Health & Well-Being

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This Blog is written by Vaishnavi from Central University of South Bihar, Gaya.  Edited by Ritika Sharma.

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INTRODUCTION

The problems that our society faces today are baffling in nature. Therefore, it forms one of the major challenges for humanity as to what should be the nature and dynamics of the solution.

We constantly run after creating materialistic things, forgetting about our own health, the biggest wealth that we already possess. Dreams need to be nurtured, just as seeds require nourishment for growing fruit-laden trees. Contemplative Meditation is surprisingly a simple and effective solution to the problem. It is a fresh perspective on seeking answers to what went wrong to humanity. We do not pay heed to understand the needs of our own body. We rigorously try to eradicate problems dwelling in our society and in the rush, we forgot the great fact that we are not ourselves healthy enough.

Contemplative meditation can be understood by understanding the term contemplative and meditation. In general parlance, contemplative practice is a meditation technique that helps to enhance the attention and expand the awareness, and cultivate kindness. It is the act of seeing or observing with the help of the divine. Meditation on the other hand is a practice, which slows down our mental activity and increases our level of awareness. Though, meditation and contemplative practices could reduce stress, transform negative emotions, and increase wellbeing and happiness in people.

Meditation, in the strictest sense of the word, is the next step after contemplation and is known as ‘samadhi’ in Sanskrit. Meditation is that state in which he who contemplates becomes one with that upon which he contemplates. It is a state which is contacted almost always in a very deep trance state.

SCOPE, AIMS, AND OBJECTIVES

The role of meditation as a health adjunct both in the prevention and treatment of various disorders associated with sedentary lifestyles as well as to promote skill in performance is being recognized during recent years. This will help us to understand the metabolic changes during different types of contemplative practices. This would provide a scientific ground to calculate the energy expenditure during the activities, which may form a sound base to find out how meditation helps in human energy management. This will also highlight the usefulness of the relaxation postures acting as health adjunct in the management of disorders.

WHAT HAPPENS IF SOMETHING IS WRONG? WHAT HAPPENS IF NO ONE KNOWS, SOMETHING IS WRONG?

Peace, contentment, and love are important aims for most people. These are the rewards, the fruits, of a good life.

Stress, attention, awareness, memory, self-regulation, the generation of positive emotions, and pro-social behavior are all aspects that affect learning and character development and which can be considered as relevant for education. The practice of contemplative mediation can change the structure of the brain by enhancing the density of the hippocampus, the part of the brain which is relevant for learning, memory, self-awareness, compassion, and introspection.

It is a state of mind where the thought is controlled and also the thought is left open to receive. Consider, to concentrate on a flatfish and examine the fish very thoroughly, even count the fins, scales, and so on. Now, consider contemplating the same fish and leave your mind open to learn something about its environment, its physical function, its mental function, and so on. The conscious mind is rather like a grasshopper. Immediately we sit down to concentrate on something in silence, our mind hops about here and there.

Contemplative practices can increase health, wellbeing, pro-social behavior, and learning. Contemplative practices are quieting the mind, and are enhancing one’s abilities of attention and insight. Insight can be described as a way of knowing through direct apprehension instead of through intellectual reasoning.

Contemplative practices have their roots in two intentions, cultivating awareness and developing a stronger connection to the divine or inner wisdom. Meditation on the other hand is a powerful mental exercise that can be effectively used to reduce stress and thereby heal stress-related health problems.

Contemplation can be perceived as- another way of knowing. It allows a person to connect to his inner wisdom and to bring awareness and insight. In addition, it also supports the rational-empiric education approach and the development of a person’s character. Scientific evidence from biological developmental and behavioral studies has shown that contemplative practices affect a person’s ability of attention, awareness, and self-regulation and are effective for stress reduction. Stress levels, attention, awareness, and self-regulation are key elements for effective learning and hence crucial for the cognitive development of a person.

STRESS REDUCTION

A person is stressed when he or she feels that they do not have the resources available to meet the demands. When a person is facing a demanding situation, they assess as if they have the resources to meet the demands. When the person thinks that they do not have the competences to do so, they start coping mechanisms to deal with the stress.

Stress is negative for the body and mind. It can cause high blood pressure, cardiac irregularities and can affect mental health and development, and increases the vulnerability to diseases. If a person is facing regularly stress situations that are overwhelming and which he or she cannot cope. A high level of stress level can be very damaging to the development of children and also a high level of stress prevents learning.

Children encounter a range of stressors every day in their life that is, school grades, testing, and homework, pressure, and gossip from their peers, the fear of bullying, and conflict at home with the family. It is interesting to note that children do not seem to use techniques to calm themselves down when confronted with stress. The activities they are using can be defined as ways to bypass stress rather than to deal with it directly.

Teaching children contemplative techniques to find an inner calm will help them to better deal with stressful situations and will make them more resilient to stress. Contemplative practices such as meditation is a technique that calms the mind and body and brings relief in stressful situations. By applying this kind of technique, a child needs to be stressed and then to feel the need to manage the stress and to calm down. By doing so this child would deal with the stress directly.

ENHANCED ATTENTION AND AWARENESS

Contemplative practices contribute to developing a capacity of concentration. Meditation trains one-pointed focused attention on specific postures, on specific parts of the bodies or on the breath. Focus on the breath, on a posture or a specific part of the body does not only improve the attention and awareness skills, but it also has a calming effect on the mind and brings relaxation to the body.

Human being experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. The task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures. Awareness frees individuals to experience people and circumstances as they are without judgment or the confines of preconceived ideas.

ANALYSIS

From my own experience, I could say how conflict resolution initiatives failed because of a lack of emotional self-regulation skills among the people. People could not clearly think when they were overwhelmed by their emotions, which had a detrimental impact on analysis and decision-making. People would greatly benefit from practicing meditation techniques, which can help to find inner peace and calmness. I had experienced myself for example that a focus on the breath could help to enlarge the gap between my impulse and action. Loving-kindness in one person seems to have the capacity to soothe and calm the others. The ability of contemplative practices to enhance self-regulation, bring emotional balance, enhance awareness, and cultivate empathy and compassion would make them relevant techniques for conflict resolution and peace programs.

CONCLUSION

Contemplative practices appear to have a positive impact on not only individual health, but by extending the level of compassion and tolerance beyond self, can improve health at a public or social level and reduce disparities.

Health disparities are unlikely to be eliminated without such a sense of tolerance and to move us to aspire to, and to demand a greater level of equity in society. Health care provides in delivering high-quality services to patients, an increase in their awareness.

We believe that such experiences are not only healthy for all human beings but actually necessary. But they are becoming harder to come by, applying principles from contemplative meditation practices is a way to move forward in this regard, to bring back some of the ways of being that seem to have gotten lost. Lastly, Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It is a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others.

REFERENCES

(1) https://www.aetherius.org/concentration-contemplation-meditation/