"Meditate To Levitate Your Health"

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Goal

This blog is aimed at informing others of the positive effects of meditation on the brain and body, while also encouraging people to incorporate 15-30 minutes of daily meditation practice

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More to read! Meditate On This: A Mindfulness Practice Promotes Better Health: Research Shows Meditation Can Heal Brain and Body http://go.galegroup.com.proxy.library.carleton.ca/ps/i.do?p=AONE&u=ocul_carleton&id=GALE|A403916356&v=2.1&it=r&sid=summon&userGroup=ocul_carleton&authCount=1 Although this may only be available to students it is a very helpful resource, it explains some of the benefits to practicing meditation, as well as how to start meditation.

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Want to read more? This article helps to explain the systems at work and how they are altered by meditation. Gladding, R. (2013) Psychology Today. This is your brain on meditation: The science explaining why you should meditate every day. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/use-your-mind-change-your-brain/201305/is-your-brain-meditation

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How can meditation help you?

According to Statistics Canada, 1 in 4 Canadian feel highly stressed, while 6 in 10 say the stress is a result of their occupation. Stress reduction is one of the major benefits from meditation. If you believe work related or any type of stress is effecting you why not try meditation? 

Statistics Canada (2014) What’s stressing the stressed? Main sources of stress among workers. Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/11-008-x/2011002/article/11562-eng.htm

How do I start you ask?

I am no doctor so it would be best as always to consult with your physician before starting any type of daily practice. Jumping right into 30 minutes of meditation for beginners may be challenging, so it is recommended to try with lesser time frames and gradually increase. 

Now that I want to start what do I do? (again, you ask) 

Meditation is the practice of relaxation where one may try to rid the body and mind of distractions to be mindful of one thing. Sometimes this is done by either repeating a mantra such as Om or focusing on one’s own breathing. Many yoga studios offer classes to introduce people to meditation. If you struggle with meditating it would be helpful to attend a class where they can offer tips for a better meditation practice.

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How Meditation Effects Your Health

Meditation has multiple positive effects for a person’s body and brain. Simply incorporating anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes per day can reduce stress and anxiety, while changing the way your brain and body react to everyday stimuli.

Stress

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is the practice of meditation to help people better regulate their responses to stress. MBSR is helpful as a training program for stress because it helps people to become more aware of the present rather than focus stress on future commitments or past failures. Taylor and Sirois write in Health Psychology (2014) about the positive effects of meditation such as, “Significant improvements were found in the quality of life and sleep quality, and stress symptoms were reduced.” (pg 228) Along with better immune system functioning. 

Taylor, S. E., Sirois, F. M., (2014) Health Psychology. Canada. McGraw Hill

Anxiety

Meditation has been proven to greatly reduce anxiety to those who regularly practice. This is done by the reduction of gray matter in the amygdala Healthy Years (2015), which is the area of the brain that responds to fear, and also the fight or flight sensation. 

Meditate on this: a mindfulness practice promotes better health: research shows meditation can heal brain and body. (2015).Healthy Years, 12 (3), 3. Retrieved from https://proxy.library.carleton.ca/http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA403916356&v=2.1&u=ocul_carleton&it=r&p=AONE&asid=1fda50dcf1f635ac93e6a12e5f7ca858

Bodily Responses

When the body senses danger it immediately sends signals to the amygdala which then interprets the information as danger and will activate the sympatho-adrenal response system. When this happens heart rate and blood pressure will increase as a result of the release of adrenaline (Physiology of Stress). Meditation can help to reduce these reactions by changing the connections within the amygdala. 

Physiology of Stress, Retrieved from http://www.beyondthemind.com/extras/physiology-of-stress-meditation/

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Goal

This blog is aimed at informing others of the positive effects of meditation on the brain and body, while also encouraging people to incorporate 15-30 minutes of daily meditation practice