Meditation
Forrest Pilates’ Miami Guided Meditation Courses
Meditation is the practice of training your mind to focus on a specific thought, feeling or concept. For some, the eventual goal of meditation is achieving a higher state of consciousness, whereas others point out that the very act of meditation is itself the goal.
In a normal, untrained state of mind, we tend to receive and react to stimuli in an uncontrolled way. Our minds shift from one thought to another, and our emotional and physical reactions follow suit. Through the regular practice of meditation, we can learn to notice stimuli without immediately reacting to them, thus not allowing our minds to be diverted from that which we are choosing to focus on.
As an act that promotes increased mindfulness and allows us to have more control over our thoughts and emotions, meditation has countless practical applications for our day-to-day lives. Eventually, however, meditation also has significant spiritual benefits, allowing practitioners to connect with and achieve higher forms of consciousness.
Forrest Pilates’ guided meditation courses help both beginning and experienced practitioners harness the transformative energy of meditation in a group setting.
Benefits of Meditation
- Meditation can make you smarter. It’s true! Researchers at Harvard, Yale and MIT linked meditation to physical growth of parts of the brain where information is processed.
- Meditation is the solution. While meditation itself is not the answer to specific life problems, research has found that certain meditation techniques promote creative thinking and make practitioners better problem solvers.
- Meditation is your friend. Researchers at UCLA found that a simple meditation program lasting just eight weeks reduced loneliness in older adults.
- Meditation reduces your risk of heart disease. The same UCLA study found an unexpected conclusion: the eight-week meditation program also reduced the genes and protein markers of inflammation, which are potent risk factors for heart disease and other physical and psychological disorders.
- Meditation also reduces stress and lowers blood pressure.
- Meditation is better than a babysitter. Many schools around the world have introduced meditation techniques. The reason? It’s been shown that meditation is an effective tool in improving children’s ability to focus, as well as promoting kinder behaviors.
- Meditation gets you high. Meditation is a useful tool in helping people connect to a higher power and experience increased spirituality, if this is what they desire.
"We operate at our best when the mind is quiet." -Russell Simmons
