Mindfulness Meditation: Why It Should Be as Common as Brushing Your Teeth

An average adult at rest takes 12-20 breaths per minute. Breathing, the most vital human function, is taken for granted, and is often done improperly. Breathing is the only function you can perform consciously as well as unconsciously. People most often breathe from the stomach, using the chest muscles. This way of breathing produces shallow breaths and lower quality air intake. Breathing from the diaphragm allows the lungs to take in the maximum amount of oxygen. The way we breathe and the pace at which we breathe can affect how one's body operates. For instance, "breathing slowly and deeply can help us relax" (Khalsa 25). Meditation, when practiced daily, can improve attention, concentration, and coping skills, enhance happiness and compassion, and reduce addictive behavior. In addition those mental benefits, it can also reduce chronic pain and high blood pressure, boost the immune system, improve performance, and enhance quality of sleep (Smalley and Winston). Meditation also reduces stress which provides both mental and physical benefits. There is scientific proof that meditation can improve body functions. The practice of daily meditation can teach an individual how to properly breathe. Breathing properly allows oxygen to purify blood, which aids in the removal of toxins in your body. Meditation is about being present in the moment, calming the body and the mind. Arguments have been made stating that meditation is not beneficial, time consuming, and uninteresting. Those arguments could be valid, but the benefits of meditation far outweigh the opposition. One's quality of life will be diminished without incorporation of daily meditation.

Meditation is about clearing out the clutter in your mind. The word meditate stems from the Latin root meditatum, meaning to ponder (Bailey). Scholars have noted that "the term 'meditation' as it has entered contemporary usage is similar to the term "contemplation" in Christianity"(Merriam & Webster). According to the Office of Alternative Medicine, meditation has slowly moved from alternative to mainstream medicine (Khalsa).Authors Walsh & Shapiro describe meditation as a "family of self-regulation practices that focus on training attention and awareness in order to bring mental processes under greater voluntary control and thereby foster general mental well-being and development and/or specific capacities such as calm, clarity, and concentration"

There are several types of meditation: Transcendental, Vispassana, Sufi, Zen, Taoist, and Mindfulness but, there are two main styles, Passive and Active. The difference between types is how it is practiced. No type is considered to be better or have more benefits than another. To summarize, Passive meditation incorporates all the types of meditation where one must be in a quiet environment and body still. Active meditating can be practiced without being perfectly still. Yoga, Tai chi, eating, and walking if done mindfully, can fall under the category of active meditation. Mindfulness meditation can be both active and passive and is the most simple of types."This type of meditation trains your mind and body to meditate on the things in life that you cannot change. It can be applied to every aspect of life, from eating to exercising, to just breathing and living (Sumner)." Meditation can be practiced by anyone regardless of physical ability or demographic.

Author Shamash Alidina describes Mindfulness as "being aware of what you're doing in the moment is the only way of ultimately savoring the moment. If your mind and heart are in two different places, you miss the joy of the moment (191)." Mindfulness is known to have Buddhist roots, however the practice of Mindfulness has evolved and become secular. Mindfulness is a way of paying attention to, and seeing clearly whatever is happening in our lives. "Mindfulness is the art of observing your physical, emotional, and mental experience with deliberate, open, and curious attention (Smalley & Winston)." Jonathan Mead, contributing author of Zen habits, noticed four significant benefits of meditation: increased enjoyment, reduced stress better relationships, get things done (Grey).

Mindfulness meditation was first practiced by Buddhist 2,500 years ago. Mindfulness is the art of becoming deeply aware of what is here right now. You focus on what's happening in and around you at this very moment, and become aware of all the thoughts and feelings that are taking your energy from moment to moment (Smalley and Winston). In Mindfulness meditation, the meditator does not concentrate on any specific object, but lets the mind wander, and focus on breathing. Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn is individual at the forefront of using Mindfulness meditation as a healing tool. Kabat-Zinn is the founder of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School as well as its Stress Reduction Clinic. In 1979, Kabat-Zinn began teaching about mindfulness and developed a course in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). This is an intensive 8-week secular course which involves intensive Mindfulness meditation study and yoga practice. Participants learn how to use their natural assets and abilities to respond more effectively to stress, pain, and illness.

The mental benefits of meditation are improved attention, concentration, and coping skills, enhanced happiness and compassion, reduction of addictive behavior, increased productivity and creativity, decreased irritation and mood swings, and lower levels of stress and anxiety. Researchers Emily L. B. Lykins, MS and Ruth A. Baer, Ph.D, found that meditation improves self-observation, which encourages recognition of internal attributes, understanding of the consequences of one's actions, and improved ability to use appropriate coping skills. Meditation has proven to increase individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, also know as ADHD. A UCLA study found that patients with ADHD whom meditated showed improvements in conflict attention. A similar study in Australia found that a six-week meditation program reduced ADHD symptoms (Smalley and Winston). According to the Mind/Body Medical Institute, stress-related ailments account for upwards of 60% of all doctor visits. "Meditation is the only activity that reduces blood lactate, a marker of stress and anxiety (Khalsa 8)." Research has been supplied showing that meditation changes the physical structure of our brains. Neuroscientist Dr. Shanida Nataraja's research finds that Americans use too much of their brains left hemisphere. The left side is "associated with analytical, rational and logical processing, and the right hemisphere is associated with abstract thought, non verbal awareness, visual & spatial perception