If life is a game of focus and what we focus on grows, then what happens when 100,00 people come together to meditate for world peace?

On November 29, 2015, more 100,000 people (in-person and online) joined the Naam Yoga Superclass dedicated to Love, Peace, and Light in Mexico City’s Angel of Independence.

With so many disturbing headlines today, can group meditation on peace truly create an impact in our world?

Meditation experts and yogis answer with a resounding yes!

EcoSalon caught up with Alyssa Gaustad, a leading member of the Naam Yoga Therapies International Teacher Training Team to discuss why group meditation is important today and the huge difference it makes.

EcoSalon: What happens when 100,000 people come together to focus on peace? For the individual and the world?

Alyssa Gaustad: Sometimes we think that the problems of the world are too big for us to make an impact. But each person and each thought do make a difference! According to The Institute of Noetic Sciences, “There is data to suggest that it takes only the square root of 1 percent of a population to align their thinking for mass consciousness to change.” Imagine then, what the impact is with 100,000 people coming together as we do in the Superclasses. The impact of 100,000 people gathered together and focused on peace affects the equivalent of 1 trillion people!

ES: Why specifically is meditation so important?

AG: For our world to change, we ourselves have to be willing to change, and that is why we meditate. Naam meditation causes us to be more universal and to let go of the conditioning that causes us to feel that we are separate from each other.  It helps us to face ourselves and to change with grace.  How can we expect the world to change if we ourselves are not willing to change? Meditation cleanses the mind and frees us from the shackles of this conditioning, making us more tolerant, flexible and compassionate. We work with breath, rhythm, and sacred words to shift our nervous system out of a state of stress and reaction, into a place of calm and peace. By shifting out of a state of automatic behavior to a state of consciousness and awareness, our perception shifts. We become more creative in the way we face the various challenges in life. We move into a state of creating our reality through the lens of positivity and our life changes for the better.

Cultivating inner peace through meditation creates peace in our outer world and this has an incredibly positive and healing impact on the planet. It also helps us to see the universality of all teachings and embrace the fact that we are all interconnected so that we may see the divine in every teaching, in every person and in ourselves.

It doesn’t matter what language you speak or what your religion is, at the Superclass prayers and meditations are performed from many backgrounds and in many languages such as English, Spanish, Hebrew, Latin, Gurmukhi and Sanskrit for instance.  Everyone can feel at home.  It is a beautiful reflection of unity and universality.

ES: Is this just a once a year event? Or can we keep the positive energy going in our daily lives?

AG: An event like this opens the door for what is possible for us to create in this world.  Dr. Levry the founder of Naam Yoga says, “It has never been more important than it is right now for the world to envision peace and create it.” It is important for us to take responsibility individually and collectively to help heal our planet. Each of us can make the world a better place by becoming softer, more tolerant and more compassionate, not only toward others but also toward ourselves.

We can focus on peace everyday, in each moment. We can make it a daily practice. Every thought, every word and every feeling is a prayer and every day we have a chance to uplift others. By consciously directing and redirecting our thoughts and words to focus on love, peace and light each day, we keep the positive effects of the Superclass flowing and have a powerful influence on the planet.

Reciting the Prayer of Love Peace and Light given to us by Dr. Levry is a beautiful way to focus on peace and it is the prayer that we close all Naam Yoga classes with. This prayer is a simple, universal and practical way to keep contributing to the movement of peace on this planet. 

ES: How does meditation change us?

AG: We have the power, through the Superclasses for Peace, to meditate with hundreds of thousands of people at the same time in order to generate a magnitude of high pranic energy that can affect the minds and hearts of everyone.  In so doing, we positively change our molecular vibration and raise our frequency to new heights of compassion and tolerance. Through the principle of resonance, the lowest vibrations in a group naturally attune to the highest vibrations, thus we are collectively transformed.

Today science has accepted the health benefits of meditation and there is a rise of studies on the direct affect group meditation has on reducing violence and war.

Peter Oppermann, founder of the Future Self Meditation Method adds that “If our mind is at peace, we see peace all around us. If our mind is angry and agitated and ‘at war’, we see war all around us. Our perception of the outer world is colored by our own state of mind. In (group) mediation, we drop into a unified field that dissolves the sense of separations, we feel more connected to others. A sense of natural loving awareness arises which is the opposite of being at war. We literally become the peace we long to see in the world.”

While there are different types of meditation, the goal is the same: to unify beyond the individual ego to help create a tangible high vibration of peace that proliferates. And it’s not just for the world’s benefit but also for the individual. Suze Yalof Schwartz Founder/CEO of Unplug Meditation says, “The group energy when meditating- you feel it – and it elevates you.”

Are you inspired to help create world peace? Do you want to start now?

With meditation, it’s never been easier to be part of a positive tipping point in the world. You can even do it your pajamas. Turn off the news, close your eyes and turn your attention to a unified vibration of peace that always is available to us through meditation 24/7.

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Teens find stress reduction and self awareness. Two benefits of meditation.

If only I had understood the benefits of meditation when I was a teen. All those hormones, all that fear running rampant through my veins. Everything seemed like the end of the world. Heartbreaks cut deeper, frenemies were meaner, all before you had acquired any sort of self awareness. It’s an awkward stage that can result in far too much stress. That’s why the benefits of meditation would be all the more important at this life stage.

Now, a breadth of new research has led more teens to give meditation a try. In fact, seasoned meditator, comedian and author Russell Brand, recently led a meditation at Sala Burton Academic High School in San Francisco. Officials at the high school said that thanks to teen meditation, teen violence has been reduced and academic performance has improved, reported on ABC News.

A 2011 study by a team of researchers at Harvard found that first time meditators were able to grow gray matter in the areas of the brain responsible for self awareness and shrink gray matter in the areas of the brain responsible for stress.

Elisha Goldstein and wife Stephanie developed the Connecting Adolescents to Learning Mindfulness (CALM) program which uses mindfulness to give teens a crash course in how to deal with life’s stress and disappointments. The program takes into account a teen’s shorter attention span by including activities like hiking and music.

“So there’s this incredible opportunity to lay the foundation to experience a sense of personal control, so you cultivate a sense of emotional intelligence and to learn how to connect with people in meaningful ways and that lays the foundation for the adult years that follow,” he said to ABC News.

In the past decade we’ve become so engrossed in our devices and social media. These two distractions along with televisions and working too many hours takes us away from the present moment. We’ve got so much going on that we hardly stop to take a breath, let alone be mindful. But at the same time, there’s also a sense of rebellion against our device-driven world. Meditation is just one aspect of this response. And I can’t think of a more exciting trend.

I can’t even imagine being a teen today in the age of social media. One misstep and it ends up online for the world to see. Bullying has become virtual and as a result, that much more vicious. By providing teens with the tools to deal with their emotions in a thoughtful way we’re setting them up for a much happier existence later in life. It’s difficult for teens to deal with the severity of their emotions. Meditation provides perspective and self awareness for adults and teens alike. I only wish I had known this 15 years ago.

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New research shows the health benefits of meditation both physically and mentally. Publishing in the journal Pschoneuroendocrinolgy, researchers from Wisconsin, Spain, and France have found that mindfulness meditation can cause molecular changes.

I am proof positive of the benefits of meditation. Before I started meditating seven years ago I spent little time in the present moment. I was stressed by the future and hurt by the past, constantly worrying what people thought of me. Meditation has reduced that weight dramatically. It’s made me feel lighter and more engaged in the present moment. And scientists are backing my experiences up with more and more research that shows the health benefits of meditation.

The study followed a group of practiced meditators and a control group of untrained subjects who engaged in quiet non-meditative activities. After eight hours of mindfulness meditation, the meditators showed a range of genetic differences in levels of pro-inflammatory genes.

“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that shows rapid alterations in gene expression within subjects associated with mindfulness meditation practice,” says study author Richard J. Davidson, founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds and the William James and Vilas Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“Most interestingly, the changes were observed in genes that are the current targets of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs,” says Perla Kaliman, first author of the article and a researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona, Spain (IIBB-CSIC-IDIBAPS), where the molecular analyses were conducted.

Specifically, the genes in the meditating group showed less inflammation and faster recovery from stressful situations. At the beginning of the research when the two groups were studied, there was no difference in the two groups. However, the study did not look at the longterm impact of mediation, just changes in the two groups after a lengthy period of mediation.

“Our genes are quite dynamic in their expression and these results suggest that the calmness of our mind can actually have a potential influence on their expression,” Davidson says.

It’s all the more reason to add a meditation practice to your life. And it doesn’t have to be a big deal. Consider setting aside 10 minutes each morning. Find a secluded space to sit quietly. Set the alarm on your cell phone, close your eyes, and begin to watch your inhales and exhales. Commit to just a few minutes each day and as you feel comfortable, you can add five minutes. Over time you may even look forward to your meditation.

Meditation doesn’t stop you from thinking, so don’t get aggravated if you can’t stop the slew of thoughts that pop into your mind. Instead, watch your thoughts like a movie, without getting involved in them and attaching emotion. Over time, the relaxation you cultivate during meditation will carry over into your life, reducing stress and its impact on your body.

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Have you ever considered a silent retreat? Here’s why you should.

My dad used to say that he couldn’t believe how different his two children turned out to be. And he would use the hour-long journey to grandma’s house as a good example of why. If it were just he and my brother in the car, it was silence, while I just never shut up. Part of me always envied my brother’s ability to be completely comfortable in silence.

Chatter can be a waste of time, especially when it’s pushed. Say you’re on a walk with a friend and you feel the need to carry on a conversation for the entire length of the walk. It can deplete you of energy, making you feel more tired at the end of your walk than you ever would have it you walked in silence by yourself. Not to mention that sometimes you can end up saying things that you don’t mean. When you’re out of material, sometimes it can be motivation to gossip–a massive downer and waste of time.

That’s where a silent retreat can be a great experience. It’s a reminder to use your words for good. Is what you’re saying worth while? Is it kind? When you don’t talk for a bit you’re more like to truly consider what you do say.

And silent retreats can be beneficial on a number of other fronts. If you’re in a transitional period of your life it can be a great reset. Maybe you’ve split with your partner, lost a loved one, or you’re looking to make career changes. Or maybe you want to learn how to deal with stress in your life in a more constructive way. Maybe you want more than anything to find your purpose in life, as cliché as that might sound.

In a noisy world silence can be welcoming, especially for those times when you can’t seem to drown out the distraction. Spending five days reflecting on your life can make a world of difference. After all, how can you make headway in your life if can’t learn to listen to yourself?

Happiness comes from self knowledge–learning to know and love yourself so much that you begin to spread that love to all living beings. And self knowledge comes from taking the time to sit with yourself in silence. It’s a beautiful thing.

You can go on a silent meditation retreat, which vary in length and can be found all over the world. Or you can go silent when you’re living at an ashram for as few or as many days as you feel comfortable. Don’t dive in, be realistic. Don’t go on a 10-day silent meditation retreat if you’ve never meditated in your life. But if you need a jumpstart in your life, silence may be just what the doctor ordered.

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Eating right, getting enough sleep and exercising are three incredibly effective ways to improve your overall health and mental clarity. However, the list doesn’t stop there. The benefits of meditation may be just as significant.

As much as achieving a state of well-being requires doing something, a large part of it may actually hinge on what you don’t do. Touted as an unmistakable part of the key to success by famous actors, prominent businesspeople and supermodels, meditation may be your segue to a more fulfilling life, both personally and professionally.

Meditation is practiced by almost all religions and is in some places often synonymous with prayer. Meditation has Hindu roots and versions of meditation were developed in Taoist China and Buddhist India in the 6^th and 5^th centuries BCE. Today, especially with yoga having gone mainstream, the benefits of meditation are garnering more and more attention as mind-body-balancing tools.

Most of us are already familiar with meditation. What often comes to mind is a vision of someone sitting cross-legged, upper wrists resting on the knees with the thumb and index finger touching and a long, monotone, “Ommm…”, drawing out from his or her mouth. Looks simple, enough, sure, but it is incredibly difficult to master. Meditation also takes many forms, as what is happening on the inside of the body is far more important than its position.

Meditation is a practice of mindfulness, focus and presence. It is an active pursuit to clear the brain of chatter, focus on breath and posture and exist wholly and entirely in the moment. There are many forms of meditation, including transcendental, prayer, Zen, Taoist, orgasmic, mindfulness, walking and Buddhist meditations. Some require you stay still while others include music. While you may be sitting and, for all intents and purposes, appearing like you are not doing much of anything, au contraire! In this day and age, doing less is often harder than doing more and meditation is one of those things that requires a proactive spirit.

By practicing meditation regularly, you are hopefully able to achieve a sense of peace and quiet within yourself, the kind of calm that can reap amazing benefits for your body.

I first caught wind the benefits of meditation when I came across this article about women dealing with the emotional and physical stress of breast cancer. It was a green light to my further research, during which I realized meditation was no joke and we should all be doing it, without exception.

Neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Richard J. Davidson, has long led researchers in understanding meditation and its effects on the human body. Davidson has explored how mindfulness can support compassion in young children as well as alter the expression of genes.

Meanwhile, the rest of the scientific community is catching wind. In one study, researchers found that compared to subjects who received no treatment, subjects who practiced mindful meditation experienced a reduction in distress and an improvement in positive mood states. Another study corroborated these claims, revealing that meditative practice was able to reduce psychological stress responses and improve cognitive functions among subjects.

The effects of stress on the body are not to be downplayed. It can cause all sorts of ailments, including a faster heart rate, skipped heartbeats, rapid breathing, trembling, dizziness, problems swallowing, loose stools, frequent need to urinate, dry mouth, pain in the abdomen, headaches and muscle tightness or pain. Over a longer period of time, these symptoms of stress can lead to even more serious diseases.

Meditation is also associated with improved brain and immune function. Meditate to prevent a cold? I’ll take that! In the long run, meditation may also be key in avoiding the onset of dementia. And if that weren’t enough, meditation can also improve lipid profiles, lower oxidative stress, strengthen neuronal circuit and enhance cognitive reserve capacity.

It’s clear: the benefits of meditation are convincing and real. But if you aren’t inspired yet, check out these 50 quotes on meditation to further inspire you and follow these 6 tips on how to meditate. There ere are also many guided meditations on YouTube. Trust the research presented and people you may know who regularly meditate – they are clearly onto something! All it takes is as little as a few minutes each day to start, and then you can decide for yourself if you can “Ommm…” forward.

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