When you think of meditation, what do you picture?
Probably an old monk with a long beard sitting cross-legged and humming to himself. But, I’m here to let you know that is not the case these days. More and more people are learning the benefits of meditation every day.
There are multiple benefits of meditation that boost your mind and body, and I’ve gathered a few of them here for you. Hopefully, this helps you realize how much meditation can help you learn from yourself and increase the happiness in your life.
Here we give you 7 awesome benefits of meditation
1. Stress Reducer
Many people begin exploring meditation to find a way to battle stress in their lives. We’re all busy, nowadays, and busy lives are stressful lives. Stress leads to anxiety, and that can lead to more harmful conditions in the near future.
In an 8-week study, a meditation style called “mindfulness meditation“ reduced the inflammation response caused by stress. Many different styles can help reduce stress. One of the best benefits of meditation is it’s able to reduce symptoms in people with stress-triggered medical conditions.
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2. Anxiety Control
Less stress translates to less anxiety. The 8-week study mentioned earlier helped people reduce their anxiety, including many anxiety disorders, such as phobias, social anxiety, paranoid thoughts, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and panic attacks. Yoga is also known to help reduce anxiety because of its meditative practice and physical activity.
Meditation may also help control job-related anxiety in high-pressure work environments. Habitual meditation helps reduce anxiety and anxiety-related mental health issues.
3. Promotes Emotional Health
Some benefits of meditation can also lead to an improved self-image and a more positive outlook on life. Inflammatory chemicals called cytokines, which are released in response to stress can affect your mood, leading to depression. Those who meditate show measurable changes in activity in areas related to positive thinking and optimism.
Research shows that an ongoing habit of meditating may help you maintain positive benefits long term.
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4. Enhance Your Self-Awareness
Multiple forms of meditating may help you develop a stronger understanding of yourself, helping you grow into the best version of yourself. For example, self-inquiry meditation explicitly aims to develop a better understanding of how you relate to yourself and others around you. Other forms teach you how to recognize thoughts that may be harmful or self-defeating. The greater your understanding of those thoughts, the better you can steer away from them, is the main idea.
5. Sleep Improvement
Nearly half the population will struggle with insomnia at some point. People that have discovered the benefits of meditation report falling asleep faster, and staying asleep longer. Becoming skilled in meditation may help control, or steer away from those pesky “runaway” thoughts that tend to occur as your getting ready for bed.
Additionally, meditating helps your body relax. Releasing tension and placing you in a peaceful state that makes it easier to fall asleep.
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6. Decrease in Blood Pressure
Meditation can also work to improve your physical health by reducing strain on your heart. Over time, raised blood pressure makes your heart work harder to pump blood, and that leads to poor heart function. High blood pressure also contributes to atherosclerosis, the narrowing of arteries, which can cause heart attacks and strokes.
Meditation helps control your blood pressure by relaxing the nerve signals that coordinate heart function and the tension in blood vessels.
7. You Can Meditate Anytime, Anywhere
One of the biggest benefits of meditation is its many different forms. For most of them, you don’t need any special equipment or space, and it only takes a few minutes a day to start seeing those benefits. For starters, the best thing to do is to find the form that will benefit what you want. There are two major types of meditation:
Focused-attention meditation-Concentrating your attention on a single sound, object, thought, or visualization. It emphasizes ridding your mind of distraction.
Open-monitoring meditation-Encourages broader awareness of all aspects of your environment, a train of thought, and a sense of self. May include awareness of certain thoughts, feelings, or impulses that you might normally suppress.
Consider setting your alarm a few minutes earlier to take advantage of the quietness in the morning. This may help develop a habit and allows you to start your day positively.
To see which styles of meditating work best for you, check out the different free, guided exercises offered by UCLA and Head In The Clouds. These are excellent for finding the form that works for you.
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