Saturday, March 5, 2016
11 Proven Health Benefits of Meditation by Margie King
11 Proven Health Benefits of Meditation
by Margie King
Green Med Info. 25 February 2016
The ancient practice of meditation is enjoying a resurgence. Its proven health benefits have been discovered by such unlikely advocates as military programs and corporations.
Meditation used to be confined to the mysterious and ascetic world of Buddhist monks. But now meditation is going mainstream.
Military programs incorporate meditation to treat soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse. Corporations offer meditation as part of their wellness programs.
Part of the reason for this new popularity of meditation is a wealth of scientific research attesting to its amazing range of healing properties. Here are just 11 proven health benefits of a regular meditation practice.
1. Relieve Chronic Pain
In a randomized study published in The Journal of Pain German researchers compared an 8-week jyoti meditation practice with a home exercise program. Jyoti meditation focuses on a candle flame or lamp, and seeks to feel the light in the heart spreading throughout the body.
In the study 89 patients with chronic neck pain were assigned either to weekly 90-minute jyoti meditation or to a home-based exercise program. The meditation training significantly reduced pain compared to the exercise program. The authors concluded that "meditation may support chronic pain patients in pain reduction and pain coping."
2. Reduce Stress
In a recent small study people who practiced loving-kindness meditation were found to have lower stress levels and lower heart rates. They also had higher levels of nitrates in their blood which helps lower blood pressure. And when non-meditators started a loving-kindness meditation they saw their stress levels fall significantly and their relaxation levels rise significantly.
Loving-kindness meditation is a Buddhist practice of developing compassion, unselfish kindness, and unconditional love for one's self and for others.
3. Slow Aging
Telomeres are protective caps at the end of each strand of DNA. Their length serves as a marker of accelerated aging. Every time a cell divides telomeres get shorter indicating more aging. Harvard researchers measured telomeres in a group of 37 people. They found that women who practiced loving-kindness meditation had significantly longer telomeres than control participants who did not meditate.
One way meditation works is by increasing the activity of telomerase, an enzyme that protects and lengthens telomeres. In a study from the Center for Mind and Brain at UC Davis, researchers investigated the effects of a 3-month meditation retreat on telomerase activity. Thirty retreat participants meditated for about six hours per day for 3 months. The control group consisted of 30 people on the wait-list for the retreat center. At the end of the month the telomerase activity in the meditators was significantly greater than in the controls.
The researchers found that telomerase activity was directly and indirectly increased as a result of an increase of perceived control (associated with decreased stress) and a decrease in neuroticism (associated with increased subjective distress) in the retreat participants. The meditators also increased in their mindfulness and sense of purpose in life.
4. Reduce Symptoms of PTSD
A recent study shows that transcendental meditation can relieve PTSD and anxiety disorder. Researchers from the Dwight David Eisenhower Army Medical Center's Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic at Fort Gordon, Georgia looked at 74 active-duty service members with PTSD or anxiety disorder. [i]
Half of the service members practiced transcendental meditation in addition to their regular therapies. The other half did not. Transcendental Meditation (TM) doesn't focus on breathing or chanting, like some other forms of meditation. Instead, it encourages a restful state of mind beyond thinking using repetition of a mantra.
After regularly practicing TM, soldiers began to report that they felt less irritable, slept better, and their relationships were improving.
At the end of one month 83.7 percent of the meditators had stabilized, reduced or stopped their psychotropic drugs compared to only 59.4 percent of the controls. Among the meditators only 10.9 percent increased their drugs compared to 40.5 percent of the controls. In addition, the non-meditators experienced about a 20 percent increase in their symptoms compared to the meditators.
To read the entire article, please click on the link provided below:
Thursday, March 3, 2016
Total Solar Eclipse on March 8th & 9th 2016
To track it, please click on the link provided below:
http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2016-march-9
or:
Earth Sky Org.
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Self - A Discourse by M.N. Hopkins
Self:
Look not for signs, but rather be the sign to those
who wish to know a way back to themSelves.
There is no destination in your world or other
worlds. This is just another of the many distractions put in place in
your world to keep you from the most sacred and holy of places which is already
within you.
All the qualities that you dream of, all the characteristics
or traits that humankind hold dear are already waiting within each Man just
patiently waiting to be discovered or perhaps better said, rediscovered again.
Look to your Self for advise, look to your Self for
dreams fulfilled. For no other no matter how talented or knowledgeable
can know your path better than yourSelf.
Listen to Self which will drown out the voices of the
distractors who lie and confuse and take you on a journey away from the joy in
living. Sit quietly and wait upon your own wisdom and feel strength
bubble up within you and overflow into your everyday living.
Feel the calmness and certainty of Self-assuredness
and know that Heaven as well as Earth are now your allies.
Fear not your futures, but know that life grows richer
for those who heed the Voice of Self. Come to realize that life would
have a totally different feel and texture if only you will reconnect to
yourSelf.
Nice it is as you become nicer to yourself and allow
the healing balm of Self and of God to enter your everyday living.
Problems will still arise, but now Self will arise within you to handle these
problems rather than these problems handling you.
We can see a road ahead with many challenges easily
handled by Self. Yes, Self is self serving and in a good and positive
way. Do not forget that Self is here to serve Man as Man is here to serve
this world.
Love arises in the ones who speak with the kindness of
Spirit and aide those in need. Yes, to heal is to be an aide or a helper
to those in need just long enough for them to gain the ability to help
themselves and others.
We seek others of your kind to carry the torch or
flame of Spirit and show all who are willing the way back to themSelves.
It is always a journey of self back to Self. Once arriving upon the
throne of Self, one is then the ruler of all within his or her personal
realm. Not the realm of others, but the master of self. Yes, self
mastery is a good term or way of putting it.
For how can one rule a kingdom if one cannot rule
one's self through the aide of Self. Be strong and be kind and set a good
example to others of a better way of living in your world.
Do not buy into these visions of doom, but sell your
own visions of a Heaven upon Earth. Once Heaven appears within your
dimension then a more pleasant existence is possible. Reconnect again to
Self as well as the Earth and feel the difference in the quality of living.
Be at peace and be in love with all living creatures
upon your planet called Earth. Nature aligns with those living in loving
kindness with the strength and wisdom of Spirit expressed outward into your
world.
© M.N. Hopkins
Free Viewing Of The Movie, "UNDOCTORED" Until Friday, March 4, 2015
I am so proud of this film, so proud of the people in it.
When I was growing up in the 60’s, we thought science was going to save us from everything.
“Don’t breast feed! That’s for poor 3rd world countries. Science knows better, use “formula”.
“Why drink fresh juice? Drink what the astronauts drink, Tang!”
We’d just gotten the “cure” for small pox, vaccines were going to solve everything.
In this environment, you had a group of natural healers that were brutally targeted by the AMA (American Medical Association) and ALMOST destroyed.
This is the story of Undoctored; it’s amazing this profession somehow survived.
I really hope you get to see it, and share it.
Because it goes away on Friday the 4th. (I wanted to share it first, but at some point I have to pay for this thing!)
Jeff Hays
Tuesday, March 1, 2016
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