The word meditation is rooted in the Indo-European word med-, which means "measure" or "to measure". From the same root med- we get word mete, and medicine, or modest, and moderate. The word meditation entered our language through the Latin word meditatio, which describes a type of physical or mental exercise. In later decades it evolved into the more specific word "meditation" which is commonly associated with "contemplation".
Meditation is a mental discipline by which one attempts to get beyond the reflexive "thinking". The object is to train the mind to go into a deep state of relaxation and therefore awareness. Many meditation practices involve turning our attention to concentrating or contemplating on a single subject.
A component of many religions religious traditions, is guided meditation. Different disciplines encompass different techniques and practices that emphasize a specific goal. Some religious goals include: achieving a higher state of knowing God, greater mental focus and clarity, developing creativity, and peace of mind or serenity.
The main goal of the practice of meditation is the knowledge of God. Most human beings intuitive know that there is something greater than themselves, believe in God, and want to connect with Him.
Many religions today have embraced meditation as a way of perfecting their faith or belief. Some main forms of meditative disciplines include: Yoga Meditation, Buddhist Meditation, and Christian Meditation. Other less known or less practiced meditative disciplines include: Baha'i Faith, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, and Taoism.
Secular Practices
Some forms of meditation are completely void of any religious principle and simply focus on the physical and mental practice of being still or meditating on stillness.
Edmund Jacobson's Progressive Muscle Relaxation techniques were developed in the early 1920s. Jacobson theorized that anxiety accompanied muscular tension and that by learning how to meditate and relaxing the muscular tension in the body one could relief anxiety.
Autogenic training was developed by the German psychiatrist Johannes Schultz in 1932. Schultz emphasized techniques similar to yoga and meditation; however, this kind of training is void of any mysticism focusing soley on the beneficial qualities of stress-free moments.
Dr Ainslie Meares, an Australian psychiatrist published research chronicles in the 1960s entitled Relief Without Drugs. In his journal he records that simple meditation techniques, which he adopted from Hindu practices, was a powerful means of combating anxiety, and reducing stress and chronic physical pain.
Herbert Benson a leader at the Harvard School of Medice pioneered a series of scientific tests on people who regularly meditated and who were trained under different under meditative disciplines. In His book The Relaxation Response (1975) Benson describes how secular relaxation techniques produced similar results.
Today reaping the health benfits of meditation and relaxtion has never been easier. With information widely available and with a large variety of meditation CDs, meditation downloads, and meditation MP3 programs available on the internet the sky is the limit.
Health applications and clinical studies
A review of scientific studies identified that the practice of meditation, relaxation, and concentration, was accompanied by a host of biochemical and physical changes in the body that changed metabolism, heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, brain chemistry, and brainwaves.
Today meditation and relaxation techniques are used as a way clinicly reducing stress and pain. The United States National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine in 2007 published the results to an independent study, peer-reviewed and meta-analysis of meditation and it's benefits.
The research was handled by the University of Alberta and analysed 813 individual studies in five different categories of meditation: mantra meditation, mindfulness meditation, yoga, Tai Chi, and Qi Gong. The stringent analysis concluded that "the therapeutic effects of meditation practices cannot be established based on the current literature," and "firm conclusions on the effects of meditation practices in health care cannot be drawn based on the available evidence. However, the results analyzed from methodologically stronger research include findings sufficiently favorable to emphasize the value of further research in this field."