“Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state”.
Personally, I think meditation is not used as often as it should be. Many do not realize it has so many positive aspects and benefits to provide. It can assist with the following:
1. Reduce Stress
2. Controls Anxiety
3. Promotes Emotional Health
4. Enhances Self-Awareness
5. Lengthen Attention Span
6. May Reduce Age-Related Memory Loss
7. Can Generate Kindness
8. May Help Fight Addictions
9. Improves Sleep
10. Help Control Pain
11. Can Decrease Blood Pressure
12. You Can Meditate Anywhere
You may be surprised by some of these benefits, but if meditation is incorporated correctly, then you can reap the benefits and fully understand them. In one of my previous posts, I spoke on yoga and its benefits. Meditation is such a large part of yoga and vice versa. When you are performing yoga, it provides an opportunity for you to practice this technique. At first, it surprised me that it actually takes strength and practice of the mind to be able to meditate especially for long lengths of time. But this is kind of like a muscle. You can stretch and strengthen it to become better and better.
You may wonder how you might meditate, so I am going to share a few steps to take when getting into a meditative state. Make sure you are in a physically comfortable state. Close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Start to slow your breathing and then mentally take note of your body such as how certain parts of your body feel at that moment. The last part is to focus on one thing, it can be an image or a sound. You should try to keep your focus solely on that without letting anything else creep in.
If this is all new to you, please give this a shot by starting with at least 5 minutes a day. If that is too much for you start where you feel comfortable and see if you can work your way up.
Good luck and good meditating!
Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle 