Donna Cardillo, RN, MA

A regular meditation practice has been shown to calm the body and mind, increase mental clarity and focus, increase vitality, assist in becoming more attuned to your own inner wisdom, and allow you to tap into universal energy – all very desirable outcomes!

And as if all that isn’t enough, studies have also shown that regular meditation can lower blood pressure, boost the immune system, improve the body’s response to stress, and even improve sleep patterns. Yet misinformation and misconceptions abound preventing many people from pursuing the practice in earnest.

To “clear things up” – both intellectually and spiritually, here are 5 myths of meditation, along with practical tips and advice for getting into a regular meditation habit.

An Introduction to Meditation

An introduction to meditation, containing a summary of different types of meditation, the aims of meditation and so on.

Meditation is simply the art of controlling and exploring your mind. It therefore encompasses a great deal – just thinking about a specific subject rather than allowing the mind to wander is a kind of meditation. Meditation can be used to achieve many purposes – understanding a specific subject; increasing relaxation and combating stress; improving a particular function of the mind, such as increasing clarity or improving the memory; achieving an absolute understanding of all thing, referred to as a state of enlightenment; overcoming negative habits; and so on. Different kind of meditation are appropriate for different purposes. On this page I aim to give a brief summary of the different types of meditation, whilst trying to express something of the nature of meditation itself.

Meditation Posture

When we practice meditation we need to have a comfortable seat and a good posture. The most important feature of the posture is to keep our back straight. To help us do this, if we are sitting on a cushion we make sure that the back of the cushion is slightly higher than the front, inclining our pelvis slightly forward. It is not necessary at first to sit cross-legged, but it is a good idea to become accustomed to sitting in the posture of Buddha Vairochana. If we cannot hold this posture we should sit in one which is as close to this as possible while remaining comfortable.

Mind and Body: The Need for a Good Posture

From the moment of conception until the moment of death, mind and body are inextricably linked. Were it possible to separate them (it isn't), one could say that they constantly affect each other. Most people understand that mind affects body, as they see examples of this all day long. The moment people come into a room, their posture tells us whether they are feeling good, depressed, self-confident, afraid, tense and so forth - long before they say a word. But few people realize just how much body and breath can be used to help the mind. As meditation is concerned with taming and awakening the mind, posture can be mobilized to great use.