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When nurse Jerry Meadows needed stress relief, he turned to meditation. And when he needed a way to learn meditation while working 12-hour night shifts in Royal Oak, Mich., he enrolled in an online course with Wildmind, a Buddhist meditation site. "As a high-strung person with a mild anxiety disorder, I thought I would try it," he says. "I learned a great deal in four months. It would have taken me much longer if I'd had to go it alone with just books."
If you constantly juggle thoughts about daily details such as paying bills, getting to work on time, taking the dog to the vet and returning unread library books, regular meditation can ease your mind and body. Meditation can help anxiety levels drop and reduce the physiological markers of stress — particularly blood pressure, heart rate and muscle tension. Best of all, the effects occur fairly quickly, says Stephen Bodian, author of Meditation for Dummies (John Wiley & Sons Canada, 1999).
"Even just a few months of regular meditation can bring about measurable changes in the brain that correlate with increased positive emotions, such as happiness and serenity," he says. "Meditation reduces your stress, makes you healthier overall and significantly enhances your enjoyment of life."
Meditation is the act of quieting the mind or directing it to be still and focused for a measurable period of time. And while it sounds simple, it requires instruction and much practise. There are many online resources available that can help you learn about and attempt meditation at home.
Learn to meditate online
If attending online meditation classes isn't feasible for you, consider an online teacher. Rori Lockman, a busy mom in Gorham, Maine, chose an online course with Wildmind and found she liked being able to ask questions via e-mail whenever they arose. In most cases, her teacher responded to her questions or concerns within 24 hours. "Bodhipaksa, the instructor, would reply in an insightful, patient and encouraging way," she says. Lockman downloaded guided meditations from the course onto her computer and now has a selection of meditation MP3s that she can open and play at any time.
Wildmind's four-week introductory course covers the basics of setting up a meditation posture, using breath awareness to help you develop a "less cluttered" mind and learning to take responsibility for your emotional responses to yourself and others. Students also have access to selected online readings, guided meditations in RealAudio, a discussion forum and a personal online meditation journal. The course fee is $75 US.
Take an interactive meditation experience
Visitors to Wild Divine can watch a demo of The Journey to Wild Divine, an "inner-active" game driven by biofeedback, which retails for $159.95 US. With biofeedback technology, there are no doubts about whether or not players are reaching the right energy state, which can be a problem for those learning to meditate, says Kurt Smith, a biomedical engineer and founder of the Wild Divine Project.
Sensors worn on the fingers relay information about changes in stress level and heart rate back to the computer. Players progress through the game by controlling a series of "events" in a computer-generated world — for example opening a virtual door by relaxing and concentrating energy. Along the way, they learn healing techniques, like the 5,000-year-old Heart Breath. Ideally, the game gives people the confidence to be able to use what they learn in real-world situations.
Create your own meditation space on your PC
If some specific sights and sounds never fail to make you feel more at ease, you can set up your own meditation space on your computer using PowerPoint. Save your favourite tranquil images in a folder. Open PowerPoint and insert one image per slide, sizing the images so that they take up the entire slide. Go to Slide Show, and from the drop-down menu select transitions. You can get creative with the transitions or just keep them simple and have one slide fade slowly into the next after a few seconds.
To add sound to your meditation experience, you can either cue the computer to insert an audio track from a disc in your CD drive or add a saved music file to each PowerPoint slide. Press play and take a few moments to relax, breathe deeply and meditate.
Regardless of which technique you choose and how you study it, the right preparation can help you reach a meditative state. Bodian suggests you:
- Wear loose, comfortable clothing.
- Set a time limit (even five minutes may feel like an eternity at first).
- Avoid large meals and mind-altering substances like coffee, alcohol and tobacco.
- Choose the most appealing, quiet spot available.
- Acquire a meditation bench or cushion (called a zafu) or use a favourite chair.
More meditation resources
- Buddhism-connect: Subscribe to this free e-mail list to receive teachings on Buddhism and Buddhist meditation.
- Buddanet: Find extensive information on Buddhism with lots of audio files on meditation.
- Beliefnet: Visit this independent, multifaith e-community with articles on the role meditation plays in a variety of spiritual traditions.
- Learning Meditation: Choose from an interesting range of meditations in Real Player format, including a Children's Meditation series and a Work Break meditation.
Published December 2004
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Writer, Catherine Hume
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