Meditation increases self-awareness because it helps you develop the habit of focusing on the present
Do you meditate regularly? If so what style of meditation do you practice? Do you feel you get good results and benefits of meditation? Recently I came across a chat group where people were arguing about the best type of meditation!…I got the impressions that the styles they were advocating may not be delivering the results they had hoped for 🙂 To promote awareness, cultivate well being, and reduce stress and anxiety, meditation is a mind-body practice that focuses your attention on being mindful of the present, your breath, and your mind. As long as you can be aware of your surroundings and body, it can be practiced almost anywhere.
There are many types of meditation, depending on one’s practice, including breathing meditation, mindfulness practices, nature-based visualization, mantra, and spiritual meditation. Meditation can be practiced on one’s own, in a group, or with a coach or therapist.
In my experience there are many ways of meditation. I was lucky enough to be introduced to a form of moving meditation in my late 20s and wasn’t actually aware I was meditating until a few years of practice.
As strange as it sounds my teacher at the time would just insist that i did certain repetitive movements over and over until my mind would “quieten”. Yes a quiet mind 🙂
You can benefit from mediation in many ways, both psychologically and physically. Here are 10 science-backed reasons you should consider meditating:
According to a study published in Clinical Psychology Review, mindfulness-based interventions, such as meditation, are beneficial for mental health, particularly in stress management. Cortisol is a steroid hormone that regulates stress and our natural fight-or-flight response, among many other functions, when we are faced with a difficult or stressful situation.
In addition to causing sustained and elevated levels of cortisol, chronic stress can also have adverse effects on your health, including the cardiovascular system, the immune system, as well as your gut. As a result of meditation, which is aimed at calming the mind and regulating emotions, one can reduce chronic stress in the body, while lowering the risk of its negative effects.
Through meditation, one can also reduce the symptoms of depression through mindfulness and the regulation of their emotions. A study observing individuals on a three-month yoga and meditation retreat found that those participants experienced significant reductions in depression, as well as improved stress resilience and wellbeing after the retreat.
A number of illnesses associated with a weakened immune system have also been found to be effectively treated with meditation as a behavioral therapy. The body has been shown that regular meditation reduces the body’s stress response, leading to less inflammation and reduced risk of chronic pain, fatigue, and heart disease by reducing the body’s stress response.
Meditation is one of the most effective methods of changing how you emotionally react to situations over time. The elements of meditation, including mindfulness and controlled breathing, are known to decrease impulsiveness. In other words, people who practice regular meditation may have a better ability to regulate their mood instead of reacting from a state of anger or panic, because instead of reacting from a heightened emotional state, they can gain more control over their emotions.
The ability of meditation to increase a person’s sense of calm, presence and reduced stress can serve as an effective means of managing triggers or even preventing relapses for individuals with substance use disorders. Additionally, meditation has been found to promote abstinence in those suffering from substance use disorders, as well as to curb cravings for a substance as a way of coping with mental health outcomes such as anxiety or stress in people with substance use disorders.
By calming down racing thoughts and regulating breathing, mediation can help counter the effects of anxiety—often characterized by overwhelming feelings of fear, worry, and tension—by soothing the nervous system, which is often associated with anxiety. A person who is anxious will sweat, feel dizzy, or have a rapid heart rate as a result of overthinking past or future events.
The findings of a recent study published in General Hospital Psychiatry indicate that people with anxiety who practice meditation regularly over the course of three years benefit from improved mental health over the long term.
How do you rate your sleep? This is something that comes up a lot in the conversations I have with the people I work with. In order to improve the quality and ability of sleep, some researchers have found that meditation may be a good idea. It is often because our minds ruminate on the day and worry about tomorrow that we struggle to sleep. Although additional research needs to be conducted to confirm the effectiveness of meditation as a long-term sleep aid, it has been shown to be effective in treating insomnia, as well as other sleep-related symptoms during the day.
Do you suffer from high blood pressure? Well from the global statistics I can assure you, you are not alone. Approximately one billion people worldwide suffer from hypertension, also referred to as high blood pressure. The number in the U.S. is about half. There has been a growing body of research that indicates that meditation could potentially decrease high blood pressure, especially when coupled with healthy lifestyle habits such as a balanced diet and regular exercise.
There has been a growing body of evidence that meditation can assist in lowering blood pressure and as such, additional research will be needed to identify the specific effects that vary based on the type of meditation used.
While meditation is mainly known for its ability to help relieve stress and anxiety, it can also be used to improve your brain structure. Research has demonstrated that when you practice meditation, your brain is able to produce more gray matter, according to a study conducted by researchers. As a vital component of brain cognition, gray matter protects the hippocampus, which is the part of the brain linked to memory. Additionally, it is crucial for our ability to control our emotions and movements, as well as for our basic movements.
The same study found that as long as you meditate for 30 minutes a day for eight weeks, your body can produce more gray matter, thereby increasing the amount of grey matter in your brain.
Meditation increases self-awareness because it helps you develop the habit of focusing on the present, which makes you more aware of your thoughts as they arise. As a result of research, it is evident that meditation helps improve one’s self-awareness, impulse control, and interpersonal relationships with others and themselves. Put simply you can not underestimate the benefits of meditation.
If you are interested in guided meditation feel free to reach out to me as this is a field I have great interest in. Also I specialize in moving meditation which is based around the principal of universal laws of physics and aligning our physical beings to harmonize with the laws. To learn more about the benefits of meditation, or to action your intention to begin a meditation routine please do reach out.