The side effects of meditation are positive and countless. Studies show that those who meditate regularly have less illness, stress, and need for rest.
But one of the most compelling reasons for meditating is that the meditation process itself is sublime. Meditation does not depend on the outcome, but the act of meditation itself is blissful, transporting the person to a state of satisfaction and clear awareness during the meditation training itself, not just at the end of the training. In fact, because the means are the same as the end, training has no beginning and no end.
All of us, in modern times, experience a constant stress attack. We are bombarded by unwanted energies in the form of television, noise pollution, arguments, and angry or envious people.
In order to neutralize this enormously oppressive force of negativity and anguish, we need a higher power, gathered within us; and meditation connects us with this inner reservoir of purifying and illuminating energy.
In the past, nature surrounded people in their daily routines and rituals of existence. There were no artificial sound vibrations from phones or machines; there were no tensions or illnesses arising from urban industrial complexities.
There was the sound of the water, the hum of the wind, the beauty of the stars in the sky, and the scent of the earth. There were natural rhythms in all aspects of life, as people planted seeds, turned them into food, and watching nature’s cycles, felt a connection with them.
Today we can live our whole life without having to come into direct contact with nature. We live in artificially controlled climates, we collect food in fast-food restaurants or stores where they are packed in a factory; we invite a total divorce from ourselves from our natural origins and our organic and original pace of life.
Meditation allows us an easy, convenient, and portable method to enter these lost natural and aesthetic rhythms, closing the world around us, leaving our bodies, and clearing the mind of all the artificial stress that accumulates consciously or unconsciously during the course of our lives.
Meditation costs nothing, has no harmful side effects, and does not add calories or cholesterol to the body. It also does not cause dependence in the sense of drugs and alcohol.
But it does provide practitioners with a heightened sense of well-being, often compared to a more powerful natural euphoria than drug-induced ones, and this component of meditation can be fully adopted for positive and healthy benefits.
The human body is a complex creation and, in the brain, the body naturally produces drugs that are hundreds of times more powerful than pharmaceutical narcotics. When someone meditates, the body secretes hormones and mysterious chemicals that really provide an incredible surge of energy and happiness, and this is just one of the surprising side effects of meditation practice.
Meditation is different for different people. Some use it instead or in addition to psychotherapy. Others think it is more valuable as a tool to improve performance in sports or work and to increase memory and other mental functions.
Some people trust him to help them deal with the pain or consequences of trauma or tragedy and to regain satisfaction and appreciation for the beauties of life. And there are those who use meditation as a creative tool to inspire them in the arts.
Meditation gives us stronger and more sustainable vigor, sexual and calm energy, as it provides a rest comparable to deep and exceptionally restful sleep.
There are countless reasons to meditate, and one way to make the world a better, more peaceful, and harmonious place is for all of us to spend some time in our stressful lives to take a break and drink from the mental oasis of meditation practice.
