Why should I Meditate?

The answer to that is clear and simple. When we meditate, we release the calming hormones melatonin and serotonin and the stress hormone cortisol is reduced, so we find that long term meditators have less heart disease, less cancer and and have improved immune response. There is a wealth of research to support this now. One example of this research was done by Deepak Chopra, whereby a group of meditators had their serotonin levels measured before a group meditation and then again afterwards, all of them had increased their levels during the exercise. They then measured the levels of people within the vicinity, they too had increased serotonin during the exercise, though not as much as the participants, the levels dropped off as they moved further away from the group, thus meditation also appears to have an impact on those in the wider environment. It is hard to say where meditation ends and hypnosis begins, each is a state of focused attention often involving visual cues which leads to a calm, relaxed state. Meditation is something that you can pursue easily at home and can be a useful adjunct to a programme of hypnotherapy treatment and I encourage all my clients to try it. There are many apps now to help you. I am now contributing to a free App, Insight Timer and I have just uploaded a new meditation called “Oneness”. The world around us through media, films and books presents to us that the route to real happiness and fulfilment is through another person and through the acquisition of material things. We can feel lost and unhappy when life does not live up to these expectations. We can instead connect with the vast natural world around us, a world that is full of gifts and love that is totally free and cannot be taken away from us. My “oneness “meditation celebrates this connection. You can listen to it by downloading the Insight Timer App and there are further tracks to buy at my website headtogether.net