Meditate. It’ll help
I meditate every day. It has changed my life.
Why don’t you try meditation?
I feel stress free after meditating just for 10 minutes.
You have heard or read the exact statement or some variation of it by now somewhere. There seems to be a great hype surrounding the whole “meditation” thing. If everyone is talking about it there must be some benefit to it, only you are not so sure as to what exactly it is or if you even want to give it a go. Let us clear some of your doubts and see what meditation is and what it has to offer in terms of practical benefits.
Meditation in layman terms is a set of techniques and practices that involve focusing the mind and our attention to particular stimuli, senses or thoughts. It does not require any accessory or equipment in normal practice and can be done in any stable environment. Let us look in more detail to its benefits.
More Focus
We humans have a monkey mind which makes it very hard to keep track of our thoughts. One moment we are thinking about something important, the other we are dreaming of a wild vacation. Meditation will cure this and redirect our attention to the things we focus on. If you are preparing for an exam, a report for a meeting or just cannot seem to control your thoughts, you can start with breathing exercises that will ground you and then practice meditation. Numerous studies can be found online that bear testimony to the focusing benefits after practicing meditation.
Decreased Stress and Anxiety
The very first thing you will notice after a meditation session is that your random thoughts have been put to ease and your mind seems relaxed than before. Meditation primarily affects your amygdala that is responsible for all your emotional responses. Your stress levels will lower with repeated sessions and anxiety will take a backseat. The cortisol levels in your body responsible for stress gets lowered after meditation. The heart rate, respiration rate and even blood pressure are brought to normal levels. You will be able to cope much better with any kind of job or personal stress if you keep up your regular practice. If in spite of the sessions, your anxiety bothers you then you should definitely consult a counsellor for proper guidance.
Better Sleep
Mindfulness based meditation programs and practices are effective ways to combat insomnia. Once your mind is calmed and your body is able to cope better with stress after regular sessions, you should experience blissful sleep.
Makes us more Self Aware and Empathic
Not everyone is self-aware of the things that they are doing and the impact it has on others as well as the sensitivities of the environment they are living in. Being self-aware makes us more open to those around us and creates better connections and friendships. Meditation does this by increasing our perceptive abilities and attention to details. As a result of this we are able to empathize better with people's point of view and their situation.
Makes us Sharp and Reduces age related memory loss
A quick, perceptive and agile mind will naturally help us excel better at things and achieve more. As already stated, meditation will improve your focus levels along with giving you a sharp memory. For medium or older aged people it will increase the memory capacity undoing the age related damage slowly. There is definite proof to mediation being helpful to dementia patients.
Note: All the statements have been made in acknowledgement to available published research findings pertaining to meditation studies and experiments.
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