Books on the topic of enlightenment, prayer, spiritual awakening and positive affirmations are flying off the bookshelves. They continue to be among the top selling publications of all times.

This is because now more than ever people are searching for a way to find the balance with their inner beliefs – their spirit. There are many ways that people seek direction on a spiritual journey. Some seek it through chanting or through prayer. Others seek it through spiritual meditation.

Benefits of Meditation

Meditation brings calmness, and it restores order to a frazzled or disconnected inner being. It adds power and energy. But there are health benefits to meditation, too. Meditation can minimize depression and bring nourishment to the soul by cutting down, in some cases even doing away with stress.

Some people use prayer beads during meditation, others recite quotes or perform a spiritual cleansing by letting go of things that we unconsciously attract into our lives. For example, negativity attracts negativity, self-defeating actions attract defeat and so on.

Spiritual meditation involves reaching a mental position that rises above the plane of consciousness of everyday life. Usually, your brain is on overload with all of the day-to-day responsibilities.

There’s the job, family, taking care of finances, the pet, making sure the physical needs are met for yourself – and on and on it goes like a hamster wheel. When you try to simply think of things that attract good and light into your life, you can often push the distractions from your mind temporarily. But like annoying insects, they’re hovering still right at the edge of your consciousness.

In order to reach a state of mind where peace, calmness and joy are achieved, there must be strict concentration. It’s a method of concentrating that doesn’t allow the things that affect our consciousness to even have an audience in our thoughts.

How Meditation Calms

Meditation calms the mind in a way that nothing else can do. It silences all of the worrying, nagging tapes that play in your mind (have to fix the car, take the dog to the vet, turn in that project, get to the kid’s ballgame, pick up the dry cleaning). Some people see meditation as a type of prayer, while others see it as faith exercises and still some see it as a guide that helps them awaken themselves spiritually.

Emotional Benefits of Meditation

Besides giving people health benefits (lower blood pressure and less stress), spiritual meditation can open up a sense of core wellness that allows all of the positive emotions we want to flow freely.

It often works hand in hand with spiritual healing that can restore all that negativity has taken from you. Healing can’t be done through the body alone – it should also be done in the emotions and spiritual self as well.