Research has proven that meditation improves body health and psychological health. It even improves memory and attention skills! Meditation is a tool you can use to achieve focus and clarity, reduce stress, develop a positive outlook and healthy sleep patterns. It can help you become calmer and more grounded, stronger and more confident.
After practicing meditation myself for over a year now and researching the many benefits of meditation, I have compiled for you a list of my top 5 benefits of meditation.
1. Reduce Stress
Meditation can give rise to a deep state of relaxation and a calm mind. During meditation, you practice focusing your attention which helps to eliminate the chaotic thoughts flooding your mind and causing stress. This process can produce benefits of stress reduction that go far beyond simply feeling more relaxed and more focused. Research has shown that meditation has a profound effect on your overall health as well as giving you a sense of peace and balance that can improve your emotional well-being.
2. Control Anxiety
Anxiety is a mental state that directly affects our inability to regulate emotions. Research shows that a regular meditation practice can help to reprogram neural pathways in the brain and improve our ability to regulate these emotions. In many guided meditations, we are taught to bring our attention to any physical sensations felt in the moment by mentally scanning your body, inch by inch, making us more aware of what is being experienced physically. This technique can provide a safe place that can be more easily accessed whenever anxiety starts to creep in.
3. Enhance Self-Awareness
Meditation practice increases the ability to perceive the self in a more healthy, present, in-the-moment way. Mindfulness is a skill that develops slowly over time; it teaches us how to be more self-aware and less reactive to negative events or stimuli. In order to become more self-aware, you need to stop thinking and stop doing. Meditation is the perfect solution for this.
4. Improves Sleep
Meditation techniques can help you relax your mind and body. It can help you to control the chaotic thoughts that can interfere with sleep by placing you in a peaceful state in which you're more likely to fall asleep. Research shows that meditation helps you fall asleep sooner and stay asleep longer. When done before bedtime, meditation may help reduce insomnia and sleep troubles by promoting overall calmness.
5. Generate Kindness
Metta meditation is a type of meditation known as the loving-kindness meditation. Its purpose is to develop positive emotions toward all beings. To cultivate these emotions, you silently recite a mantra toward yourself and others. These phrases are meant to express kind intentions. Begin by offering metta to yourself. Some examples of metta meditation phrases include:
“May I be safe, peaceful, and free of suffering.”
“May I be happy. May I be healthy.”
“May I be strong and confident.”
“May I give love without reservation.”
“May I receive love without hesitation.”
Then transition to offering metta to a someone you love (May YOU be safe…), then to a neutral person, next to a person with whom you’ve experienced conflict and then to a group (people in the room or the world).
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Just remember, there is no wrong or right way to practice meditation. Any progress you make connecting to your inner self is a step in the right direction. To become more self aware (mindful), you must stop thinking and stop doing. Open your mind and just breathe.
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