Zazen Posture

I have been doing some reading on postures in which to meditate and my readings for my Buddhism class have given extremely specific instructions.
You start off in lotus position, with your right foot on your left thigh and vice versa.
It is important to keep your spine straight with your ears and shoulders on one line.
Relax your shoulders and draw the back of your head up to the ceiling.
Keep your chin tucked under to your chest while keeping your diaphragm strong.
Your hands should be in the cosmic mudra, forming an oval with the left hand on the right hand and the thumbs touching.
When you are in this posture you are automatically in the correct state of mind so you do not have to take the time to settle your mind down.
All of this allows you to truly exist for yourself by taking away the distractions around you.
When meditating you focus on your breathe but distractions will come. The best way to deal with this is to let yourself pay attention to the distractions but don't let them bother you. Just let them naturally slip away. Not being bothered will allow you to truly become calm.
This is some good reading regarding a specific form of meditation.

I think tonight I might try this kind of meditation.

Some Crazy Claims

This being the first day after my meditation I don't feel any more relaxed, though I really can't be feeling any effects so soon. Now the idea that meditation will help to relieve stress, gaining new perspectives, or increase self awareness makes sense. These are all pretty believable results, since you are practicing controlling your mind and your thoughts. It's when the claims start to get really crazy that I have a problem with them. Now these are from the mayo clinic website. According to them meditation can help with:
Allergies
Asthma
Binge Eating
CANCER
Heart Disease
Pain
and Substance Abuse among others
Seriously now, cancer? I think it's ridiculous when people claim that stress is such a large factor in almost every disease there is. Lowering your stress isn't going to help you defeat a disease, especially one as fatal as cancer. I have Crohn's disease, something that is proven to be linked to stress. But being stressed makes it more likely for a flare up to occur. If I am having a flare up, relieving stress will in no way help the disease to go away.
I'm going to be doing my second night of meditation tonight so we'll see if my second session is more powerful than my first. I'll also start reviewing medical studies done on the effects of meditation.


Sources:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/meditation/HQ01070

Meditation Day 1

Starting out I'm feeling stressful as usual, probably 7 on a scale from 1 to 10. I'm also extremely worried about several things, including school work, getting a job, most things college seniors worry about. Let's see how the meditation help.
----------15 minutes later------------
Just got done meditating. I decided to start with 15 minutes and work my way up. I did as my books said and decided to sit in an upright crosss legged position with my back up against the headboard of my bed. I started by focusing on my breathing. Everytime I heard a noise I noticed it and then came back to the breathing. Also, everytime I had a thought, when I realized it I went back to focusing on the breathing. Several times I almost drifted off to sleep, which makes me think it would be better to do this in the morning. I also had several times when I was distracted by pains in my legs but going focusing on the breathing helped ot bring my mind back.
Overall I can see that this could be a good way to practice and improve your concentration. So hopefully at the end of the month I'll see an improvement in that. I felt relaxed while doing it but not really anymore so now. My pulse also didn't lower at all. Maybe next time I'll have someone take it while I'm meditating.
I'll be back later with another meditation session and some fun facts and research about meditation.

Meditation

I'm taking a class about Buddhism this semester, with a lot of information about Buddhism and Meditation. The descriptions of meditation seemed to make sense, and I do have a tendency to get anxious so really it couldn't hurt to try. So for the month of April I will be practicing Buddhist Meditation.


Basically meditation is when you take time out of your day to focus and relax. Breathing is also a big factor. The purpose is to keep your mind peaceful and to learn to use mindfulness. By becoming mindful we can create our own happiness and not let our happiness depend on our eternal surroundings. Overall sounds pretty good right?
The first step to meditation is to focus on breathing. First find a quiet and comfortable place to sit. Close your eyes and focus on each breathe, on the in and on the out. Concentrate on the breathing and let every other thought leave your mind. If thoughts do come to mind let yourself follow them but quickly return to the breathing. Observe your mind as an outsider looking in.
There are many different kinds of meditation. I'm going to be starting using the first technique, breathing meditation where you focus on your breaths.

Alternative "Medicine" and "Cures"

I always am humored/scared when people talk about going to alternative medicine to get cures instead of going to an actual doctor. I mean, the thought that prayer or homeopathy could actually do anything for you seems ridiculous. Not to mention that there are absolutely no conclusive studies proving their efficacy. Every story in their favor is purely anecdotal. So I thought, well, why don't I try these things for myself for one month and see how they work on me. I have nothing to lose in the process right? So starting today I'll be going through each of these alternative treatments to see how they work for me. Starting with meditation. Wish me luck!