Alternative Medicine

Meditation is a great way to relax yourself, but meditation also has many other benefits to enhance your life. Meditation means to take a break away from your daily life, from your job, from your concerns, and so on. It means to turn off your mobile phone, turn off may be your telephone and really practice meditation by yourself. Let your computer and your e-mails wait for a minute. And really give yourself some time to do meditation.

Recent research has shown that meditating twice per day for about 10 minutes can reduce stress and other bad side effects of having a hectic life style.

Here are 5 great tips on how to do meditation. Using these tips can help you greatly in starting to meditate. Here are the 5 tips!

1. Where should I meditate?

You should have special place or corner or room in your house or in the place where you meditate. You might want to furnish those areas with special objects that have a spiritual meaning for you that will help you to do your meditation.

Make sure that the place where you do your meditation is quiet, where you have no disturbances such as telephone or other noises. Also make sure that other people know that this is the place where you spend time with yourself, where you do your meditation so you do not get disturbed when you are in this area.

A great way to enhance your meditation is to make sure that the smells are nice. That may be some aroma, incense or some candles to really give that special effect and enhance the feeling of spirituality. Another great place to meditate is in nature. For example you might have a place near a beach or in the woods where you can be quiet and undisturbed and really enjoy nature together with your meditation. Great experiences can be achieved when you meditate in nature. So if you have the opportunity please do it!

2. How should I sit when I do my meditation?

The classic posture is to sit with legs folded and hands resting quietly on the lap or on your knees. This is the classic way but to really do meditation effectively you need to find your own posture to do your meditation. The posture needs to give you a sense of concentration. And at the same time it needs to be comfortable enough.

Now make sure that the balance is right between being concentrated and being comfortable. If you are too concentrated it might be painful which will prevent you from doing more and more meditation. If the posture is too comfortable chances are that you will fall asleep and do no meditation at all. So keep the balance between the two, find a position that is comfortable enough but not too comfortable so you will fall asleep.

This is your meditation so there is no right or wrong way to how to sit or stand to do meditation. But practice and find out which posture is the best for you? You might just want to sit on a chair, cross your legs and sit on the floor or walk around gently in a room. It is up to you, try a few different postures and see which one gives you the greatest benefit.

3. Should my eyes be open or closed?

Some meditations will tell you to close your eyes, other meditations will tell you to open your eyes. Again what is important is what are you comfortable with and what give you the best results. That is the key, what gives you the best benefits when you do your meditation. Some people will keep their eyes closed, and will have great meditation.

Other people will not have good experience when they close their eyes and will fall asleep. For some people it is better to keep their eyes open and do meditation that way. If you keep your eyes closed the biggest danger is to fall sleep. It is very easy when you get some feelings and experiences in meditation to dose off and fall asleep.

So if you keep your eyes closed make sure that you sit in an alert position. This could be on the chair or with your legs folded on the floor. The main thing is to sit up straight, do not be too comfortable because you will fall asleep.

The same goes for when you close your eyes to do your meditation, meditating with your eyes open means to keep your eyes slightly open, it is really like day dreaming. So again there is a slight danger that you will fall asleep. It is easier not to fall asleep when you keep your eyes open during your meditation. But you still need to sit in an alert position. So be comfortable but be alert to sit up straight.

4. How long should I meditate?

Most people will say you need to meditate between 10 and 20 minutes twice a day. That is a very good routine, again it is up to you or you are comfortable with what give you the best results.

If it is 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes to maintain is that you get benefits. Some people will take more benefit by meditating 10 minutes. Other people just need 5 minutes to do their meditation and get great results. Other people want meditate for 20 minutes.

The time is not the most important. The most important is that you do your meditation on a regular basis. Twice a day is very much a good routine. So if you meditate twice a day for five minutes or if you meditate twice a day for ten minutes or for twenty minutes.

The key is that you do your meditation on a regular basis. What will happen is when you do meditation for example for ten minutes a day you really feel the benefit, you will keep it up and you will keep doing it. And you might increase the duration of your meditation from ten minutes to fifteen minutes or twenty minutes. So start off gently but keep a daily routine.

5. Should I have music or not?

Some people like to have some gentle relaxing music in the background when they do their meditation, other people just like to have pure quietness. You need to try it out, do some meditation with some gentle relaxation music in the back ground and see the results. Then do a meditation with just silence and again see the results. The best way is actually to have a balance, start off your meditation with some gentle relaxation music in the background. Then have some nice silence to really enjoy your meditation. And again have some gentle relaxation music now and then to enhance your meditation.

That is it! Those are some great tips to get you on your way to do some great meditation. Enjoy!

For more info : http://www.improveyourselftoday.com/Meditation.html or click here : Learn How To Meditate

Alternative medicine can be defined as any form of therapy, practice or treatment which is outside the mainstream or beyond the realm of the conventional.

More generally it can be defined as any approach or medicine which differs from conventional Western forms. Alternative medicine is often talked about in conjunction with Complementary Therapy and the umbrella term Complementary & Alternative Medicine or CAM is used.

As a general guide some of the more mainstream CAMs are acupuncture, acupuncture, aromatherapy, herbal medicine, homoeopathy, hypnotherapy, massage therapy, naturopathy, reiki, reflexology & Yoga.

Alternative medicine in the UK is growing year on year and in 2006 it generated expenditure of 1.6 billion pounds. Large numbers of people choose to seek out alternative forms of medicine subsequent to a diagnosis from their GP or other traditional route. However in the main, research shows that people tend to use CAMs in parallel with conventional medicine. There is often resistance from GPs to recommend or refer a patient to an alternative therapy where they consider empirical evidence to be limited or non-conclusive and the research methods are not always standardised as with traditional medicine. There are also often funding issues relating to onward referrals within the NHS.

However, the CAM sector is responding to this criticism by adopting the standard research methods & evidence provision in line with the medical establishments traditional methods. This is largely assisting with the rapid growth of this multi-layered industry, alongside the continually growing wealth of positive empirical evidence.

Generally speaking CAM’s can be organised into five key areas, although it should be noted that there are number of areas where these overlap. These areas are –

Whole Medical Systems (WMS)

WHMS have been developed in the West – often with it roots in other medicine systems. Examples of this type of system are Naturopathy – helping or stimulating the body’s own in-built healing system by improving diet & lifestyle in conjunction with other CAMs such as acupuncture and massage. A good non Western parallel to this system is Chinese Medicine as is Ayurveda which hails from India and takes the holistic approach of treating the mind body & spirit via massage, yoga, herbs & meditation.

Another WMS which developed in recent years in the West is Homeopathy the practice of stimulating the healing system of the body by delivering minute amounts of certain elements or substances which in much higher doses would be detrimental or dangerous to a patient’s health.

Mind-Body Medicine (MBM)

MBM can call upon a number of techniques which are aimed at improving the symptoms & functions of the body e.g. meditation, Yoga etc. A number of therapies which historically where thought to be CAMs are now firmly placed in the mainstream such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy and NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming).

Biologically Based Practices (BBP)

BBP are derived from elements and materials which are found naturally such as vitamins for supplements, healthy foods for well being & detoxification and herbs helping with everything from pain relief to stress & weight loss. Biologically based practices in CAM use substances found in nature, such as herbs, foods, and vitamins. Some examples include dietary supplements, herbal products, and the use of other so-called natural but as yet scientifically unproven therapies (for example, using shark cartilage to treat cancer).

Manipulative and Body-Based Practices (MBBP)

MBBP work by manipulation, pressure and rubbing of soft tissues and muscles aimed at promoting repair, better health & flexibility. These type of therapy work by removing scar tissue, promoting oxygen flow and helping the removal of toxins and acids.

A number are further examples of therapies which are becoming less and less alternative and more mainstream. These include Chiropractic, Osteopathy, Massage & other body work such as Shiatsu and Sports Massage.

Energy Medicine Therapies (EMT)

EMT are believed to help the patient by tapping into the energy fields which cloak the human body and restoring balance, improving energy flow and clearing blockages. Examples of these type of therapies are Reiki, Chinese Medicine and Energy Healing.

So, why the growth in CAMs? Well, in recent years patients have gradually taken more accountability & responsibility for their health and are not as happy as maybe they once were to be told what to do or how to live. As a result they are becoming more autonomous and seeking out their own alternatives and solutions.

It is important to note they don’t side step mainstream traditional medicine but seek help from CAMs to complement their treatment. Part of the reason for this empowerment is the growth of the internet and the ease of access to swathes of information, research, forums and feedback available at a click on the World Wide Web. Recent research has shown that over 60% of internet users use the web to provide answers on health related issues.

In addition to the ground swell of the general public embracing CAMs, areas of traditional medicine are adopting and recommending alternative therapies. The NHS now has as 5 hospitals offering CAMs for patients and more and more health professionals such as doctors, nurses and mid wives are training in alternative therapies to offer within their mainstream practice.

Shaun Parker has tried a wide variety of different alternative medicine therapies and shares his experiences to help those looking for alternative medicines.

Five Tips on How to Do Meditation

Classifying The Types Of Alternative Medicine