Have you ever tried meditation?
If not, then how do you know it doesn’t work?
If you have tried it then you understand it can offer positive benefits to a person’s overall well-being.
You may think meditation is some kind of hokey technique only used by new age alternative types. But you are so wrong. Meditation is used by athletes in all professions including Baseball, Football and Basketball. It is used by professional dancers, librarians, teachers and even hokey alternative types. Meditation is used for many reasons, from becoming more spiritual to becoming more in control of your thoughts and feelings.
There have been many studies to show that meditation can have powerful effects on the mind, the body and the spirit. It can assist in healing many parts of the body, including mental parts, which then lead to physical parts. By using meditation to improve mental health, you will also be taking steps to heal physical ailments you may be having.
Mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders and even attention deficit disorder have been known to create aches and pains in the body. If meditation can alleviate some of these pains, it won’t be such a hokey thing to do after all.
Meditation Reduces Anxiety
Your life is so busy it is hard to slow down for a minute to listen to the needs of your body and mind. However, this is something that needs to be done. You can listen for your body’s needs while meditating. The stress you are under is creating anxiety that will eventually present itself in different, more damaging ways, like panic attacks or increasing arguments with others.
Meditation has been shown to reduce anxiety, especially mindfulness meditation where a person sits quietly and focuses on breathing to calm down and reduce stress.
Meditation can also help the brain by preventing the neurons that produce fear from being fired off to the body. Stopping the fight or flight symptoms from creating fear is extremely helpful in reducing and coping with anxiety and panic.
Meditation Helps Fight Pain
If you suffer from pain, whether chronic or just occasional; meditation is an important tool to use in coping with the pain. Some studies have found meditation to have analgesic effects on the body that can alter perceptions of pain. Meaning, it makes you feel numb or zoned out long enough that you feel as if your pain has subsided, if even briefly.
Other studies on people suffering with chronic back pain found that those who practiced meditation had greater improvement in their symptoms.
Meditation can help you limit the use of pain medications, which can over time create more pain. Even if you are just meditating long enough to focus on your breathing, you will begin making improvements to your health.
Meditation Improves Mood
Mindfulness meditation is said to improve mood in as little as three minutes. That is a very short time to get very big results. When you are first beginning meditation practices, three minutes can seem like a lifetime. Due to our busy schedules and addiction to distractions such as cell phones, three minutes of silence will seem like a long time. But once you get used to meditating, you will seek more time to be with yourself and your thoughts.
Because meditation can help you get in touch with your feelings, it can also help you focus on being happier. Research exists that shows people who meditate feel better about themselves and their lives. Because meditation helps you find your sense of purpose and connects you spiritually, your feelings of contentment and happiness will increase.
Meditation Helps Manage ADHD
If you have attention deficit disorder then you know how hard it can be to just calm down. It’s like you have an adrenaline rush all day long. Rather than running to the doctor and getting prescribed medications, try an alternative technique first. Try meditation.
Meditation can help counteract attention deficit hyperactivity disorder by teaching you how to focus, relax and reduce stress. It centers you emotionally, helps you get your thoughts together without any distractions and gives you a chance to seek out your purpose without any distractions.
A study was conducted comparing children who used meditation as part of their treatment of their attention deficit disorders with children who did not use meditation. The results showed that the children using meditation had a significant reduction in hyperactivity, impulsiveness and inattention.
This information is exciting. Wouldn’t it be nice to see teachers implementing five minutes of meditation before the school day begins?
Meditation Fosters Creativity
It seems it would be hard to be creative with a bunch of distractions swirling around in the background. Getting to a quiet environment, however, where you can think about your craft and how to get great results in your work.
Several artists explained that meditation aided their creativity by reducing distractions, increased self-confidence, reduced anxiety, helped them focus, and made them less vulnerable to outside critics.
Meditation can also offer clarity, patience, insight and perspective to the creative mind. These are areas everyone needs to improve in their lives.
Meditation Improves Relationships
Meditation can improve relationships because it teaches you to be more forgiving, have more empathy and work through challenges in a rational manner.
Meditation keeps you grateful, keeps you positive, and strengthens feelings of connection. It helps you realize your emotional reactions to things should possibly be a little less reactive and a little more understanding.
Whether you are struggling in a personal relationship or a work relationship, take time to meditate so you can determine if you are responding appropriately in each situation.
Meditation Reduces Emotional Eating
Meditation can help people who are suffering from emotional eating disorders, especially those like binge eating disorder. Eating disorders can seem so chaotic to the person suffering. While you feel in control of what you eat, you feel out of control with everything else. Meditation can help you calm that inner chaos and get in touch with the emotions that lead you to binge eat.
Eating related disorders can be improved through meditation. Find a meditation buddy that can help you stay accountable for your eating disorder behaviors. Learn how to take back control over your eating habits through meditation.
Whether you are dealing with anxiety, eating disorders, pain, or attention deficit disorders, there are ways to overcome your feelings of being overwhelmed or out of control. Meditation can do that for you and it doesn’t take long. Just five minutes a day can offer great improvements in your life. So get started now!