About Meditation

Meditation is great for stress management. Remember stress occurs in your mind, that doesn't make it less real. It means your mind is the key to remove stress from your life. You will experience, relaxation, increased awareness, mental focus, clarity and a sense of peace if meditation is practiced regularly.

"Meditation is one of the most natural and yet most profoundly rewarding of all human activities. It connects you with your own inner powers of vitality, clarity, and love. When done deeply, it also connects you with God and His infinite joy." Put simply, meditation is the method of bringing a scattered, disorganised mind into a state of peace, quiet and tranquillity.

The word meditation, is derived from two Latin words meditari and mederi (to heal). Its Sanskrit derivation 'medha' means wisdom. An ordinary person may consider meditation as a worship or prayer. But it is not so. A focus is used, such as a candle flame, a Manthra or the rhythm of the natural breath. The mind will go out again and again, but the meditator gently brings it back to the subject of concentration. Thus, Meditation means awareness. Whatever you do with awareness is meditation. "Watching your breath" is meditation; listening to the birds is meditation. As long as these activities are free from any other distraction to the mind, it is effective meditation.

Meditation is not a technique but a way of life. Meditation means to join together or to yoke. It describes a state of consciousness, when the mind is free of scattered thoughts and various patterns. The observer realizes that all the activity of the mind is reduced to one.

There are many misconceptions concerning meditation, and few except serious yoga practitioners ever reach a state of true meditation. Meditation has three stages one, Concentration, two, Contemplation, and three, Meditation. For health purposes, it is enough to reach a state where the mind is quiet and steady, the respiration calm and balanced, and the feeling is that of deep peace. With regular practice, this may be achieved, greatly benefiting the overall mental and emotional state. For more details visit http://www.soundbodytrainer.com/

Activities of Strengthening

Your arms lift approximately 50% of your body weight for this type of pushup. When you build up your strength, you can start doing the regular pushups. Similarly, if you cannot complete all the repetitions of one exercise, do as many as you can and stop. Over time you will gain strength and you will be able to increase the number of repetitions. Aerobic training, also called cardio training, is any exercise that repetitively contracts large muscles and raises the heart rate above normal resting levels for 15 minutes or longer.

Resistance training or strength training is any technique that uses resistance to increase muscular strength. This can be accomplished by the use of exercise equipment, weights, or by lifting your body against the force of gravity. A circuit-training strategy of doing various strength training exercises for different muscle groups in quick succession meets all of the criteria of aerobic training.

The sequence of exercises described above places a prolonged increase demand on the heart, lungs and vascular network which is aerobic in nature and also provides strength-training stimulus for all of the muscle groups involved. Strengthening activities improve or maintain muscle & bone mass, improve balance & reduce fall risk, improve cardiovascular endurance, and improve functional ability, such as lifting objects, getting out of a chair, carrying groceries, or opening jars.

Older adults have more potential gain from strengthening than any other mode of exercise. Choose strengthening activities based on needs (for example, someone with less upper body strength may require more upper body exercises) Start with 2-3 strengthening activities for each area: the upper body, lower body, and back. Perform 1 set of 10 repetitions at a resistance that makes you tired at the last repetition, but be sure to maintain proper form! Alternately, use the Exertion Scale to maintain your intensity at a level between 12 and 14. For more details visit http://www.soundbodytrainer.com/