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    "The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this life. For it is only through meditation that you can undertake the journey to discover your true nature, and so find the stability and confidence you will need to live, and die, well. Meditation is the road to enlightenment." 

 Sogyal Rinpoche, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

    People in the West are more familiar with prayer than meditation. Many types of prayer exist, but it is an active form of meditation in which we project an intention by calling on God to help us or our loved ones in some way. Meditation is a silent or contemplative form of prayer; a state of concentrated attention that is turned inward. Meditation is a time of escape from the attachments of the external world.

    Meditation has been practiced in Eastern religions for over 5,000 years. It can induce an altered state of consciousness and be used for personal development, healing, or to focus the mind on Spirit. The goals of meditation are varied, and range from spiritual enlightenment, to the transformation of attitudes, to better cardiovascular health. Creating a state of inner peace is an act that is simultaneously powerful and comforting.

Benefits of meditation

    Meditation has been used for centuries to promote inner peace and health. There are many physiological, psychological, emotional and spiritual benefits that arise with mediation. They vary according to individuals, since the very act of meditation is such an intensely personal experience, and are usually realized slowly but surely depending on the extent to which one is at ease with oneself. Benefits are cumulative with regular practice; more can be accomplished with less effort.

Meditation has been shown to help with many things including:

    Dr. Herbert Benson of the Mind-Body Medical Institute, which is affiliated with Harvard and several Boston hospitals, reports that meditation induces a host of biochemical and physical changes in the body collectively referred to as the "relaxation response" (Lazar et al., 2003).

    Meditation is a powerful method of stress reduction stemming from work, family, illness, or environment and is often used in hospitals in cases of chronic or terminal illness to reduce complications associated with increased stress including a depressed immune system and the production of lactate. This relaxation response includes changes in metabolism, heart rate, respiration, blood pressure and brain chemistry. Hormones and other biochemical compounds in the blood indicative of stress tend to decrease during practice. This stabilizes over time, so that a person is actually less stressed biochemically during daily activity.

    Meditation can help a person learn how to change their perception of there life and reality; how an individual sees things and how he or she handles them makes a big difference in terms of how much stress he or she experiences. This can help one center so they can figure out how they'd like to handle the issue or illness and proceed with life.

Dr. Daniel Goleman & Tara Bennett-Goleman, both psychotherapists and renowned authors, presented a theory in 2001 suggesting meditation works because of the relationship between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex in regards to the fight or flight response and it's effects on our emotions and behavior. The amygdala is an almond shaped mass that is part of our limbic system and processes emotion, especially anger and fear. An inability to control this reaction often leads to making snap judgments that can be prone to error. The prefrontal cortex mediates various inhibitory functions that make us stop and think. There is a gap of time between the stressful situation and the amygdalas' response which a skilled meditator could intervene before the flight or flight response kicks in and calm the central nervous systems response.

    Some studies of meditation have linked the practice to increased activity in the left prefrontal cortex, which is associated with concentration, planning, meta-cognition (thinking about thinking), and positive affect (good feelings). There are similar studies linking depression and anxiety with decreased activity in the same region, and/or with dominant activity in the right prefrontal cortex.

    The changes that occur during meditation stabilize over time. Even if you stop meditating for a while, the effect lingers.

Affirmation and Visualization     

     The use of affirmations goes along with prayer and meditation. Affirmations work by changing our though patterns. They are practiced to emphasize our relationship with ourselves, with our own inner healing powers, with the world at large, and the divine. For example, someone suffering from negative thoughts about themselves often has low self esteem and is trapped in self-doubt. Positive affirmations can help change the thought process and therefore be very healing and strengthening in such a condition.

    If practiced correctly, affirmations should lead to action. To accomplish anything in life requires a belief that one can do it and a positive intention to make the effort. An affirmation is not an excuse for inaction.

    Visualization may also be used with prayer, meditation, and affirmations. You may visualize healed and improved conditions that you wish to achieve. Healing energies can be directed with visualization to parts of your own body that need improvement as well as to others who are ill. Such visualizations may employ certain colors and mantras to be directed along with the breath. Visualizations can include many subjects such as deities, shapes, or even beautiful natural scenes to clear and direct the mental field.

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