Meditation can have many advantages for your health and can be done almost anywhere. Even a simple walk can be very restorative when it is practiced mindfully. Taking time to enjoy your environment, the weather outside and the change in seasons will help you feel a greater sense of peace and connection. When you use this time to be grateful for what you have it also helps to lift your spirits.
Meditation can take many forms. It does not require you to be sitting still with your legs crossed. You do not need to block thoughts or feelings either, these naturally want flow through your active mind. The purpose of meditation can be to raise awareness and provide your body with an opportunity to relax and allow thoughts to flow naturally. For the beginner it may be helpful to start with a simple guided meditation. You can buy a CD or download something suitable from the internet.
There are huge advantages of developing such a practice.
Benefits of regular meditation
1. It lowers stress by reducing the stress hormone cortisol.
2. It helps you to know your true self better.
3. You may perform better in exams.
4. It can lower fatigue and provide a boost of energy which can be better than taking a nap or watching TV.
5. It changes the brain in a protective way and may even be protective against mental illness. The brains of regular meditators can age at a slower rate.
6. There can be an improvement in decision-making, attention, and memory.
7. It can help you feel more focused and have greater control over processing pain and emotions.
8. It makes music sound better and it improves focused engagement with music.
9. It helps you even when you are not actively practicing it.
10. It creates greater body awareness, self-awareness, and helps to regulate emotions and attention.
11. It could help your doctor perform better at their job. Doctors who are trained in mindfulness meditation are less judgmental, more self-aware and better listeners when it comes to interacting with patients.
12. It can make you more compassionate.
13. It can help the elderly to feel less lonely. It boosts health by reducing the expression of genes linked with inflammation.
14. Its pain relieving qualities can beat morphine.
15. It could reduce your health care bill.
16. Mindfulness meditation and exercise can lessen the nasty effects of colds.
17. It lowers the risk of depression, especially among pregnant women and teenagers.
18. In HIV patients it can slow the decline of white blood cells in the body’s immune system.
19. It supports your weight-loss goals.
20.Relaxation results in the formation of nitric oxide which opens your blood vessels and lowers blood pressure, so medication could be reduced in some cases.
21. It helps you to sleep better. By having better control over emotions and behaviors during the day, meditation can result in a reduction of stimulation and have benefits for your sleep quality and future ability to manage stress.
