases serotonin production, which influences mood and behaviour.

Regina Drueding, MD, is a meditation instructor at Life Circles in Utah, USA. She quotes the benefits of meditation as follows: “more energy, improved quality of sleep, decreased anxiety, lessened chronological aging, improved concentration, improved visual acuity, increased alertness and heightened immunity.”

There are different ways to meditate. For all of them you should be sitting or laying down in a comfortable, quite place. There are guided meditations that you can purchase on CD or tape, and you can find them on line or at your local bookstore. Pay attention to how long they are and make sure they fit with how much time you want to spend meditating. Another way is to focus on your breathing. You can either take deep breaths in and out, or count to four while breathing in and count to four while breathing out. Your thoughts will drift and that is normal. When you realize this simply resume to focusing on your breathing.

Meditation will help us to create a positive mindset and experience a sense of peace while making changes in our lives.

Action Challenge

What type of meditating will you try? How many times a week can you commit to doing it and for how long each time?

By: Chrissy Atley

It’s become common knowledge that many of our health problems stem from too much stress in our lives. Deadline crunches, hectic schedules and the constant reminder of slipping job security keeps us all on our toes and stressed out. While we are hardly willing to pitch a tent in the woods and leave it all behind, we could all benefit from slowing down a little, if only for a few minutes, to regain our sanity, perspective and even our productivity. This easy meditation technique can be mastered in minutes and applied in the same amount of time. Use it daily to establish a habit of taking time for yourself and putting your mental and physical well being back onto your list of priorities.

Meditation requires a degree of mental allotment, which is always easier when you can retreat to a quiet, peaceful place. Now in today’s world, that quiet, peaceful place may be a stall in a bathroom (hopefully quiet anyway!) and that’s fine. Hollywood has perpetrated the image of mediation only being possible under a waterfall or in a monk’s monastery and that’s simply not true. Anywhere that you can slip away to and have just a few minutes of uninterrupted time to yourself will work.

To get started, get comfortable sitting or laying, close your eyes and simply focus on your breathing. Inhaling and exhaling is such an involuntary action that we seldom think about it or place any degree of focus on the process. For several moments, put all of your attention on the current of air as it enters your nose, flows into your lungs and circulates back out through your mouth. Take 10 slow, deep breathes while maintaining this focus. If you find that your thoughts wonder, pull your attention back onto your breathing.

Now, take a few minutes and expand this focus. Think for a few moments about the thousands and thousands of tiny processes that are occurring in your body at this very moment. Your hair and fingernails are growing right now, in so tiny an increment that you can’t even measure it. Your heart is pumping blood throughout your entire body and ensuring that you remain alive and healthy. There are so many activities going on inside your body at any one moment that it will really amaze you if you take a moment to think about it.

After you ponder on this and become aware of the various processes occurring automatically within yourself, expand this to the outside world. Even in the stillness of the room you are in, go through it mentally and become aware of everything happening around you. Is the wind blowing? Is there a clock ticking on the wall? You don’t have to focus on any one thing that’s happening around you. Simply become aware that there is a plethora of activities happening around you at this very moment. After all, we are hurling through space at a dizzying speed constantly. Just be aware that you are an entity within this somewhat organized chaos. If you could freeze time and fly through the entire universe and see everything, just imagine the snapshots that could be captured. Imagine the things that are taking place in this single moment in time.

Now, slowly open your eyes and focus on one thing: being aware of yourself and your surroundings. Imagine the world in slow motion as you rise from your seated or laying position. Bring your new awareness with you as you re-embark on your day and remember your purpose and the beauty of the fallacy we call structure. Revel in your mortality, and embrace every experience, from drinking a glass of water, to meeting a new person. Do everything with awareness and keep this new perspective with you always.

This easy mediation technique takes only a few minutes and can have the greatest impact on your day and life when used routinely as it will heighten your sense of awareness of yourself and the world around you.

By: Eric Pratt