Читать книгу Meditation for Health & Happiness - Dr. Robert Puff - Страница 5

Let’s face it. We’re living in very stressful times. If stress is allowed to continue over an extended length of time, the result can be bad for both your mind and your body. Let me give you an analogy to demonstrate this point.

Hold out your arm straight at shoulder level. Keeping it in that position probably won’t bother you at first, but the longer hold it there, the more it will hurt. The pain will get worse and worse, until you can’t stand it any longer. Finally, there will be so much pain that you’ll have to drop your arm to your side. Stress is like that. In the beginning, it may not bother you much, but over an extended period of time, it will take a toll on your health, both physically and mentally.

Studies show that prolonged stress can weaken the immune system and lead to a plethora of health problems, like high blood pressure, one of the biggest killers on the planet. In fact, according to the website, meditationaltherapy.com, stress-related illnesses account for more than 60% of all doctor visits in this country.

Unfortunately, most people alleviate their stress with things like alcohol, chocolate, or prescription drugs. But simply numbing the pain by depending on one or more of these crutches isn’t the long-term answer. Instead, why not practice daily meditation? It has been scientifically documented that meditation lowers blood pressure by allowing you to completely relax your body and clear your mind. Meditation reportedly reduces stress-induced hormones in the blood, alleviating anxiety, anger and many types of illness.

That right. Meditation can help with illnesses. Scientific studies have shown that meditation not only helps with stress reduction, it can actually increase physical healing. It has been successfully used to help patients suffering with everything from cat allergies, to heart palpitations, to back pain.

How is this possible? Because being in a meditative state increases the amount of endorphins produced by the brain, and it’s these endorphins that can assist our bodies in the healing process. These same endorphins make us feel happy and give us a positive, uplifted sensation. I call it the “ultimate natural high!”