THE EFFECT OF MEDITATION ON HEALTH

Good health is necessary for almost all human Endeavour without even a mid level healthy state one cannot do physical mental, intellectual and social tasks with some degree of excellence. A Sanskrit proverb considers health as the foundation of all happiness; the sooner we realize this the better it is for us. Health and happiness together in life is bound to turn all our dreams into reality. How to lead a healthy life is one of the most misunderstood subjects. Most people seek a comfortable and easy life and in doing so they adopt such a life style that causes or precipitates large number of diseases. How cholesterol and low fiber diet, lack of exercise, living in congested dwellings, fast urban life, smoking and consumption of alcoholic beverages are some of the disease promoting factors. In addition to all these factors, stress and strain of day-to-day life has increased to an epidemic proportion. Due to the development of science and technology, life has become much more easy, but at the same time people have become materialistic. In modern society we are looking for happiness and pleasure from material comforts and external objects. Many people are addicted to substances like tobacco alcohol and tropic drugs substances, which are hazardous to health. In recent years AIDS has taken the world by surprise. Experts in the field of stress management point out that no situation is stressful by itself. It is due to our way of thinking and attitudes; we perceive various circumstances as stress. By transforming our attitudes, we can transform pain into pleasure, criticism into blessings and sorrow into bliss. We must learn and practice a technique that elicits relaxation response Also it is felt that for improving the present condition of health, we should give more importance to mental and social dimensions of health. Non- pharmacological preventive tools should be made more popular. Common people need to be educated in the various aspects of health. Health is our birth right. It is a treasure which neither science nor wealth can buy and to get which most people would give up everything.