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see more information on being healthy at
http://www.ahealthyme.com/
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Meditation
Meditation is really
just a way of systematically tuning out mental chatter. We
all meditate from time to time, but the term itself is
usually used to describe an exercise in sustained
concentration that you can use to calm your body and quiet
your mind--in short, to reduce stress. Historically,
meditation has roots in both Eastern and Western spiritual
traditions, but you don't have to be Buddhist, Hindu,
Christian, or religious at all to practice it.
Researchers say that meditation works at least in part by
lowering your body's responsiveness to the stress hormone
norepinephrine. Normally, stress triggers the release of
these hormones, which in turn causes your heart rate and
blood pressure to rise (the "fight or flight" response). But
meditation interrupts that flood of stress chemicals, so you
don't feel on guard or tense. In short, when you meditate
regularly, you're able to control your body's reaction to
stress instead of it controlling you.
Research shows that meditation can help ease a host of
stress-related problems, including chronic pain, headaches,
anxiety, PMS, sleep disorders, even infertility (the
stresses of infertility can interfere with the release of
hormones that regulate ovulation). In a study on anxiety at
the University of Massachusetts, for example, 20 out of 22
anxiety-prone volunteers showed marked improvement after
taking an eight-week class in meditation. And in a study on
headaches, 72 percent of headache sufferers reported
"moderate to great" improvement after learning how to
meditate.
(excerpt from the article A Healthy
Me)
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