Meditation Monday

What is meditation?

A practice using a technique (e.g. mindfulness) to train attention and awareness with the aim of achieving a clear, calm and stable state of mind.

Why should we meditate? 

Well, the short answer is that it has been scientifically proven that meditation has many powerful positive effects on health, especially the brain, and is very effective at reducing stress.

Key benefits of meditation include:

• Reduce anxiety / depression 

• Boost immune function

• Lower blood pressure

• Improve circulation

• Lower cortisol (a stress hormone)

• Promote emotional wellbeing / mood

• Lengthens focus and concentration

• Improves sleep

How come?

Practicing meditation is a type of physiological relaxation that helps turn off the stress response and activates our parasympathetic nervous system, which is the state in which our body is able to ‘rest and digest’. During meditation, breathing pulse rate, blood pressure and metabolism are decreased. Brain frequencies also slow down and decrease in frequency.

Essentially, meditation is to the brain what a workout is for the body! It ultimately counteracts overstimulation of ‘beta activity’ in the brain - people spend most of their time in the ‘beta’ state which is associated with wakefulness and alertness but also worry, stress, irritability, and anxiety, as well as poor health and weakened immune function.

I know from personal experience that it can feel daunting to introduce meditation into your life but it needn’t be… 

Here are a few pointers to help get you started:

• Try some of the well known apps to guide you through the process e.g. Headspace, Calm, The Mindfulness App

• Reframe your approach to it  - consider it a peaceful, blissful moment of ‘me time’, not a discipline to be ticked off the ‘to do’ list each day 

• Aim for first thing in the morning before you start your day so as to start the day off on the right note