| Why Meditation | Health Express |

Meditation may be used with the aim of reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and pain, and increasing peace, perception, self-concept, and well-being

Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique - such as mindfulness, or focusing their mind on a particular object, thought or activity - to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm state.

Meditation has been practiced since antiquity in numerous religious traditions and beliefs. Since the 19th century, it has spread from its origins to other cultures where it is commonly practiced in private and business life.

Meditation may be used with the aim of reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and pain, and increasing peace, perception, self-concept, and well-being.Meditation is under research to define its possible health (psychological, neurological, and cardiovascular) and other effects.

In popular usage, the word "meditation" and the phrase "meditative practice" are often used imprecisely to designate broadly similar practices, or sets of practices, that are found across many cultures and traditions. Definitions in the Oxford and Cambridge living dictionaries and Merriam-Webster include both the original Latin meaning of "think[ing] deeply about (something)," as the popular usage of "to focus one's mind for a period of time," "the act of giving your attention to only one thing," and "to engage in mental exercise (such as concentration on one's breathing or repetition of a mantra) for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness." What is considered meditation can include almost any practice that trains the attention or teaches calm or compassion.

In modern psychological research, meditation has been defined and characterized in a variety of ways; many of these emphasize the role of attention.Scientific reviews have proposed that researchers attempt to more clearly define the type of meditation being practiced in order that the results of their studies be made clearer. One review of the field provides a detailed set of questions as a starting point in reaching this goal.

The practitioner of meditation attempts to get beyond the reflexive, "thinking" mind (sometimes called "discursive thinking" or "logic") This may be to achieve a deeper, more devout, or more relaxed state. In this article the terms "meditative practice" and "meditation" are mostly used in this broad sense. However, in some contexts more specialized meanings of "meditation" may be intended.