3 Physical Benefits of Regular Meditation Practice

3 Physical Benefits of Regular Meditation Practice

As meditation has become more popular in our culture, scientists have begun to study the many physical benefits that can be gained through regular practice. Practicing meditation helps to slow down your breath, quiet your mind, and find peace. Along with its numerous mental benefits, practicing meditation on a regular basis can be a useful alternative to medical treatments for a variety of health concerns. Here are three physical benefits that daily practice of meditation can have on your life.

Reduced Pain

If you suffer from chronic pain, meditation has been shown to help. Various studies have discovered that if you can focus and calm your mind and body, you have the capability of controlling the pain. Meditation makes it possible for you to face the common symptoms that are associated with chronic pain, like muscle tension, sweating, and irritability.

Practicing mindfulness meditation will enable you to come to terms with the pain that you are experiencing, instead of just running away from it. Taking the focus away from your pain will enable you not to experience as much of it. Meditation helps to shift your attention away from the illness and into the moment.

Improved Cardiovascular Health

Meditation has been proven to help lower blood pressure while allowing the body be less responsive to the hormones that cause stress. When you enter into a relaxed meditative state, the brain releases more nitric oxide which is responsible for the regulation of blood pressure levels, the improved functioning of the immune system, and the enhanced functioning of the central nervous system.

Conditions like stress affect the rate at which your heart pumps blood. When you practice meditation regularly, your heart rate decreases, allowing blood to circulate through the body more efficiently. This helps keep your cardiovascular system in shape, allowing the rest of the body to function with ease and enhances your ability to handle stressful situations.

Strengthens the Immune System

Recent studies show that meditation helps to increase the activity of ‘natural-killer cells’ in the body. These cells are responsible for killing off bacteria and viruses that find their way into our body. With regular practice, you can strengthen your immune system, which will result in the reduced risk that you’ll become ill and enhance your overall health and well-being.

There are many physical benefits that you can gain from meditation. Engaging in daily mediation will help you improve your overall health, leading to living a healthier life.

The Top 5 Benefits Meditation Has on Your Emotions

The Top 5 Benefits Meditation Has on Your Emotions

We live in a busy world. We are always on the go, spending our days multitasking and trying to get it all done. Unfortunately, the constant rush to accomplish necessary tasks has left us disconnected from the present moment. Practicing mindfulness means purposely focusing your attention on the present moment. Regular mindfulness meditation has been shown to be an essential element in reducing stress and improving your overall happiness. Along with the many mental benefits, meditation can provide you with the following emotional benefits as well.

Improved Mood

Practicing meditation on a regular basis is great for boosting a lousy mood. Meditation is the perfect anecdote if you are looking to boost your mood and lead a happier, healthier life. Whether you are just having a bad day or if you are suffering from depression, engaging in meditation can help.

Lowered Stress levels

Stress is something that we've all experienced in our lives. If you engage in meditation every day, you can experience an immediate decrease in your stress levels. As you learn to focus and live in the moment, you learn how to better cope with the ongoing stressors in your life.

Increased Calmness

When you practice meditation, you can remain calm during upsetting situations and events. Meditation brings about an awareness of your thoughts and feelings, allowing you to witness the situation without having an adverse reaction.

Emotional Strength

Meditation is based on the truth and the reality of “what is. This means that by engaging in meditation on a regular basis, it will provide you with immense clarity and greater inner strength. As you learn to be present in the moment, your fears, anxieties, and worries start to fade, leaving you feeling steady, stable, and emotionally firm.

Emotional Balance

Emotional balance means being free of the neurotic behavior that is a result of a traumatized ego. Regular meditation is a great way to cure these neurosis and unhealthy emotional states. As your consciousness is cleansed of the emotionally soaked memories, you gain freedom and balance. Your responses are no longer colored by the burdens you carry.

One of the best things about meditation is that once you learn how to do it, there is no limit to the number of benefits you’ll gain in your life. Not only will you begin to experience more balanced emotions and a healthier mental state, but you’ll be able to lower your stress levels.

 

The Top Mental Health Benefits of Meditation

The Top Mental Health Benefits of Meditation

Over the last several years, more and more people have started practicing meditation as a way to stave off stress and health problems related to stress. When you start practicing meditation on a regular basis, your brain's physiology changes. This mental shift helps to decrease the harmful effects of stress, mild depression, and anxiety. Here are the top three mental health benefits of practicing meditation on a regular basis.

Preserves the Aging Brain

Various studies of the last several years have revealed that when you are in your 20s, your brain begins to decline. This reduction in volume and weight continues throughout your life. Practicing meditation on a daily basis can help prevent many of the neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and dementia. It can also help to stave off the cognitive decline that comes with age.

Meditating regularly can also help to increase the protective tissues in your brain. When you engage in meditation, you're introduced to states of intense relaxation and concentration which leads to the growth of new cells. This helps to protect against shrinkage of your grey matter.

Reduces Stress

One of the main reasons why people practice the art of meditation is to find relief from depression, stress, and anxiety. Regular meditation practice helps to reduce the levels of stress and depression, both physically and mentally. When you experience stress or a sudden threat, your body enters into a flight or fight mode. This leads to an immediate rush of adrenaline, which can cause an increase in your blood pressure, pulse rate, and increase blood flow. Meditation helps to relieve these symptoms of stress.

Training your mind through the various meditation techniques works to increase the mental resources that can help you address stress and depression-related symptoms. The mind become clearer, more focused, and calmer, which automatically leads to the reduction of stress.

Improve Attention

In just over a decade, researchers have measured a decline in our average attention span, from 12 seconds to only eight seconds. That's a whopping 33 percent decrease, and just one second shorter than the attention span of a goldfish. Practicing meditation can help improve your attention span, by optimizing the flow of sensory information that your brain takes in. Meditation helps to make your brain much more efficient at processing information. 

If the hectic pace of today’s 24/7 society has your mind reeling, starting a regular practice of meditation can help. With just ten minutes a day, you can start seeing a reduction in your stress levels and an increase in your overall attention span.

How Meditation Manages Stress

How Meditation Manages Stress

In our modern world of perpetual busyness, our sympathetic nervous system is frequently in overdrive. We find ourselves constantly rushing from one activity to another, multitasking and being always available, thanks to our smart phones and the Internet.

Meditation offers us a chance to stop, to take a break from our busy lives. During meditation, we get familiar with how our mind works, we get to reconnect with our bodies and we get to recognize the feelings and thoughts that are causing our stress. These feelings are often related to external events or situations that we find stressful.

When we meditate, we cultivate a new awareness, or mindfulness, which helps us clearly see how our inner self-talk and automatic tendencies of reacting, or overreacting, to certain situations cause us stress. We start to appreciate how much of the stress in our lives we create internally by the way we think about and respond to situations. This new awareness then gives us the opportunity to make changes in how we respond to difficult situations.

So meditation is marvelous. But what about all the preconceived notions a lot of people have about meditation? Many people think meditation is too “out there” for them or that they won’t be able to do it. Let’s bust those myths right now so that you feel more comfortable and confidence using meditation to manage your stress....

The above is an excerpt of the "Meditation For Stress Management eBook"

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Types of Meditation: An Introduction

There are many types of meditation instruction, and with our access to information in our modern world, it’s easy to find out about them so that you can choose the one or ones that feel right for you. Depending on what you want to focus on, you might choose a different type of meditation instruction. Below is just a short list to get you started thinking about what types are available and which ones might be right for you.

Guided Meditation

Guided meditations are great for every practitioner, especially beginners who might be finding it challenging to calm their minds. Many beginners start with these and then find they can branch out to other forms. You can find many different guided meditations online, in the form of MP3 audio downloads, podcasts and even videos.

They are exactly what the name states—a person guides the meditator through a meditation, often through the use of visualizing or using affirmations. Some focus on whole body relaxations, such as body scans. They come in many different lengths, which is nice. You might choose some shorter ones to use when you don’t have much time and then longer ones when you do.

Transcendental Meditation

This type of mediation is making a comeback after its popularity in the 60’s and early 70’s. It was very popular with celebrities of the time, including The Beatles, John Denver and The Beach Boys. Transcendental Meditation is a mantra-based meditation in which a word or phrase is repeated over and over during meditation.

Mantras are used in many traditions to help focus the mind. Practitioners meditate for 15-20 minutes twice a day while reciting their mantra. Mantras are giving to individuals by their Transcendental Meditation teacher. This type of mediation requires you to find a license instructor, and there is a fee involved.

Moving Meditations

Rather than sit with eyes closed, moving meditations focus on the sensations felt in the body while in movement. Many people who like the idea of meditation but not the sitting gravitate to this form of instruction. Some types of moving meditations include Yoga and Qigong. To try these, you can find free and low-cost sources online or take a class in your area.

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness meditation has its roots in Vipassana meditation, one form of Buddhist meditation. One of its leaders, Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, is well-known in the West. Mindfulness meditation is known in the West mostly due to Jon Kabat-Zinn, a doctor who created Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in 1979 at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. This form included sitting and focusing on the present moment and on the breath, attempting not to change anything.

Binaural Beats Meditation

Brainwave synchronization has been used for centuries, but the modern world is just beginning to realize the positive benefits. Studies now report that the use of binaural beats can hasten the process of meditation and let you reach meditative stages that you’ve never before been able to achieve.

Binaural beats for meditation selects certain brainwaves to stimulate the brain and cause deeply relaxed meditation or mental alertness, depending on the mental state you desire. All different types of binaural beats meditations can be found online. You can even try some of them out for free to see if they are a good fit for you!

The Only 5 Things you Need to Know to Begin a Meditation Practice

Always wanted to meditate, but didn’t know how? There’s a lot of confusing information out there about all the different types of mediation. But if you just want to do something basic to see how it positively impacts your life, you really only need to do these five things:

Find a quiet place—
It’s easiest to meditate when you can find a time and place where you won’t be interrupted. This is a time just for you. You might go into your bedroom and shut the door, for example, signaling to family or roommates that you want to be alone. You might also want to choose a time of day when the environment is less busy. Some people find getting up 15 minutes early to meditate before everyone in the house is up is a great time to practice meditation.

Close your eyes and focus inward—
Sit comfortably and close your eyes, focusing on this present moment. You don’t need to sit cross-legged if that isn’t comfortable. You can sit in a chair, on the floor, or even lie down, if you can stay alert (and awake!). Once settled, notice how you feel in your surroundings. Focus only on the moment right now.

Focus on your breath—
An easy way to focus on your breath is to bring your attention to your abdomen. Feel it rise and fall with each breath. Or, you can focus instead on your nostrils, feeling the warm air coming out of your nose and the cool breath going in. If you are having trouble focusing, you can even think to yourself on the inhalations, “breathing in” and, “breathing out” on the exhalations.

Connect with your body—
Once settled and focused inward, take notice of your body. How does each part feel? You may want to scan your body, starting with your toes and going all the way up to the top of your head. Just notice and really feel the sensations in your body. Notice tight spots, warm places and places that feel comfortable. Remember, there’s no need to change anything about how your body feels. You are just noticing.

Notice thinking—
When your mind wanders, and it will, that’s okay. That’s what our brain is meant to do. When you notice you are thinking instead of focusing on your breath, simply bring your mind gently back to the breath. This is mediation—bringing your mind back, over and over and over. After practicing meditation for a while, you will notice that your mind wanders less and less.

Beginning mediators find it soothing and relaxing to just take a few minutes once or twice a day to stop the busyness of life and check in with themselves. It’s an easy way to take a break, clear your mind and be able to go back to your normal activities refreshed. You only need 5 or 10 minutes to start enjoying the benefits meditation has to offer.

5 Common Myths about Meditation

When life gets you down, de-stressing is the name of the game. There are the runners, the readers, the video gamers, the bakers, the eaters, and then there are the meditators. No doubt you have heard of the wonderful and mystical world of meditation, but most people probably have not tried it for themselves.

Those same people probably believe they can’t meditate. Admittedly, with the fast-paced world we live in, it can be hard to calm the mind and sit still for any period of time. But meditation is still possible. There are many other misconceptions about meditation; however, with some helpful information, you can master the art of meditation and naturally utilize it to relax.

Empty Mind:
Meditation, contrary to common belief, does not completely still the mind. Meditation practitioners instead observe the mind in its unfettered state. Your mind never stops thinking. It’s impossible because that’s what it does. But slowing our minds, however, and focusing on the thoughts that come through can provide insight into what causes our stress. Once that has been addressed, we can more easily and effectively deal with said stress.

Religious Practice:
It’s true that meditation developed from religious or spiritual practices. But meditation itself is secular. There is no present belief system attached to meditation, so no added pressure! Meditation is all about no pressure. It allows you to be kinder to yourself, so you can chillax, relax and detox from your busy life.

Years of Hard Work:
You don’t need to be super master unicorn of meditation to get the best results. It’s not necessary to practice hours of meditation for years to reap the benefits. According to scientific evidence, as little as 10 minutes of meditation a day can reduce stress, lower blood pressure, improve clarity, focus the mind, and help foster an overall sense of wellbeing. It’s that easy and simple, and rewarding too.  
 
Calm Personality:
You need to be calm to meditate. FALSE! There’s no certain personality type that finds it easier to meditate. Meditation makes people calmer and more gentle and compassionate by repetition. By consistently meditating, people who are willing to invest the time in meditation can find balance and a calmer side of themselves.

Weird positions and strange words:
Sitting with your legs folded over your head and chanting witchcraft words, that’s what meditation is. Nope. That is a teetotal myth and one that has been perpetuated by the media. True, some meditation practitioners recite mantras while they meditate for hours. That being said, there is no standard for meditation.

The chanting and hour-long sitting is optional. You can meditate in silence, or with music, and practice in any position you want. You can sit, stand, drive, or even lie down (Try not to fall asleep if you do the latter. That’s not meditating; that’s napping).

Ask any meditation practitioner and they will tell you that they meditate while riding the bus to work, in their office chair, and after waking up in the morning.
It can be done anywhere and in any way. There are no brownie points for making yourself uncomfortable. Remember, meditation is used to calm the mind and relax the body. If you aren’t comfortable, you can’t meditate.

6 Easy Steps to Mediate for Beginners

Let’s get one thing clear about mediation. You don’t have to be a yogi master to reap the benefits of meditation. You don’t have to chant, sit for long hours or master challenging positions. Forget what you’ve seen in the movies! For beginners, meditation can seem daunting, but never fear. Don’t say “no” to meditation before you’ve even tried it.

Meditation can’t be beat when it comes to managing stress!
Meditation, when all is said and done, is a very simple practice that allows its participants to find peace and comfort. It is a practice that uses repetition, focus and redirection.

Here are six steps for mindful meditation that will get you started on your path to meditation paradise:

Find a quiet place

Go find yourself the Promise Land of Quiet Places and get your mindful meditation on. That place could be in an office, in your bedroom, on your front porch, or even in a tree house. Just pick any place that is going to be your quiet haven for however long you choose to meditate. Do whatever works for you!

Find a Good Time

Anytime can be meditation time. Really! The best time to mediate is different for everyone. Simply find a time when you won’t be interrupted. Yeah, that isn’t always easy, but how about mediating for a few minutes during your lunch break at work or getting up 15 minutes early to have some quiet mediation time? Starting with as a little as five minutes of mindful meditation can go a long way toward helping you relax.

Sit Comfortably

Finding the right amount of comfort for your meditation time is essential. Sit relaxed, but with good posture. You can sit on the floor, on a chair, on your bed or on a meditation cushion. Heck, you can even lay down if you don’t think you will start sawing logs or do walking meditation. Once you’ve found your comfort spot, just closing your eyes and focusing on the present moment.

Focus on Your Breath

In, out, in, out, and feeling the rise and fall of your abdomen with every breath. To narrow your concentration even more, focus on the inhalations and exhalations as they move through your nostrils. Now think, “Breathing in” and “breathing out” with each breath. When your mind starts to wander (or has been on a long vacation) no need to worry or beat yourself up for being a bad meditator! Just come back to the breath again.

Connect with Your Body

Do a cursory scan of your body and take mental note of the sensations in each section. Pay attention to tight spots, relaxed spots, warm places and cold places. Notice if your stomach feels empty or full. Is there any tingling in any part of your body? You don’t need to change anything. Just observe.

Notice Thinking

Notice when your mind starts to wander. It will, but don’t worry because that’s what brains were made to do! So when it does, gently guide it back and refocus on your breathing once more. That is meditation–the process of refocusing and redirecting your mind.
When you combine all the steps, you will have accomplished mindful meditation and a calmer self.

Mental Benefits of Meditation

Ah, meditation. The art and practice of calming the mind and reducing stress. Yes, meditation does in fact help you become calmer and less stressed. The beauty of meditation however, is that it does so much more! It can make you happier and healthier mentally, emotionally and physically. But it doesn’t stop there! Keep reading to find out what other great benefits can be gained from meditation.
It can:

Develop the ability to let go of worry and regrets

Meditation actually helps the mind recognize, acknowledge and redirect what neuroscientists call the “Default Mode Network.” It’s the network that commands common traits like worry, self-doubt, self-reproach, negativity and regret.

Stimulate feelings of well-being, happiness and equanimity

Doesn’t it feel good to, well, feel good? Meditation gives us the pleasure of a better enjoyment of life. We learn to appreciate the world and people around us more, and the little irritations in life don’t seem to bother us as much.

Enhance focus and concentration

Our brains learn how to focus like a laser during meditation. This concentration and focus we have during formal meditation flows over into our regular day so that we get more done in less time.

Encourage compassion towards self and others

Have you ever noticed that when you’re stressed, you tend to lash out at people? You’re not alone. Fortunately, meditation can take care of that too! It encourages us to pursue life with a benevolent and curious awareness that leads to more fruitful and healthier relationships, including with ourselves.

Decrease stress, anxiety and depression

There’s more stress in our lives than ever, and more people are being treated for depression and anxiety than ever before. Stress occurs depending on how we respond to a challenging situation, while anxiety results from frequently thinking about the future and depression comes from focusing too much on the past. All three of these can be greatly reduced by practicing meditation, where we learn to live in the present moment.

Diminish negative self-talk

Meditation makes us keenly aware of the negative self-talk that is constantly chattering in the back of our minds. That awareness allows us to recognize self-reproach and self-doubt for what they are—just thoughts. Once we are aware of them and see them for what they are, we can choose not to buy into them. We can stop them before they really get a hold on our peace of mind.

Nurture acceptance of change

It’s fair to say that most of us hate change. But through meditation, we come to accept change easier. We come to accept that life progresses and changes, and that we must progress and change with it. By cultivating our curious awareness, we can more fully appreciate the transformations that life naturally brings.

Reduce perfectionistic and rigid thinking

Meditation helps us fully understand that perfection does not exist. As meditators, we are better able to contend with our crazy, imperfect, and mostly out of our control world.

Decrease the need for attaching to outcomes

Lastly, meditation frees us from preconceived notions regarding the world around us. We then create fewer expectations. When we have fewer expectations, we can let our lives flow, which increases our happiness and peace of mind.

How Meditation Improves Your Physical Health

Meditation is becoming more mainstream than ever before. We hear about it in the media almost on a daily basis now. No longer is it just for hippy-dippy people who go around hugging trees and eating weird food. That’s because science has finally caught up with what wise people have known for centuries—that meditation calms the mind and brings balance and health to the body.

You may have seen mediation as a waste of time, and you wouldn’t be the first. After all, it looks boring and pointless. You literally do nothing. Who could stand it? In our busy modern world where we are used to being entertained constantly, either from binge-watching TV, movies on demand, social media or games on our cell phones, it can be difficult to imagine just doing nothing…unless you are asleep.

But you may just change your mind when you see the impressive list of health benefits that neuroscience can now prove are attributed to mediation.

Meditation can actually reduce our risk of some of the most common medical ailments of our time—and the biggest “killers” in our society, such as:

Meditation Reduces Risk Of
Stroke
Heart attack
Cancer
High blood pressure
Heart disease
Mental illnesses
Neurodegenerative diseases associated with aging

Beyond that, there are many other ways that meditation benefits our well-being and helps us live happier, healthier lives:

Physical Benefits of Meditation
Improves quality of sleep
Strengthens concentration
Increases brain function
Boosts immune system
Regulates metabolism
Reduces chronic pain
Elevates pain caused by tense muscles
Relieves anxiety and improves mood
Reduces amount of atrophy in the brain, keeping brains, “younger”
Leads to better decision making by using different parts of the brain that enable more rational and less emotional reactions to stressful situations
Changes brain structure associated with learning, memory, sense of self, empathy and stress in only 8 weeks
Changes structure of the amygdala, the part of the brain that helps determine how we respond to stress responses
Improves mood, visual-spatial processing, memory and cognition
Reduces risk of reoccurring clinical depression
Reduces frequency of binge-eating
Reduces relapses in substance abuse

Meditation has been proven to help manage and reduce stress in the body and in the mind, which is why it does all the things on these impressive lists. And it doesn’t take years of mediation to see these results! Medical studies prove that changes in the brain occur in as little as 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation practice.
The participants in these studies reported overall improved mood, less judging thoughts, more tolerance for situations that used to cause them stress, awareness of actions, easier to relax and feelings of well-being.

Meditation actually changes the pathways in the brain and increases gray matter in the sections of the brain that deal with response to stress and stimuli. With this increase comes more control over our thoughts and actions. Meditation for just 10-15 minutes a day can lead to experiencing these benefits.