A commonly accepted definition for meditation is the act of cultivating the mind to turn inward and focus on a single thought, image or object. The object of focus could be an object, mental images, a mantra or even simple motivative statements. With the all-powerful Maha Mantra in our arsenal, G.O.D Australia practices and teaches the mantra meditation as a service to the community.

An important aspect of meditation is to accept the distraction of the mind as a common and natural occurrence. All schools of meditation agree that rather than suppressing the emanating thoughts, the practitioner should gently but persistently bring back the attention to the object of focus and rest in the stillness beneath the mind.

One of the costs of having a distracted and inattentive mind is the over-activation of the “stress response” – the “fight or flight” response – that prepares us to either fight off or escape situations we perceive as dangerous or threatening. This stress response can be triggered inappropriately when we:

• imagine situations to be more threatening than they really are,
• worry about events that may not actually happen,
• repeatedly go over events that have already been and gone.

Some research suggests this causes “wear and tear” on our body that over time, increases our risk of illness. There are now many hundreds of studies published in scientific journals showing that meditation, practised regularly, can be helpful in managing, preventing and coping with a range of mental and physical health problems such as depression, anxiety, insomnia, asthma and cancer.

There is also reported research to suggest meditation can help boost immunity, improve DNA repair (a cellular process important to preventing a range of illnesses) and slow the changes to DNA that occur with ageing (and predispose us to diseases associated with ageing such as cancer).

What is mantra meditation? The word mantra has two parts: ‘man‘, which is the root of the Sanskrit word for mind; and ‘tra’, which is the root of the word instrument. A mantra is an instrument of the mind provides a powerful sound or vibration that can be used to enter a state of meditation. Mantras can be viewed as ancient power words with subtle intentions that help us connect to spirit, the source of everything in the universe. The Maha Mantra used by us in our practice of meditation is especially powerful in developing a strong yet well-cultivated mind that can quite easily get into the space of stillness with practice.