Meditation, Stress and Hypertension

Meditation requires concentration. Sit in a calm and quiet place. Wear loose fitting clothes. Make yourself as comfortable as possible. Close your eyes. Gently breath in and breath out. Focus all your attention on your breathing. Keep chanting the word ‘om’. You will feel the world slipping away from you. You will feel peace and tranquility enveloping you.

When person is agitated or anxious, meditation shifts his focus away from the cause of such a state of mind. Thus meditation is a great stress buster.

When you are agitated your breathing will be uneven and shallow. When your mind is weaned away from anxiety, your breathing will be more even.

Meditation would help you to increase your powers concentration. If you practice meditation for ten minutes daily, it would be greatly beneficial.

Meditation can be done sitting or lying down. You close your eyes, focus on your breathing while chanting the word ‘om’. Alternately your focus could be on an imaginary point between your eyes at a distance. Breathing should not be controlled. It should be normal. A rosary of beads can be used to count the chanting. It could also be of great help to rein in your mind and help you to concentrate.

Meditation requires constant practice. It is not easy to rein in your mind and totally bring it to a focus.

Meditation not only helps to reduce stress but can also reduce your blood pressure. Meditation would have none of the side effects of anti hypertension drugs. Meditation would reduce the necessity of anti hypertension drugs.

Studies have shown that meditation reduces the blood pressure significantly. Along with the reduction of blood pressure, meditation would reduce the chances of cardio vascular diseases and stroke.

Meditation slows down the heart rate and normalizes the blood pressure. It can cure for mild hypertension.

By B.N. Sridhar