The simple practise of meditation, which has exploded in popularity in recent years, has a slew of health advantages that can help you cope with the stress of contemporary life and restore balance to your life.
Let's face it, life in today's world is difficult. We're more stressed and under more strain than ever before, thanks to 24-hour connectivity at work and constant digital overload at home. As a result, our stress response – one of our body's natural physiological processes that should only be activated in life-threatening conditions – is constantly activated. Traffic congestion, public speaking, demanding workloads, and financial and relationship problems, not lions and tigers.
"Our bodies can take up to an hour to recover to normal after the threat of stress is removed, so we spend an unnecessary amount of time in that stressed state," Kevin Janks of Centred Meditation explains. Anxiety, low immunity, digestive issues, headaches, high blood pressure, poor sleep, exhaustion, and burnout are just a few of the acute and long-term health consequences.
Burnout, according to the World Health Organization, will become a global pandemic within a decade, with a global yearly cost of more than $300 billion. Meditation can serve as a circuit breaker for this never-ending lifestyle, allowing the mind and body to recover. "Meditation is an effective natural stress reliever. It's a basic mental approach utilised by people all around the world, including some of the most successful people on the planet "Kevin adds.
What are the benefits of meditation?
Meditation has numerous psychological benefits, and the more you practise, the more benefits you will reap. The following are some of the advantages:
- Enhanced mood and emotional stability; Reduced anxiety and stress; Increased compassion; Enhanced ability to process information; Greater creativity; Reduced anger; Enhanced presence and ability to live in the moment; Dealing with difficult situations more easily; Reduction of negative thoughts; and Increased happiness.
Aside from the numerous psychological advantages, there are a surprising amount of physical advantages as well, including:
- Physical tension is reduced, blood pressure is reduced, the immune system is strengthened, the ageing process is slowed, and energy levels are increased.
- Sleep quality has improved;
- Reduced activity in a brain region linked to clinical diseases like ADHD and Alzheimer's disease; and reduced physical stress and anxiety symptoms, such as digestion issues, sleep disturbances, headaches, and muscle tightness.
Is it necessary for me to meditate on a regular basis?
According to studies, even a small quantity of regular meditation can benefit. During a multitasking test, those who received eight weeks of mindfulness training showed decreased levels of stress. According to additional studies, meditating for just 20 minutes per day minimised the negative impacts of stress.
"The key to reaping long-term benefits is to practise often and consistently. The most important thing is to commit to the practise and include it into your wellness regimen on a long-term basis "Kevin explains. There are numerous options for getting started. Beginners may benefit from some guidance, so look for a YouTube video, download an App, or attend a face-to-face guided meditation session. If you're meditating at home, make sure you're not distracted by turning off the phone, closing the door, and sitting in a quiet, comfortable place. Make an effort to meditate at the same time each day to build a routine. The more you practise, the faster you'll learn and the more advantages you'll reap.
The Best Ways to Meditate
Everyone can meditate, and here's how to do it.
Meditation is both easier and more difficult than most people believe. Read through these procedures, make sure you're in a relaxing environment, set a timer, and give it a shot:
- Sit down.
- Look for a relaxing and quiet spot to sit in.
- Establish a time restriction.
- If you're just getting started, setting aside a modest amount of time, such as five or ten minutes, can be beneficial.
- Pay attention to your body.
- You can sit in a chair with your feet on the floor, cross-legged, or kneel—any of these positions is OK. Simply ensure that you are steady and in a position that you can maintain for an extended period of time.
- Pay attention to your breathing.
- Pay attention to the sensations of your breath as it enters and exits your body.
- Recognize when your thoughts have wandered.
- Your attention will inevitably leave the breath and stray to other things. Simply return your focus to the breath when you notice your mind has wandered—in a few seconds, a minute, or five minutes.
- Be gentle with your wandering thoughts.
- Don't pass judgement on yourself or concentrate about the nature of the ideas you're having. Simply return.
- End on a positive note.
- Lift your gaze gently when you're ready (if your eyes are closed, open them). Take a moment to listen to the sounds around you. Take note of how your body is currently feeling. Take note of your feelings and thoughts.
That concludes our discussion. That is standard procedure. You concentrate, your mind wanders, you bring it back, and you do it as gently as possible (as many times as you need to).
Is It Necessary for Me to Meditate?
Meditation isn't any more difficult than what we've just stated. It's that easy... and that difficult. It's also effective and worthwhile. The goal is to make a daily commitment to sit, even if it's only for five minutes. "One of my meditation teachers remarked that the most crucial moment in your meditation practise is the time you sit down to do it," says Sharon Salzberg, a meditation teacher. Because you're telling yourself that you believe in change, that you believe in self-care, and you're putting it into action. You're not only holding a value like mindfulness or compassion in your head, but putting it into practise."
According to neuroscientist Amishi Jha's recent research, 12 minutes of meditation five times a week can safeguard and increase your capacity to pay attention.
Meditation Techniques and Tips
We've covered simple breath meditation so far, but there are other mindfulness techniques that use external objects like a sound in the room or something bigger, like observing spontaneous things that come into your awareness during an aimless wandering exercise, to anchor our attention. But there is one thing that all of these habits have in common: we realise that our minds are in charge a lot of the time. That is correct. Typically, we have thoughts and then act. However, here are some helpful techniques to help you switch things up:
How to Develop a Mindfulness Practice
It's estimated that 95% of our actions are pre-programmed. That's because neural networks are at the heart of all of our habits, converting millions of sensory inputs every second into manageable shortcuts that allow us to function in this chaotic world. These automatic brain signals are so effective that they frequently drive us to revert to old habits before we recall what we intended to do instead.
These default processes are the polar opposite of mindfulness. It's more like executive control than autopilot, and it allows for deliberate acts, willpower, and decisions. However, this requires time and practise. The more we use the intentional brain, the more powerful it becomes. We boost neuroplasticity by doing something intentional and novel, which activates our grey matter, which is full of newly sprung neurons that haven't yet been groomed for "autopilot" brain.
But there's a catch. Our purposeful brain knows what is best for us, but our autopilot brain causes us to take shortcuts in life. So, how can we remind ourselves to remain mindful when it's most needed? This is when "behaviour design" comes into play. It's a technique for putting your conscious mind in control. There are two ways to accomplish this: first, by slowing down the autopilot brain by placing impediments in its path, and second, by eliminating obstacles from the intentional brain's path, allowing it to regain control.
It takes some effort to shift the balance to give your deliberate brain more power. Here are a few ideas for getting started.
Place reminders for meditation all around you. If you want to practise yoga or meditate, place your yoga mat or meditation cushion in the middle of your floor so it's easy to see as you walk by.
Renew your reminders on a regular basis. Let's pretend you've decided to utilise sticky notes to remind yourself of a new goal. That may work for a week, then your autopilot brain and old patterns will take over. Try making new notes to yourself; vary them or make them humorous. That way, they'll stay with you for a longer period of time.
Make your own patterns. To provide easy reminders to move into the purposeful brain, consider a succession of "If this, then that" messages. As an example, you may come up with the phrase "If office door, then deep breath" as a technique to enter mindfulness as you prepare to begin your workday. "Take a breath before answering the phone," for example. Your purposeful brain will be strengthened with each deliberate activity to transition into mindfulness.
"Unless you are extremely busy, you should meditate for twenty minutes every day. After that, sit for an hour." Proverb from the Zen tradition.
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