meditation

Quiet the mind. Slow down your breath. Awaken your chakras. It's time to meditate! I'll be the first one to admit that I used to be like Ms. Paltrow, in that I didn't have the slightest idea how to meditate. I would dim the lights, make sure the apartment was quiet, and try to focus on my breath. Problem was, I was so focused on "conquering meditation" that my mind couldn't relax and just "be." After hearing about all the health perks associated with meditation — including stress reduction, a heightened self awareness, and being able to tune out distractions — I knew I couldn't give up. The good news is, I realized that there are many different types of meditation. This is key, because once you explore the various meditation styles, you can choose one that suits you best.

Keep reading to find out what they are.

Meditation helps with many things: it can help you destress, become more self-aware, and even reduce your sensation of pain. And a new study has found yet another benefit: meditation helps you tune out distractions even when you aren't in the midst of a mediation itself.

The study, published in the Brain Research Bulletin, looked at 12 adults, some of whom took an eight-week class training in stressed-reducing meditation (the rest were the control group and did not take the meditation class) and found that alpha wave changes in the brains of those who meditated were more pronounced than those who didn't. Since our brains use alpha waves when we concentrate, researchers believe people who meditate may be more skilled at being able to tune out background distractions and focus on a task, whether it's reading a book on the bus or finishing a project at work while your co-worker has an animated phone conversation nearby.

Ready for meditation to help save you from all those daily distractions? Keep reading for tips on how to build your meditation skills after the break.

Have you experienced the positive benefits of meditation? A new study that looked at 18 healthy young adults who had never meditated before found that with just 20-minute instructional sessions in mindfulness meditation, there was a significant reduction in pain when subjects were exposed to painful stimuli.

I already knew that regular meditation has been shown to have significant therapeutic effects on people at high risk for heart attacks, but these new findings are really profound because they are applicable to everyone!

According to researcher Fadel Zeidan, PhD, who is a postdoctoral fellow at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and also worked on the study, meditation may be useful for the management of postoperative pain since it distracts the mind and reduces the emotional response to pain. Zeidan says a wandering mind is normal at first and that you simply have to bring your consciousness back to your breathing.

Here are a few helping pointers for starting the meditation process.

Stressed out? Grab a pen or pencil and some paper, and do this relaxation exercise from the OnSugar blog goddessbody.

I call this exercise the Phone Cord (before the cell phone and cordless phone). It promotes calmness and relaxation and relieves inner tension. It also helps improve balance and coordination.

Learn how to do this easy exercise when you read more

Every few weeks I'm hit with a bad case of insomnia, and it's beyond frustrating. I've tried every trick in the book to deal with it, but I usually end up lying in bed for an hour before giving up and getting up again. One thing I've tried to lull me to sleep is the old wives tale of counting sheep. I haven't had much success with it and it looks like I am not alone. According to a sleep study, counting livestock is not an insomnia cure and it may even be keeping you up longer.

To see what methods were best when it came to falling asleep, researchers in Oxford monitored the sleep habits of insomniacs. On the nights the participants were told to count sheep (or do nothing at all), it actually took them longer to fall asleep in comparison to other methods. What did help the insomniacs was to visualize a relaxing scene. On average, the participants fell asleep 20 minutes sooner when they used this visualization technique. Researchers believe that counting sheep is ineffective because it's too boring and participants stop counting. In comparison, imagining yourself on a tropical island is engaging enough to concentrate on until we tire ourselves out.

The reason positive visualization may work on insomniacs is related to another Oxford sleep study that compared the pre-sleep thoughts of insomniacs and sound sleepers. Researchers found that insomniacs don't usually picture relaxing images before bed and instead focus on worries, things they did during the day, and environmental noises. It looks like having less stress is the key to a good night's sleep — unfortunately, the stress of not sleeping is enough to keep anyone up! Next time I have this problem, I'll be taking a few minutes to meditate all the day's worries away.

This year Gwyneth Paltrow is going to clear her mind and give meditation a try. Before you write this off as another one of Gwyneth's questionable health practices or categorize meditation as something hippies, Buddhists, and the new agey do in incense filled rooms, hear me out. Meditation is an easy way to alleviate stress and anxiety and it doesn't cost a dime. Also, it can be done anywhere in as little as five minutes.

In her latest GOOP newsletter, Gwyneth writes that she's not exactly sure how to meditate but she hears it's "freakin' brilliant."  Well, she's right to say that — it is brilliant and it's so easy to do. Whenever I meditate, I always feel refreshed, energized, and less anxious. While there are many different types of meditation, here are some basic guidelines if you'd like to give meditation a try.

First find a quiet place to relax, and then put your body into a comfortable position — I usually lie down in my room with the lights dimmed. Close your eyes and concentrate on your breath going in and out of your body. The action of concentrating on your breath is what helps you let go of worries and stress. Instead of focusing on life's little problems, you clear your mind and instead focus on the present moment.

At first go, some people might have a hard time letting go to just be in the moment. If that's the case, try and do it for only a few minutes the first couple of times. As you become more comfortable with the practice give yourself 20 minutes of escape time. And don't worry if your mind starts to wander, just refocus on your breath. It always comes back to the breath.

The yoga studio where I teach just started offering Vajra yoga classes, so I decided to try something new and took a class last week. The only thing I knew before heading into the studio was that this was a more meditative kind of yoga. Since the class began at noon, it was small: only four other students. The small group made for a calm and peaceful environment, and the teacher had a single candle lit in the front of the room, which added to the quiet ambiance.

This 90-minute class began as I thought, seated in a comfortable position, as we were instructed to focus on our breath and quiet our minds. We only sat for about five minutes or so, which seemed like the perfect amount of time. To be honest, I have a hard time sitting and being still (it's something I need to work on), but this didn't seem too long at all. I actually enjoyed just experiencing the moment and following my breath.

To hear about the rest of the class read more

My father introduced TM (transcendental meditation) to me my senior year of high school as a way to unwind, relax, and fight stress as I headed off to college. Since then, I've always felt lucky to know a kind of secret way to recharge my batteries, without needing a nap. But I was surprised to learn that practicing meditation has another heath benefit for your heart.

It turns out regular practice of TM doesn't just help your psychological well-being; it has also been shown to have significant therapeutic effects on people at high risk for heart attacks. A recent study, which followed 200 patients for five years, reveals that "the high-risk patients who meditated cut their risk of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from all causes roughly in half compared with a group of similar patients who were given more conventional education about healthy diet and lifestyle."

According to Dr. Robert Schneider, director of the Institute for Natural Medicine and Prevention, who presented the study's findings, TM's ability to help reduce blood pressure is essential to helping prevent heart attacks and heart complications, “We found reduced blood pressure that was significant – that was probably one important mediator," claims Schneider.

TM is also easy to learn and practice — it doesn't require specific education, and from my own experience, I totally agree with Dr. Schneider — "it's a straightforward technique for getting deep rest to the mind and body."