What actually happens during meditation?

Question

I want to take up yoga but my friend said meditating is a weird experience, what does it do?what does it achieve and what are the benefits? Is tai chi the same?

Answer 1

It helps to clear your mind of the constant stream of thought. You may not be able to stop thinking entirely, but you can slow down your thought process enough to relax and to just accept the energy of the universe and allow the goodness of our source energy. 10 or 15 minutes a day can help you to achieve a much more relaxed state of mind.

Answer 2

Yoga, meditation, and tai chi are all different things. Meditation can be a part of a yoga or tai chi practice, but it is really more of a separate thing. Yoga is all about "poses," moving your body in a variety of stretch-like positions and focusing on breathing smoothly and listening to your body. Tai chi is a Chinese system of exercises used for self-defense, though it too can be meditative in much the same way as yoga.

However, actual "meditation" is typically done sitting still. In a quiet place, where your focus is on totally emptying your mind of all thoughts. All three of these practices are extremely good for your body -- helping to lower blood pressure, stress, anxiety, etc. There's nothing "weird" about it at all.

Answer 3

meditaion is a way of beter understanding your mind yoga like ta chi are different meditations of sorts . but meditation is a way of being able to control your self try thinking of nothing absolute nothing for 10 whole minutes or only onething for 5 kinda tough. those are simple mind meditations now yoga and tai chi add in a physical aspect. tai chi is a great relaxing meditation and can be used other ways mentally but the daily fluid movments prepare one for quick response in self defense. where yoga is part of a hindu idea that is suppose to work on chakras (kinda like pressure points) and increases circulation flexability and can be tough . you use 10 %ish of your brain for seeing remembering learning basic body functions etc (eistien used like 13 i hear) what does the other 90 - 80 do?? when you get good you can use it to control your mental states like not thinking about your mom dieing for 10 minutes or making your self happy when your in a cronic deppression (making your brain release happy chemicals) and the list is as deep as you want to go into the greatest entertainment device in the world your own brain (another thing is let youmind drift and think of as many things as it wants or you can then after a few mins try to recall everthing in order who knows you may discover the cure for cancer) it can get wierd cause your brain is wierd. chances are you have already been meditating in some way you just dont know it yet never be afraid to learn new thing knowledge is power , have fun

Answer 4

How you feel after meditating is the benefit, not what happens during. You can appreciate and get alot out of this experience if you really want to. I'm pretty sure you've experienced alot of other weird things so don't knock it until you try it. But make sure you speak to an instructor before you sign up because you'll be pissed if you already signed up and they've got not so understandable english.

Answer 5

Weird, maybe. But definitely a wonderful experience. For me, it's opened up my heart and I'm able to know myself more fully. This may be painful and confusing at first, as the truth often can be. But it leads to a more enlightened and enjoyable life.

I feel the benefits of meditation and yoga on spiritual, emotional, and physical levels. I find it very relaxing and comforting, and I'm able to get less sleep and function the same.

Hope you enjoy your yoga & meditation experiences. Namaste! :)

Answer 6

I also feel that you fell asleep. Meditation is a gradual thing, where you are able to keep your mind on God for a few seconds running, then for a minute, then two minutes. You don't meditate by listening to music. You could be distracted by the music. Meditation is the control of the mind, not allowing it free rein to dream things up.

Answer 7

Meditation is part of YOG. The real word is YOG and not YOGA. YOG means to combine. To combine your body and your mind. It is perfect science of living.
Yog contains 8 steps. Yam, Niyam, Aasan, Pranaya, Prtyahar, Dharna, Dhyan and Samadhi. The seventh step is Dhyan means meditation.

If you want to be a graduate, you have to start from std. 1. similarly the perfect way is to follow the steps as they are described..

Unless your body and mind are in perfect tuning, there is very less that you can be benefited by advanced steps.

As per anatomy, during meditation your physical activities are banned, so the blood flow is diverted towards your brain and brain activities related to your psychic power starts. You enter in to Alpha state of brain waves.

During Meditation, you bypass your conscious mind and go deep in to your sub conscious mind. Your sub conscious mind is supreme.

It knows everything in the world. Solutions of all your problems, way to a better and tensions free life, achievement of your goal, everything that you want is within limit of your subconscious mind. But these are the things need in the physical world.

While if you talk about the spiritual world, your soul is in contact with the almighty during meditations and once if you are able to get in touch with it, you will be free from all your desires. You get the pure happiness….which is called the “Satvik Anand” in Indian spiritual world.

Answer 8

It doesn't DO any thing. It can HELP you achieve any of your goals. The benefits are actually endless. No Tai chi is not the same.

Answer 9

Meditation is just about quieting your mind, that's all. You should try it.

Isn't tai chi more on focusing your thoughts and yes, quieting it too.

Best!

Answer 10

The whole aim of meditation is,
1. to calm your mind, and
2. to focus the mind on one thing.

The mind of a normal person is like an uncontrolled monkey jumping from one thought to another. To process all these thoughts a lot of body energy is used. Thus if your mind cease to process thoughts you will be saving a lot of body energy which can be used to cure a lot of ailments in your body. That is why a person who continues to meditate regularly even gets a nice body complexion.

Anapana or concentration on the breath is the best form of meditation.

If you sit down and close your eyes you will notice that your mind is jumping from one thought to another. Even though you want to concentrate on your breath you will find other thoughts also coming in between.

In learning to meditate you must first learn to calm your mind. You do this by following every thought that comes into you mind. You must be like a Manager of a Hotel who stands at the entrance and observes the customers coming in. Without getting attached to the thoughts try to observe them. You will find that a thought comes in and that it goes nowhere and another thought follows it - try following that too - with same results. This way you will find that your thoughts gradually subside. Do not try to force out your thoughts.

Of course do not expect results in one or two days. Practise it for at least 40 minutes every day for at least 2 months you find that you have 'killed' your train of thoughts. I have practised for 1 1/2 years and still vagrant thoughts come in.

Thereafter start concentrating on your breath. Notice the breath coming in and going out. You should not concentrate only on the tip of your nose. Notice the breath coming in and thereafter your lungs getting filled and then gradually exhaling the breath.

After you finish that for the day start to think of a person or several persons whom you hate most. Having those people in mind start to think in a compassionate manner "may he be healthy, may he be happy, may he go up in life, may he live long". Keep on doing this for about 10 minutes a day for a few months you will find that you do not get angry even when you have to get angry.

You should be able to get some guidance from the following sites,

1. http://www.dhamma.org/vipassan.htm/ http://www.meditationexpert.com/ and click on the free articles on yoga meditation - it includes articles on all types of meditations including christian and muslim meditation.