Meditation is a broad term that often refers to any practice that helps to regulate the body and mind in order to gain control over the mental events and thereby attaining a subjective experience.

It is originated from the Latin word mediatio, which means to think or ponder.

In traditional Indian term meditation is called Dhyana, which refers to maintaining prolonged awareness towards a subject in order to gain greater understanding towards it. Dhyana in Japanese is known as Zen.

The aim of meditation in this way is to focus the attention and increase the awareness to consciously bring the mind and its activities under control and in return gain benefits such as calmness, stillness and bliss.

Although stillness is one of the effects generated by almost all kinds of meditations, many practitioners believe that stillness is not the main aim of practicing meditation but a stepping-stone to greater inner activities and experiences.

“Practicing stillness and awareness enables you to engage in higher spiritual activities. Within the stillness is greater spiritual activity. Stillness is just a stepping stone.” Master Choa Kok Sui

Benefits of meditation are vast and sometimes indescribable which highly depends on the nature and purpose of the meditation.

Meditation can start from a short simple breathing technique to highly advanced meditations such as Kundalini and Dhyan that may take more than an hour.

Based on the nature and purpose of meditation, the benefits can also vary from reaching a level of peace and calmness to experiencing greater levels of intuition and illumination, which is often known as self-realization.

Whatever the meditation is, short or long, guided or not, there are many benefits that can be achieved by practicing it in a regular basis.

1. A Sense of Calmness and Stillness

Stillness is one of the very first benefits that you will notice by practicing meditation and the reason is the activation of the Crown energy center or chakra. Crown chakra is the center for divine love, which is the entry point for divine energy into the body. During meditation when the Crown chakra gets activated lots of divine energy will flow into the system. Divine energy works as a purifying agent purifying all the negative thoughts and emotions from the aura and the chakras and in return bring about a sense of calmness.

The negative thoughts and emotions that are floating in the aura are the ones that clutter the mind. Once such inner noises are removed the practitioner can reach a degree of stillness.

2. Sharper Mind and Greater Clarity

The effect of the stillness gained in the process of meditation is clarity of mind. Often the clouds of negative thoughts and emotions in the aura clog the mind and lead to improper decision-making. When removed from the aura, the mind gets clearer. This often appears as sharper and more intelligent mind.

3. Inner Peace and Happiness

Most types of meditations help to activate the Heart and Crown chakras. While the Crown chakra is known as the center for divine love, the Heart chakra is often called the center for human love. The Heart chakra is also the center for higher emotions such as peace, compassion, joy and happiness. Activation of the Heart therefore helps to fill the aura with the energies of love and peace. It also increases the degree of happiness and contentment in life.

4. Improved Relationships

Since the meditation fills the aura with the energies of peace, love and compassion it increases the ability to forgive and forget. It therefore can help in bringing more harmony and love to relationships.

Especially if the meditation is done in a group, it can increase the harmony and love among the members more effectively by opening their Heart chakras and filling the group with the energies of love.

5. Higher Intuition and Self-Realization

Crown chakra is the center for intuition, also known as direct knowing. Often the difference between intuition and intellect is compared to having or not having an eye to see. Intuition in this way, can help the practitioner see what normal people are unable to see and perceive.

Meditations, such as the Meditation on Twin Hearts, through activating the Crown chakra increase intuition.

The ultimate goal of meditation however is to achieve illumination or what is known as self-realization; to be able to hear the whisper of the soul and achieve oneness with the higher self.  Such person is called a soul-realized or self-realized person.

Busy or not, it is worth finding time for meditation and experience the benefits yourself. There are many more benefits and wonderful experiences that you can gain by exploring the path of spirituality.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Lao Tzu

About The Author: Being an architect by profession who loves spirituality and alternative therapy, Hengameh Fazeli joined Pranic Healing and Arhatic Yoga school, developed by Master Choa Kok Sui, in 2007 and later became a Pranic Healing instructor in 2009. Since then she is experiencing tremendous improvement in all aspects of life including health, career and personal life. Currently she is the author of PranaWorld.net and she conducts regular healing sessions and Pranic Healing workshops.