Blissful & Balanced: Your Brain on Meditation

Neuroscientist Shanida Nataraja grew up in a family where meditation was a normal part of life, but as an adult research scientist she decided to look for hard proof that what her parents practiced worked.

What she found surprised her: "I really didn't expect to find that meditation plays such a role in optimising brain function and health, from cognitive abilities to cardiovascular wellbeing."

The benefits of meditation have been know for thousands of years and are obvious to anyone who practices regularly. The benefits are real, and can be felt. We don't need to know what the circuit board of a digital watch does to tell the time, we just read the numbers.

But having rebelled against meditation as a teenager, Shanida decided to scrutinize the experience of mindfulness with EEGs and galvanic skin response meters (which monitor the skin for evidence of emotional changes). Her findings suggest that the benefits of mediation are experienced due to whole brain integration.

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How Meditation Can Save You Time

If you already feel like there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done, you might find the idea of learning to meditate ridiculous. How could you find time to learn something new or fit it into your already overbooked day?

No doubt you're already aware of the benefits. You may have heard that just 10 or 15 minutes a day can help you reduce stress and find some inner calm and balance, but you just don't know where to start or what to do; and finding out seems just another item on your ever growing to do list.

I remember some years ago feeling much the same myself. I was so stressed I didn't know where to go or what to do to feel better. I scanned book after book looking for techniques to help me feel less anxious and more relaxed, and eventually, I found my chosen way of looking after myself.

Now, after 20 years of practicing various relaxation and meditation techniques [link to beautiful calm] I feel busier if I don't make time to meditate than if I do. Those experienced in meditation teach that meditation actually saves you time. For a short investment of 10 minutes spent paying attention to your breath you can become more streamlined and productive in everything you do...

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Meditation: Is 5 Minutes Really Enough?

Natural Health and Holistic Living expert Jane Alexander certainly thinks so. In this month’s Natural Health Magazine, meditation is number 5 in her list of 10 Ways to De-stress, and she doesn't see why it has to take hours.

Here’s what she has to say: “Even five minutes of meditation can bring your heartbeat down and soothe your stress levels.”

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Your Breath as Medicine

Breathing is more than an automatic act of survival, it is the key to your health and sense of well being. The Chinese say that “breathing is 100 times more important than medicine”.

Why? Because when you take care of your breath you take care of every cell in your body. You oxygenate your blood better, which better supports your brain, and you take in more vital energy or chi. And it is chi that keeps you alive. How you take in that chi can make the difference between feeling truly alive, vibrant and healthy, or just being alive and functional without any personal sense of vitality.

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Active Meditation: Happy Stomach, Shiny Mind

Pranayama is the term used to describe an ancient collection of breathing exercises that can greatly benefit your mind and body.

Kapalabhati Pranayama is a breath work technique that is known to increase mental clarity and energy in minutes. Because of the way the exercise is performed it also activates the deeper abdominal muscles and aids digestion. And of course, all the other benefits of deep breathing are present too, like oxygenating your blood and relieving tension.

Here’s how to try this popular pranayama exercise for yourself:

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