Finals week. What a drag. It’s kind of a tease. We’re so close to winter break, days filled with skiing, late-night hot chocolate runs and sleeping in on snowy days. Before we can get to all the good stuff though, we’ve got to get past the stress of final projects, essays, and exams. I have always stressed at an unhealthy level about finals. When researching ways to combat this stress, I came across meditation. Meditation may sound like a scary thing, but don’t worry. It’s something that anyone can do, anywhere and anytime.
Like with anything else, there are always pros and cons to meditation. However, I think the pros greatly outweigh the cons. As I mentioned before, you can meditate anywhere, whether you’re at school, work, stuck in traffic, waiting for your laundry, etc. You’re also able to meditate on your own or with others, specifically others you trust. Meditation can also increase creativity. Which is great! As we get older, we lose a lot of our creativity and being able to channel that through meditation is a way to open yourself up to it again. It is also shown that meditation may increase healthier eating habits! We’ve all been there, eating crappy food when were stressed and tired. With meditation, you’re able to curb those cravings and feelings of fatigue. This can bring better awareness of what we’re eating and how much we’re eating of it.
There are very few cons when it comes to meditation. One of the bigger cons of it is that it may bring up old wounds, or unresolved thoughts and feelings. However, when we have these thoughts and feelings, we are better able to work through them and find a solution. It may take time to find solutions, but it doesn’t hurt to start working through them. Another con may be the time commitment and the focus it takes to be successful at meditating. It takes more than one time to fully see the benefits of meditation. It is something that must be practiced. The focus aspect is hard for me too. It’s hard for me to sit still for more than a few minutes but being able to practice my focus with meditation has been beneficial.
And the health benefits of meditation are extraordinary! The physical benefits include lowering high blood pressure, lowering the number of anxiety attacks, improvements with the immune system and moods. Additionally, you’re also able to decrease tension headaches, ulcers, insomnia, pretty much anything tension related. Meditation increases mental and emotional benefits such as happiness and creativity, improvement in emotional stability, ablility to visualize problems on a smaller scale, and eventually helps those practicing gain clarity and peace of mind.
Meditation is something that is beneficial all around. During this finals season, try meditation. Use YouTube, Google, or apps such as Calm to help you get started on meditation. Not only will you begin to feel relaxed and refreshed, but you may gain a greater sense of confidence and dynamism (dynamism is defined as the theory that phenomena of matter or mind are due to the action of forces rather than to motion or matter). This finals season, practicing medition might just give you the five to ten minutes you need to take time for yourself.