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Happiness- that is what everyone wants the most in their fast paced lives today. Happiness is not related to material wealth or your status in the society, but it is related to mental peace and the state of attaining happiness from within. Misery and depression surrounds a lot many people today - the only reason being the tough daily life, with competition all around you. So now the question arises- in a world full of material pleasure, where happiness is counted in terms of how much you earn and how modern is your lifestyle, how does one stay happy and relaxed from within? Meditation is the answer to this.
 All of the above go a very long way in enhancing ones personality, changing ones attitude towards life, encouraging someone and building inner growth related to self-confidence and motivation.
Not only this but meditation also helps one remain physically fit. Recent researches have shown that meditating twice a day for 20 minutes can reduce blockages in ones blood vessels and can lower the risk of heart attacks and sudden strokes. Control over ones mind- that is the gift one receives from meditation. Control, in the sense, that meditation allows one to have a healthy and positive attitude towards life, away from any negative thoughts. It helps one to live in peace and harmony, with oneself as well as with the people around. But you cannot expect miracles to happen overnight! This will come only with practice and by following the proper meditation techniques. Mediation should be practiced in complete silence, preferably in fresh, open air, close to natural surroundings. Silence allows you to get closer to yourself, to hear the inner voice, to get to know yourself better and to experience spiritual closeness. The moment you start mediating in silence, you become aware of the inner self and you experience the delightful taste of the true meaning of life. God, enlightenment, and liberation- whatever you name it, but the phenomenon remains the same. One of the major barriers to mediation is the Unsteadiness of the mind. Some people lack concentration power, their mind is unsteady; hence they face problems in meditating in a proper manner. According to Acharya Somaprabha, "If any person wants to pursue religion by becoming cruel, wants to acquire fame by vicious means, wants to acquire wealth nor remaining indolent,Wants to write poetry without having the genius for it, wants to become an ascetic without controlling the senses and showing compassion, wants to seriously study the scriptures without the requisite intelligence, wants to see things without the eyes and wants to meditate on them when his mind is unsteady cannot succeed. Similarly, the person who desires his beatitude by giving up the contact with the virtuous people can never succeed." But to think that a person with an unsteady mind cannot mediate and a person who has a steady mind does not need meditation is not true. Just as you cannot learn how to swim without actually getting into the water or you cannot learn how to ride a bicycle without actually sitting on one and learning on it, you cannot learn to meditate without actually sitting down and trying it. For a person who has an unsteady mind, mediation will be a tough step but it is not impossible.  Meditation requires faith, determination and endeavor. If you don`t have faith in yourself or faith in what you are doing, you will always find it difficult to achieve what you want to from a particular task.
If one develops faith, in oneself as well as in meditation, and if it is combined with firm determination then one can overcome the barrier of unsteadiness of ones mind. But if there is no determination with this faith or determination then ones task loses its value and fails to show any kind of results. In today`s world, everyone has become busy with his or her own lives. Their life revolves around their work and family, and most of the times family comes secondary to work and material pleasure. In this age where everyone wants to get the best and compete with each other, somewhere we are forgetting ourselves. We don`t know what we truly are, we have no time to sit and spend time with ourselves. That is one of the major reasons why many people get frustrated- with themselves, their lives, their family, their work- in short their surroundings. What one needs to attain is Soul Consciousness. The body is just an instrument; it is the soul, which carries out its functions. The body will perish after mankind`s death, but the soul will remain. Meditation is the path to attain closeness to oneself- to ones soul. Meditation cleanses the soul, the person from within and this change can be seen physically in a person, on the outside. | |||||||||||||||||||
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Meditation is considered to be the component of Eastern religion, where it is supposed to have been practiced for more than 5000 years. Meditation is believed to be a mental activity, which encompasses a variety of spiritual activity. Meditation is used for personal development, better concentration, to achieve peace and harmony, for spiritual closeness to God, to become healthier and to impart calmness, love, purity, well being and truthfulness.