If we look into the history of the emergence of meditation and https://www.julianalucky.com/post/10-top-yoga-books-for-kids, we will find that it did not arise as a tool for relaxation, health promotion, or increase in personal productivity, although it is thanks to this positioning that it has become widespread among modern people. Ancient practitioners perceived these effects from meditation as accidental, collateral, but its real goal has always been the transformation of personal qualities, the transformation of the inner state, which could only happen as a result of regular practice.

The American Psychological Center at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, as a result of an experiment on a group of yogis, confirmed that meditation can indeed change a person’s personality. The yogis were following the spiritual tradition of Asian monks and yogis practicing immersion in deep, prolonged meditation. This method differs significantly from the modern pragmatic approach cultivated in the West, where the practice is given the minimum available time in order to obtain an immediate short-term result (for example, reducing the level of stress) and such an important component as studying and reconfiguring your self is discarded.And this is far from the only one what is missing in such a “user-friendly” version of meditation.

However, meditation cannot be called the most important component of yoga, it is only one of the many tools, including, for example, strict rules of self-discipline (yama and niyama), which help to increase the level of awareness, consciousness and ultimately lead to significant changes in the inner state of a person. But such serious transformations require dedication to this cause of your whole life.

The Yogis in the experimental group followed the Tibetan spiritual tradition, which says that people everywhere can be liberated from all kinds of suffering and that meditators can contribute to this seemingly overwhelming task by applying mind training techniques. One of these areas is the development of a certain emotional equanimity, as well as confidence that meditation and related practices can have a lasting effect, changing the practitioner himself and the world around him.

While some meditators in the West adhere to these beliefs and make serious efforts to practice, others simply try these methods for the sake of learning something new, not taking it as a matter of their whole life. (But we all know that motivation can change over time, so often something completely different from the primary goal begins to keep a person on the path of a given practice).

However, the personal qualities of a person change not only due to the complete dedication of oneself to practice, but also due to the following points:

1. Strong ethical principles – a set of moral instructions that promote the manifestation of personal transformation. Many traditions use them as an internal compass to prevent selfish use of the results of the practice.

2. Altruistic beginning (when the yogi is engaged in meditation not only for himself, but for the good of all living).

3. A groundless belief, the conviction that your particular path is important for the world as a whole and will lead you to the necessary changes. Some sacred texts warn us about the dangers of “blind faith” and encourage practitioners to carefully select a mentor.

4. Personalized instructions (an experienced teacher is able to give the student advice on passing exactly his path).

5. Devotion (a deep sense of gratitude to all people, principles and forces that contribute to the practice. It can also manifest itself to sacred images, a mentor or to his achievements and personal transformations).

6. A community of like-minded people (a circle of people who are as interested in practices as you are).

7. Supporting the culture of the country. Traditional Asian cultures have always highly appreciated people who dedicated themselves to developing attention, patience, compassion and other similar qualities, therefore those who lead ordinary lives support practitioners by bringing them food, money as gratitude, trying to make their life easier in the possible ways. Unfortunately, this is not common in modern cultures.

8. The idea of a possible transformation of consciousness (the very idea that these practices are capable of leading to the liberation of our consciousness from its usual shackles evokes respect and reverence for this path, as well as for those who follow it).