We have all heard stories about yoga masters from Tibet or India, mysterious hermits who live their lives isolated on mountain tops and spend days, weeks, even months in deep meditation. These wise men may seem to have supernatural powers, slowing their breathing and heartbeat to a crawl, and some even claim to have achieved enlightenment. But what is meditation, really, and what does it do? What benefits can you get from it?

The truth is, you do not have to be a swami or the reincarnation of an ancient master to meditate, and it can create real improvements in every area of your health and well-being. All you need is a quiet, dark room, twenty minutes a day to yourself, and this article.

What Meditation Is

To understand meditation, one should know a little bit about the brain. Think of your brain as a machine capable of adjusting to a wide spectrum of activities. Throughout the course of your day, electrical pulses in the brain change to meet your needs. This happens naturally, and you are usually not aware of it.

From full mental engagement at one end of the spectrum to daydreaming near the middle and REM sleep at the other end, different activities have different brain wave patterns associated with them. Simply, meditation is a state of altered consciousness where your brain slows down from its normal, beta brain wave activity to more relaxed alpha activity.

Alpha activity does not disrupt your awareness like sleep does, and you remain alert to yourself, your surroundings and your thoughts. However, the alpha state is much closer to sleep than the beta state. This causes deep physical relaxation, a sense of peacefulness induced by neurochemical changes, and heightened mental clarity in a fraction of the time it would take for you to interrupt your daily routine and take a nap. Also, you can finish your meditation session within minutes and return to full beta, unlike waking from a nap, which often leaves you feeling groggy.

What Meditation Is Not

Meditation is not mystical. Though many religious traditions, especially in the east, encourage regular meditation as part of communion with the divine, there is nothing inherently spiritual about the process of meditation, and people from all spiritual backgrounds and all walks of life can learn to meditate.

Meditation is not pseudoscience. On the same note, the physical benefits of meditation are very real and have been established by psychologists through clinical research. Regular meditation reduces your adaptation level - basically, the level of physical tension that your muscles usually carry as you go about your daily business. Many of us have an unnecessarily high adaptation level which keeps us in readiness for fight-for-flight at any time. By reducing our adaptation level, we reduce the physical strain on our muscles and organs, and make positive changes in our body chemistry.

Meditation is not gymnastics. No complex physical contortions of any kind are necessary for meditation. As a matter of fact, your brain naturally passes through a state very similar to meditation when you are lying in bed on your way to falling asleep. Meditation can be practiced in almost any physical position, but should usually be learned and used when you are as comfortable as possible and can fill your lungs completely while breathing.

Meditation is not a substitute for sleep. Though meditating at regular intervals throughout the day can help you make more effective use of your energy, reduce sleep toxins in the bloodstream and allow you to remain alert for longer periods of time, meditation cannot be used as a replacement for sleep. On the contrary, meditation often allows you to sleep more deeply and get more rest because the body is prepared to submerge into deep sleep without a long period of cooling down from the day beforehand. This can mean less tossing and turning and more REM sleep, which is vital for maintaining health.

How to Meditate

Meditation is a very simple process, but it can take some practice to get the hang of it.

• All you need for your first meditation session is a place where you will be undisturbed for ten to twenty minutes. If possible, unplug the phone, lock the door, and let anyone you live with know what you are doing. If the lights can be dimmed, so much the better. It is important that you minimize distractions when you are first learning to meditate. As you progress, it will become possible to meditate in more chaotic environments.
• Begin by sitting normally in a comfortable, straight-backed chair. Recliners are not recommended, because they increase the risk that you will fall asleep; however, something like a wicker chair that puts strain on your back should not be considered an improvement.
• Straighten your posture so that your back is straight and your head is erect, as though you are looking directly ahead of you. Place your hands on your knees. Your shoulders should be straight, but not so straight that your hands cannot rest normally.
• Close your eyes. As you meditate for longer and longer periods, you will find that your head lolls forward naturally as your neck relaxes. This should be allowed, but always remember to raise your head if you begin to feel groggy. The ideal meditative state is a pleasant sense of relaxation in which your alertness is not compromised. You may feel lethargic, as though moving would be too much trouble, but you should not feel as though you might fall asleep.
• With your eyes closed, begin to breathe in and out slowly. Inhale through the nose, allowing your chest to rise as your lungs fill to their maximum extent. Hold your full breath for two to three seconds and then release it slowly through your mouth.
• Repeat this several times, counting down from ten toward zero with each exhalation. Concentrate on the feeling of your nose as air enters your nostrils, and on your slightly opened lips as air leaves your mouth. Once you have done this ten times, you should become aware that your muscles are beginning to relax naturally. If you have chronic trouble with neck, back or shoulder aches, it may take these muscles longer to respond. You will also notice that your mind flits in many directions, trying to fill you with thoughts about your day, other things you hear or feel and whatever tasks you plan to do later. This is normal. On the first attempt, most students cannot hold a state of meditation for more than two to five minutes.

That is all there is to it. If you practice twice daily, once in the morning and once in the evening, you will soon be able to clear your mind and silence nagging thoughts for longer and longer periods. Strive for ten minutes after the first week, twenty minutes after the first month and longer periods as you deem fit.

Ten to twenty minutes is long enough to reap all the benefits of meditation, but longer periods can extend these benefits and make for good preparation before a stressful interview, meeting, date, or what have you.

After a little practice, you can consider yourself skilled in the art of meditation. You may choose to augment your practice by finding other positions to meditate in or incorporating different breathing techniques. Whatever you do, you can be sure that meditation will make a positive impact on your mental and physical health, all without growing a long, white beard or moving to a cave.