What Happens When You Commit to a Practice
As the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, once said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
Why reinvent the wheel when you can just take the wheel and and steer it toward your destination? Let us learn from the road map set before us, and discover why meditation has been the master key to spiritual evolution.
Meditation is a timeless practice, passed down through various lineages of teachings with the aim toward attaining peace, freedom—or simply a happy mind and happy life. Through the countless teachings and wisdom passed down, along with what modern scientific studies have revealed, meditation is the best tool at our fingertips. And above everything else in the world of self-help, it's what we ought to be doing.
What they've said, or what's been told—
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Buddha - The key to liberation lies in the present moment. Through mindfulness meditation, you can break free from the cycle of suffering and cultivate compassion, loving-kindness, and wisdom.
Focus on the breath, observe your thoughts, and let go of attachments. In the stillness, you will discover the peace and clarity that lies within. Remember, the mind is everything; what you think, you become." -
Sage Patanjali - As the waves of the mind settle, you will experience inner peace and connection with the divine.
Remember, the aim of yoga is to still the fluctuations of the mind, and in that stillness, you will find true freedom. -
Lao Tzu - The natural world holds the secrets of harmony and balance. Through meditation, you can attune yourself to the flow of life and find inner stillness. Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
The Science
Recent studies have shed light on the incredible effects of meditation on our minds and bodies. In regularly practicing meditation, we have found that it helps us to—
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Leave Stress Behind
And find greater ease in everything we do. Meditation decreases the production of stress hormones like cortisol, helping us to relax any persistent tensions and have the resilience to break through. -
Be Wiser
Meditation helps with developing greater emotional awareness, which strengthens our ability to respond in challenging situations with grace. -
Improve Our Skills & Abilities
Meditation has been shown to boost attention, memory, and even help us with our natural problem-solving knack. It invites creativity into the way we approach life's problems, allowing us to get more done with pure ingenuity, and let go of frustrations that may blind us in moments where our focused attention is most needed.
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Feel Happier
Reading the brain of people on meditation, scientists have found an increase in production of neurotransmitters, especially serotonin, dopamine, and endorphins. Why chase external means of ecstatic highs when you have meditation, right? -
Stay Healthy
Meditation has been linked to lower blood pressure, reduce chronic pain, improve sleep, increase gray matter, and strengthen digestion, as well as the body's overall immunity. It does it all.
Meditation is a whole and complete system to uncover your true radiant self.
The Keys to Bliss
By incorporating meditation into our daily routine, we can—
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Have Self-Awareness
Understand our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors; support us in shifting our actions in order to make positive changes; enter a reality based on self-acceptance. -
Become Resilient
Better cope with challenges; hold that pillar of inner strength and stability. -
Discover Compassion
Increase our capacity for kindness, understanding, and connection with others. -
Find Inner Peace
Uncover our natural core, which is that of purity and peace; discover new forms of joy and contentment that may often be obscured by the distractions and stresses of daily life.
Meditation is definitely not a new concept, and there's much timeless wisdom passed down to remind us again and again. Don't search too hard, or for too long.
Start right where you are.
Now, this is simply a reminder, from the ancient teachings of our predecessors, that you hold the key to unlocking all of the things you "desire," and through this, too, you can shed away what you have only been conditioned to think is desirable, and see clearly that the peak expression of who you are was here all along.
As the Buddha said, "The mind is everything; what you think, you become."
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