Benefits of Mediation and How to Start!
There has been a lot of mention of meditation as of late given the circumstances. Jobs are being lost, companies are closing down, people are in a constant state of anxiety and panic! We can turn into a news station, and we will see nothing but violence, riots, and extremists taking over the media.
There also has been a huge surge of downloads of applications that focused on meditation. In April of 2020, the application Calm had a total 3.9 million downloads followed by Headspace with 1.5 million. To me that says a lot.
Meditation is an important habit to have. It has helped me become more mindful, accepting, more focused, less worried and live in the moment. Meditation will help you look within to understand yourself and those around you.
Trust me when I say, it isn’t easy at first! No one is good at anything when they first try something new.
Benefits of Mediation
The benefits of meditation are being studied. Some show that mediation will improve your mental state and also help with physical discomfort. The following are some issues that I find most people are struggling with today:
Stress Reduction might be the most popular reason that people meditate. Stress can cause the inability to sleep, feed into depression and cause anxiety. It is also known to increase your blood pressure and impair your judgement. Any type of meditation can help ease or reduce stress.
Helps with anxiety. As meditation can help with reducing your stress level, it will also assist with lessening your anxiety. What really helped me on this one is mindfulness meditation. This teaches you to live in the moment and stress less about the future.
Helps balance your emotions. There are meditations out there that will help you with your self-image and outlook on life. This goes hand in hand with stress reduction as well as improve your depression and help you have a more positive outlook on life.
How do I start?
Start small by setting yourself up for 2-5 minutes. You might be thinking that this sounds ridiculously easy. That’s great! You can start with 2 minutes a day and work your way up from there if it all goes well for you. By increasing your time 1 minute at a time, you will be able to sit in silence for 10 minutes straight in no time! I suggest starting small and go from there.
Start by sitting comfortably in a quiet place
Set a time limit
Pay attention to your body
Close your eyes and begin to breath
Breath in, to the count of 6 and breath out to the count of 7
Do this for as long as you feel comfortable
If your mind starts to wander, that’s ok! bring your focus back to your breath.
Be kind to your wandering mind
Things to consider:
If you have an itch, SCRATCH IT! Don’t worry about “disrupting” your meditation session. make sure to go back to focusing on your breath.
The best time to meditate is wherever it fits into your schedule. Just find 2-5 minutes during your day.
You do not have to sit cross legged. You can sit or lay however you want if you are comfortable.
Meditation is not that complicated. All you are doing is sitting and breathing. All I know that it is the most powerful tool that helps with a lot of mental ailments and then some. Take the time to go deeper, it will only benefit you in the long run.
What are tips that you might have for meditating? Any suggestions for application or websites?
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