Meditation with Bellabee

Meditation with Bellabee

• By: Bellabee


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What is Meditation?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 and stable state. When we meditate, we inject far-reaching and long-lasting benefits into our lives. We lower our stress levels, we get to know our pain, we connect better, we improve our focus, and we’re kinder to ourselves. Roughly 200 and 500 million people practice meditation around the world. Different groups of people meditate in different ways.


Types of Meditation There are many different ways to reach a meditative state. Some common ones are:

1. Metta meditation
   While breathing deeply, practitioners open their minds to receiving loving kindness.

1. Progressive relaxation
   Encourages people to scan their bodies for areas of tension. The goal is to notice tension and to allow it to release.

1. Mindfulness meditation
   Rather than dwelling on the past or dreading the future, mindfulness encourages awareness of a person’s existing surroundings.

1. Breath awareness meditation
   Practitioners breathe slowly and deeply, counting their breaths or otherwise focusing on their breaths.

1. Yoga
   Practicing a series of postures and breathing exercises to achieve control of the body and mind. For example, Kundalini yoga blends movements with deep breathing and mantras.

1. Zen meditation
   Many Zen practitioners study under a teacher because this kind of meditation involves specific steps and postures.

1. Transcendental Meditation
   The goal is to transcend or rise above the person’s current state of being.

Who invented meditation?Written evidence of any form of meditation was first seen in the Vedas around 1500 BCE. In India, the tradition of Guru and Shishya (teacher and disciple) has been around for ages, where students were sent to Gurukuls (schools) mostly in the forests to live and learn under a learned teacher.
What does meditation do for the brain?Research into how meditation effects the brain has been rolling in steadily for a number of years now, with new studies emerging almost monthly to confirm additional benefits – including benefits from ancient times which are now being confirmed with fMRI or EEG. The practice appears to have an amazing variety of neurological benefits. Meditation:

1. Helps preserve the aging brain
2. Reduces activity in the brain’s “Me Centre”
3. Acts as a natural anti-depressant
4. May lead to volume changes in key areas of the brain
5. Improves concentration and attention
6. Reduces anxiety — and social anxiety
7. Can help with addiction

Scientific evidence confirms that meditation helps relieve anxiety and depression, and improve attention, concentration and overall psychological well-being.

Science-Based Benefits of MeditationMeditation is becoming increasingly popular as more people discover its benefits.
Meditation is a habitual process of training your mind to focus and redirect your thoughts.
You can use it to increase awareness of yourself and your surroundings. Many people think of it as a way to reduce stress and develop concentration.
People also use the practice to develop other beneficial habits and feelings, such as a positive mood and outlook, self-discipline, healthy sleep patterns and even increased pain tolerance.

1. Reduces Stress
2. Controls Anxiety
3. Promotes Emotional Health
4. Enhances Self-Awareness
5. Lengthens Attention Span
6. May Reduce Age-Related Memory Loss
7. Can Generate Kindness
8. May Help Fight Addictions
9. Improves Sleep
10. Helps Control Pain
11. Can Decrease Blood Pressure

How to MeditateThere are many different ways and techniques to meditate. One common method involves the following steps:

1. Get comfortable and prepare to sit still for a few minutes. After you stop reading this, you’re going to simply focus on your own natural inhaling and exhaling of breath.
2. Focus on your breath. Where do you feel your breath most? In your belly? In your nose? Try to keep your attention on your inhale and exhale.
3. Follow your breath for two minutes. You can use the breath ball—inhaling as the ball expands, exhaling when the ball contracts.

EEG (ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPHY) AND QEEG FINDINGS IN MEDITATION
Increased Theta and Alpha EEG Activity During Nondirective Meditation
Significantly increased theta power was found for the meditation condition when averaged across all brain regions. There was also a significant increase in alpha power in the meditation condition compared to the rest condition, when averaged across all brain regions.


Increased Gamma Brainwave Amplitude Compared to Control in Three Different Meditation Traditions
Meditation practice is correlated to changes in the EEG gamma frequency range that are common to a variety of meditation practices.




WAYS TO ACHIEVE MEDITATION STATEThere are many ways to meditate. In addition to types of meditation discussed above, the following can be used:
NEUROFEEDBACK (NFB)
NFB trains the brain to change the brainwave frequencies to get the desired result. Usually, NFB sessions are conducted 2-5 times a week for a total of 40-50 sessions. Each session lasts 30-60 minutes. Although this seems like a lengthy procedure, the results are more long-lasting. NFB is getting extremely popular and used as a stand-alone therapy or in combination.
EEG-Guided Meditation: A Personalized Approach
Using QEEG screening can aid developing a meditation training program that maximizes results and minimizes risk of potential negative effects.


Quantitative EEG Study on Zen Meditation (Zazen)
The present EEG changes occurring during meditation may reflect intrinsic changes induced by Zazen, namely a mental state in which despite the attainment of relaxation the quality of consciousness is heightened.
Electromagnetic Therapy
Some of the recent, modern electromagnetic techniques are TMS (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation) and PEMF (Pulsed Electromagnetic Field) therapy. The use of electromagnetic therapy to alleviate many conditions have been used for over hundreds of years till the end of 19th century/ start of 20th century. Interest in it subdued in the middle period of 20th century, but now the interest has again increased, as evidenced by increase in research and clinical studies in this field.
PEMF Therapy
TMS equipment is costly, needs a clinical set-up and treats with current in the range of 1-2 Tesla. On the other hand, PEMF cost in tremendously less, can be performed anywhere and anytime and the current used is in the range of  100-200 micro-tesla, significantly lower than TMS. This has led to popularity and preference for PEMF therapy, which is also used for other conditions like SLEEP (sleep disturbance), anxiety, depression, sleep improvement, PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and meditation. The beneficial effects of PEMF are increasingly growing and gaining popularity because of ease of use and simplicity of the apparatus.


HOW TO USE BELLABEE PEMF FOR MEDITATIONOpen the Bellabee app on your mobile device and select “Meditate” mode to use the pre-set protocol for MEDITATION or use “Create Therapy” mode to customize therapy for MEDITATION on Bellabee software. This software can be used with any IOS or Android device.