During our busy schedules, it can be difficult to find time to unwind and relax to prevent an excess of stress or burn-out. Meditation is an easily accessible tool for everyone and takes very little time out of your day. Contrary to what some may believe, meditation doesn’t just involve sitting cross-legged on your bedroom floor while you sit in silence hoping that ‘inner-peace’ will strike you at any moment, but rather calls for you to be mindful and to ground yourself in the present moment – to be in tune with your thoughts and emotions.
There are different types of meditation, all of which aim to achieve different goals, but it is most often used to train the brain to be able to focus its attention on the present moment and to be able to come to peace with the difficult challenges and emotions that are thrown our way. Meditation is also a great tool to boost your overall happiness and feelings of fulfilment. It’s also practiced in many spiritual cultures with the aim of achieving peace and calm within the mind and body.
Meditation: where do I start?
One of the most practiced forms of meditation is mindfulness meditation and is ideal if you have a tight schedule as it can be practiced alone without the guidance of a teacher. This form of meditation focuses on keeping you within the present moment to ground yourself, improving your concentration and awareness. It also allows yourself to be in tune with your mind and body, and to be in more control of your negative emotions.
It’s important to set some time aside for meditation, even if it’s only a few minutes. It’s also important to place yourself in an environment without any distractions around you. Once you’ve started your meditation process, try to focus purely on the present. This can be tricky when your mind wanders and starts worrying about other things, and this will happen, but that’s okay! Here is a list of things you can do to keep your mind from wandering and bringing yourself into the present:
- Focus on your breathing
- Repeat a mantra to yourself. This allows you to focus on the mantra rather than your wandering thoughts.
- Focus on different parts of your body and how they feel. Start at the top of your head, focus on how your scalp feels, and slowly work your way down to your toes.
- Find some guided meditations online! There are many on YouTube, and there are also apps that you can download, such as Calm that assist with guided meditations. The New York Times also have some excellent and short guided meditation recordings that can be found here.
Meditation is a practice that has been used for thousands of years, and studies continue to reveal more and more benefits – both physical and psychological – of the technique long after it originated.
Here are some ways in which meditation can improve your health:
1) Meditation can help fight depression and anxiety.
While it cannot cure depression and anxiety, practising mindfulness can be incredibly beneficial in lessening the pain caused by these illnesses. A study from Johns Hopkins University showed that the effects of meditation on the brain measure up to the effects of anti-depressants, and thus can be seen as a great practice for maintaining good mental health.
Meditation is also effective in fighting depression and anxiety as a big aspect to meditation is being able to gain a different, more positive perspective on life around you, and being able to change your mindset into a positive one.
2) Brings down your stress levels
Meditation – particularly mindfulness meditation – is effective in lowering the stress levels in the body, helping the body and the mind to feel more relaxed. Mantra meditation is particularly effective in reducing stress, as focusing on a particular word or phrase not only aids in the practice of focus but also distracts you from intrusive or anxious thoughts. Research has also shown that those who practice meditation for 15 – 20 minutes a day report lower stress levels overall.
3) It slows down the deterioration of the brain as it ages
In 2015, UCLA conducted a study that compared the grey matter in the brains of those who were active meditators to those who weren’t. Grey matter refers to the part of our brains that retain and process information and memories, allows us to control our movements, and other necessary cognitive functions. Typically, grey matter decreases with age, thus creating the brain to deteriorate and worsen as you grow old. The results of this study showed that those who had practiced meditation for roughly 20 years had maintained more grey matter in their brains than those who hadn’t, thus preserving the grey matter that would’ve naturally deteriorated over time.
4) Improves concentration
One of the most well-known advantages of meditation is that it can improve your concentration. In 2011, a study from Harvard Medical School determined that practising meditation improves the ability of the brain to process new information and to concentrate more effectively.
5) better sleep
It has been proven that those who meditate are able to fall asleep faster and stay asleep for longer than those who don’t. Furthermore, meditation causes relaxation of the body, thus releasing any tension in the body that makes it difficult to fall asleep. Additionally, meditation allows you to redirect your thoughts from the intrusive thoughts that may lead to insomnia, allowing your mind to be at peace and thus fall asleep more easily.
Overall, meditation can be practised by anyone regardless of lifestyle and resources, as all you need is your mind and just a few minutes of your time. Plus, the list of benefits is incredibly impressive, and it continues to grow as more studies on meditation are conducted. It’s proven itself to be an incredibly useful tool. So, if you find yourself overwhelmed with the world around you, I’d recommend considering meditation to alleviate some of that stress.