Bring Mediation Into Your Life

By Robin McCullen Fish of My Clear Energy

Making Meditation a Habit

Let’s talk about meditation and the benefits we can experience in our life with this truly life-changing habit. To be honest with you, it was a long time before I started to fit meditation into my daily routine. Like many others, I found it very difficult to do when first starting, which was over 15 years ago. I tried it for a while and gave up because I didn’t feel I was able to let go of thoughts that kept racing through my head, distracting me from the purpose. The purpose being which I believed at the time, was to manage the stress in my life. Of course, that is a benefit and an intention for most people who begin the meditation process. But now I realize that it can do much more than that. It has taken me all this time to get to a place where I can meditate and experience all the healing aspects that it can offer if given the chance. Taking our mind to a place where we can let go of everything and go outside of ourselves. What I mean by going outside of ourselves is, taking our attention off our

outer environment, away from time, away from all the distractions in our lives. Learning how to do this takes practice and like with anything, without practice we cannot improve. A professional tennis player doesn’t become a champion without many hours of dedicated practice to improve and get to that level of play. So why do we expect that in one, two or even twenty tries at meditation that we are going to be champions? We aren't!

What are the Benefits of Mediation?

For me, the benefit is to reach a level of relaxation, where I can release the anxiety and worry of all the stressors in my life. Granted some days are worse than others and having this tool to manage my stress has made all the difference. Meditation bridges the connection between your mind and your body, making it a useful tool for bettering your health. Here are 10 good reasons to meditate and find your mind-body connection for a healthier lifestyle.

1. Meditation Eases Anxiety and Depression- Research suggests that mindfulness practices can be beneficial in reducing anxiety and other mood disorders. Engaging in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy with mindfulness practices, has been shown to reduce cytokines, which are inflammatory stress chemicals that can lead to depression.

2. Meditation Bolsters Self-Confidence- Mindfulness meditation has the power to help us connect to our true selves, raising self-awareness, confidence and self-inquiry. By giving us a sense that we are in control of every situation, meditation assists in boosting one’s sense of self-worth.

3. Meditation Reduces Stress- Reviews of multiple studies have shown the power of meditation to reduce stress and lessen the effects of chronic stress on the entire body. Reducing stress can also lessen reactivity to stressful situations.

4. Meditation Reduces Inflammation-Stress can also lead to neurogenic inflammation, which has been linked to physical diseases like arthritis, colitis, bladder inflammation, and asthma. (The same cytokines that are linked to depression can cause this neurogenic inflammation.)

5. Meditation Improves Sleep-By quieting the mind, meditation can be a relaxing and restorative practice, allowing people with chronic insomnia, meditation can improve sleep quality, particularly when they consistently engage in mindfulness-based therapy specifically designed for insomnia. (For this particular study, insomnia improved over the course of eight weeks.)

6. Meditation Improves Brain Health-Meditation has been shown to be a valuable tool in the prevention of Alzheimers disease, as well as improving both memory loss and attention span in general. Other research shows the impact of meditation on the gray matter portion of the brain, which are responsible for receiving information and regulating outgoing information. People who meditate over the long term have less age-related gray matter atrophy and tissue decline, meaning that meditation has the power to slow the overall effects of aging in the brain.

7. Meditation Can Help Curb Addiction-The mind-body connection that meditation offers can even help people suffering from addiction. Over the past decade of research, mindfulness-based treatments appear to reduce substance abuse by helping people self-regulate and break harmful habits, as well as create new reward-seeking behaviors to replace destructive ones.

8. Meditation Eases Pain-A consistent meditation practice enables people to be aware of sensations throughout the body. This includes framing pain as a sensation that can be managed rather than something that is happening to them. Pain is characterized by numerous factors, including sensation, thought, and mood. Mindfulness meditation has been found to significantly reduce (chronic) pain by impacting multiple chemical and physiological aspects of the brain.

9. Meditation Controls Food Cravings-Meditation has also been used in treating binge eating and emotional eating with research showing that mindful eating can lead to more control over food cravings. In one study, participants underwent specific mindfulness-eating training, which helped them learn to better tap into their fullness and hunger cues, as well as, tune into emotional triggers for eating.

10. Meditation Decreases Blood Pressure-While more clinical research is needed, there have been promising results in the link between engaging in meditation or mindfulness-based stress reduction strategies and lowering blood pressure. Meditation can relax the nerve signals that contribute to blood vessel tension and the “fight or flight” response.

Tune in next time and we'll help you discover which type of mediation is right for you! ****Arundel Kids Exclusive Discount: You can try reiki too! Mention Arundel Kids and receive 10% off a reiki session with Robin! Feel free to share with your friends and they can receive 10% off too! Click here to book today!