by Kerry Taylor
In my last blog about Heart Health, I mentioned using meditation as a tool to help reduce stress and anxiety. Most people don’t go this route, but meditation has many benefits that can not only help your internal and external well being, but your mental well being as well. Meditation isn’t something you have to sit down for an hour and do, sometimes it’s just committing 5 minutes of your day to it. Before I get deep into the benefits, what is meditation you may ask?
Meditation is an old practice that goes back many years. It is a tool that helps with your overall wellbeing and brain health. It’s not just a bunch of deep breathing and noise making. It’s getting to and learning how to focus and clear your mind to let all around you settle.
If I have enticed you to come down this rabbit hole, let me see if I can pull you in a little further. Here are some of the benefits that can come from instituting your own personal meditational practice.
1. It reduces your levels of stress and anxiety by decreasing the production of cortisol, our bodies’ stress hormone.
2. As mentioned earlier, it improves our focus and concentration by teaching us how to quiet the things around us and focusing in on that “thing”. Whatever that may be.
3. Because of your new ability to quiet your mind, you will be able to get a better quality of sleep and it helps you to talk to Mr. Sandman a lot quicker.
4. It improves your decision making skills. With a clearer head and mind, you will be able to process through all the questions you have going on internally, thus making better decisions.
5. It lowers your blood pressure, stress and anxiety. A great trifecta to get help with. This will only benefit you in the long run.
How do you meditate you may ask? Well, I’m no pro, but have tried my hand at it by using an app or two. The two I have used are the Calm app and Headspace app. Finding a quiet place where you can sit alone and just focus on you for a few minutes is also helpful. Remember, it’s about you, and you need to be stingy with these few minutes to better yourself, overall.
If you’ve never meditated, I suggest giving it a shot, you just might like it and it may be the missing puzzle piece in your life. Until next time continue to live a life 1 degree above the rest!
