Science of Meditative Relaxation

Cyclic meditation (CM) is a 'moving' meditation technique devised to address the needs and problems of modern man. Many people find it difficult to relax and get into a meditative state if asked to sit with their eyes closed while others feel drowsy and even fall asleep. Cyclic meditation involves a combination of gentle yogic stretching and relaxation. It is based on the principles culled from classical yogic texts like Mandukya Upanishad and Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The practice of CM in general appears to bring about a state of low physiological activation, with reduced oxygen consumption and a shift in the sympathovagal balance towards vagal dominance. Along with these changes suggestive of decreased psychophysiological arousal and also of sympathetic tone following cyclic meditation, it was interesting to note that after this practice there were changes suggestive of a better ability to sustain and focus attention (evidenced by the changes in P300 and performance in letter cancellation task). These results suggest that CM produces a hypo-metabolic physiological state along with an improvement in the ability to show selective and focused attention to target stimuli.