Meditation for Anxiety and Depression

Meditation for anxiety and depression is something I highly recommend for everyone suffering from these symptoms.  Sometimes some of the most powerful tools to improve your health are built right into your own body and are absolutely free.  Most of you are probably in a state of information overload with your mind racing at night, feeling stressed, out of control and you just can’t seem to calm down your mind to a state of happiness, clarity, and well-being.  I've been meditating almost every day for the last 14 years with many benefits. Meditation is one of the most powerful tools you can use to reduce anxiety and depression, sleep better, manage stress, eliminate pain, and get clear on what you love to do on a daily basis.  And it doesn’t require any fancy or expensive tools to learn how. Many studies have shown meditation to be helpful for the following: * Anxiety * Depression * Pain * Mental focus * Cardiovascular health * Improving empathy and concern towards others * Severe speech and physical impairments * Improve well-being Meditation has even been used in cancer care to help individuals deal with the stresses of their disease. The research on meditation is exploding with over 4,500 published papers indexed on PubMed which is the main hub for peer-reviewed scientific papers that doctors and scientists read to keep up with the latest literature.  Some newer studies are showing that meditation actually rewires your brain. What type of meditation is best? There really isn't a "best" form of meditation as there are so many types of meditation out there including: * Open Heart * Transcendental Meditation * Zazen (Zen Buddhist) * Qi Gong * Kundalini * Vipassana (Mindfulness) * Loving Kindness There are many more types out there but the most important thing is to avoid any teacher who says that their way is the only way.  Many meditation practices and teachers use words like "energy" or "becoming one" with everything. Energy is a very specifically defined term in physics yet it is used loosely in new age circles to describe people or places such as, "She has good energy", or, "This place has good energy."  Some people will also say that they can feel "energy" moving through their bodies. It is fine to go along with these terms if they make you feel good with the understanding that they are incompatible with science.  The reason why we feel good about other people is because of the way they look, their facial expression, posture, smell,