Category: health

Modern meditation benefits | 3 quick tips | Meditation for healing

Not sure how to obtain meditation benefits? You can use meditation for healing by using 3 quick tips. Let’s start with how meditation can be used in modern life. While there is no clear definition of modern meditation, it essentially means an informal collection of various forms and styles of meditation, customised to suit our modern lifestyle in the 21st century.

Meditate for inner peace or self-realisation

As meditation was developed more than 3000 years ago, when there were no Facebook, Twitter and general stress of modern life, people had a lot of time to sit in a particular posture to attain inner peace, self-realisation and awakening.  Though the purpose of meditation still remains the same, we cannot make time to sit for hours to achieve something, effect of which will fade away in less than 24 hours.

Modern meditation for healing and positive effects

One of the most talked about and desired effects of meditation is stress reduction. In fact, that is probably the  number 1 reason that makes meditation and its various forms so popular in the modern world, whether you are in Chicago or Shanghai. Let’s take a look at some of most effective methods or techniques of meditation for healing that can help you achieve better focus, inner awareness, mental peace and physical fitness to a great extent.

Pre-requisite to start modern meditation 

First and foremost, you need to decide or identify which sensory organ works best for you. As we know that eyes, ears and skin are the more dominant than other sensory methods, we can use these senses to attain meditation benefit s. Here is how we can do it

Visualisation or guided imagery for meditation 

If visual forms stimulate your mind, then go for Tratak meditation, which essentially involves focusing on any visual image. It can be a dot, circle, flame of a candle, your own image in the mirror or any special image that stimulates your mind. The idea is to keep looking at that image for 10 to 15 minutes without blinking until your eyes start watering. Then, close your eyes and let them relax for 5 minutes and then wash your eyes with cold water. Do not strain your eye in the beginning as you cannot stay without blinking for more than a few minutes. Be within your comfort level, as the moment it starts hurting, the whole exercise becomes counter-productive.

Using sound for meditation 

This is an easy and convenient method in today’s world as you can listen to the music anytime of the day. In fact, you can use your travelling time (if you are not driving) to meditate by listening to various audio forms of meditative music such as chanting of certain hymns, shlokas or ‘Om’.

Deep breathing and sense of smell for meditation

Volumes have been written about how to benefit from deep breathing and its various forms. However, the bottom line is as long as you feel good about any form of deep breathing, it is beneficial for you. Simply breathe deeply a few times a day (morning hours are preferred), without thinking about anything else. Just feel the air going inside your lungs and coming out as you exhale.

Quick breathing exercise anyone can perform

Repeat this a few times and a day and notice the difference immediately after the exercise. Continued practice of this exercise will help you gain better focus, high energy levels and overall better physical health including stress reduction. We do not realise the importance of deep breathing and simply remain devoid of its health benefits, which include better heart health, more focus and increased stamina.

Your may be interested in Infobesity

online fitness classes

Minimising the effect of infobesity

We discussed the impact or side effects of infobesity in our last post. Let’s have a look at how to minimise the effect of infobesity no matter where you are. Though chances are that you are already aware of some these techniques, you never think about them seriously, which results in making the situation worse.

7 Easy ways to overcome the impact of information overload 

Use technology wisely: Though digital technology is the root cause of heavy overload of unnecessary information, you can use it to your advantage. If you notice that you are spending a lot of time filtering information, then spend some more time to find out tools, software and techniques that can do the job for you.

Stop multi-tasking if you cannot handle it: Multi-tasking is a good way to save time. However, it does not serve its real purpose if you get stressed, fall sick or goof up with any of the tasks that you want to accomplish in one go. The best way to overcome this problem is to focus on one task at a time.

Make important decisions in the morning: Though every individual’s bio-clock is set according to their lifestyle, eating and sleeping habits, research confirms that a majority of highly successful people are early risers and they make their important decisions in the morning hours. This simple habit keeps them stress-free the rest of the day. You need not be disappointed if you are not an early riser. The idea is to use your creative and productive potential when your physical and mental energy levels are at their peak, which is when you wake up after a good night’s sleep, no matter what time of the day it is.

Don’t work continuously: It has been proved that you cannot focus on one thing for more than 90 minutes at a stretch. Simply taking a 5-minute break every 90 minutes of work will boost your thinking and focusing power immensely.

Do similar tasks together: This is what requires managing capabilities. For example, if you are going to the market, make sure that you finish your shopping in one go instead of going twice or thrice. Accumulate all your shopping needs for one day and make time for it. If you have to pay bills, make sure that you pay all the bills for the month in one or two sittings instead of spending half an hour every alternate day.

Keep email, whatsapp and soclal media distractions away: You can spend your whole day on social media, if you wish. However, the result will be postponing or forgetting important tasks for that day. You may have to make time for those tasks any other day, which will mean postponing the task for that day to next day or getting stressed in order to accomplish the tasks of both days together.

Observe a Silent or Electronic-free day: This is my favourite method to de-stress myself. If you can manage, keep yourself away from cellphones, PCs, laptops or any type of electronic devices for at least one day every fortnight. This will work wonders for you.

In fact, my idea of enjoying a day off is to do nothing at all. No electronic media, no newspapers or magazines and not even watching TV for a day. If you can meditate, you will notice a remarkable change in your overall energy levels and ability to focus on the task at hand.

We’ll discuss mediation or yoga  in our next post.

 

Read about what is infobesity

Online fitness classes

One-shot vaccination developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Do you feel the same kind of pain that your child undergoes when a vaccine is administered? It is quite natural for parents to feel the pain when their child is in pain. What if all the vaccines could be given in one shot? Yes, that seems to be possible by a technology developed by a team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As  the technology involves  a new type of micro particle that can combine all the benefit of vaccines in one shot. Read the full report here.

One-shot vaccine

Essentially, this one-shot vaccination contains all the vaccines in microscopic capsules which are designed to release the required doses of all of them at specifically preset times such as 20 20 days, 40 days and even 100 days after  the shot. As this technique has been successful on mice, researchers believe that it can work on humans as well. In fact, this can be a revolutionary method to minimise the pain of childhood immunisation both for the children and their parents worldwide. However, it has not been tested on humans as yet.

Immunisation options-guide for parents

Childhood immunisation includes vaccines for :

  • Tetanus, polio, hepatitis B, whooping cough and diphtheria during the first 16 months of birth
  • Pneumococcal jab at eight weeks, 16 weeks and one year
  • Men B vaccine at 8 weeks, 16 weeks and 1 year
  • HIB /Men C vaccine at one year
  • Measles, mumps and rubella from 1 year to 3 years

Overall the technique seems to be highly effective in reducing the pain of immunisation without compromising on the effect of vaccination. In fact, the results could be much better that regular immunisationas children will not suffer from usually side-effects of injection such as fever, redness around area and of courses the pain associated with each shot.  However, the question is,  how long will it take for this technique to hit the market so that general public in Massachusetts or anywhere in world can use it.