Self Meditated

Hey y'all!! Today we're gonna be diving into meditation. We'll look at some of the benefits of meditation, and how we can incorporate meditation into our daily routine. We're all about the holistic approach to health and wellness here, and meditation ties into that so well. I feel like now more than ever we need a little meditation in life. It really seems like there's a constant bombardment of stimulation in modern life, and it chips away at us big time. Just having a chance to disconnect and recenter ourselves, can be a real sanity saver.

Even if you don't put meditation into practice today, it's certainly worth learning about. It never hurts to have another tool in the toolbox to work with. Meditation is a great tool to have by the way. With just a small amount of time set aside, you can have a positive impact on both your body and mind. So, lets get into it; starting with the benefits of meditation.

When we start to look at all the benefits of meditation it almost seems like a cheat code for life; that's casuse it kinda is.

One of my favorite benefits to meditations is it's ability to reduce stress and anxiety. When we meditate we are calming the sympathetic nervous system, which results in lower cortisol, a slower heart rate, and reduced blood pressure. We're basically telling our body everything is okay, and we can relax a little. A calm body is a calm mind. Because our body and mind have this inverse relationship, if we can get control of one the other will follow. Meditation will also helps us control mind wondering. When one thought leads to another uncontrolled, it can take our mind to some place we may not want to go, or outright interfere with our productivity. With so much stimulus in the world around us pulling our thoughts in every direction, being able to control where our mind goes is a must. Gaining control over mind wondering will also play a part in increasing our attention span too.

On the note of being in control, meditation also has an impact on emotional regulation. One of the key parts of meditation is being aware and more observational of our thoughts, and less reactive. It's so easy to have an emotional reaction, and then for our thoughts to catch up. Or maybe our thoughts bring us to an emotional point; like thinking about past mistakes, or anything else that might be lingering in our mind. Through meditation we gain the ability to almost separate emotion from thought. Giving us a little bit of buffer space between the two, which in turn allows us to handle pretty much any situation better.

Speaking of better, meditation actually makes our physical brain better. Meditation can physically affect neuroplasticity in the brain. Basically neuroplasticity is the brains ability to adapt, reorganize, and form new synaptic connections. Very powerful stuff, and to think we can gain all that and more just from meditating is crazy.

so, now that we have a rough idea of the benefits of meditation, lets talk about how we can incorporate meditation into our daily routine.

So, how much meditation do I need to get these benefits?

Well, it's gonna take about 8 weeks of daily practice. However, daily meditation only needs to be 10-15 minutes long. If you can go longer and have the time go for it. That being said, I know a lot of people are strapped for time, and finding the extra time on top of everything else can be a challenge. My recommendation is think about your day to day life, and think where can I get those 10 minutes in. Because we need to be in silence and undistracted for proper meditation; our time to meditate is probably gonna be first thing in the morning, or shortly before bed. Instead of putting a screen in our face first thing in the morning, meditate. Instead of gazing at a phone right before bed, meditate. I find mediation right before bed to be the best time. I'm calming my sympathetic nervous system, which is going to make me more relaxed, and I'm avoiding screen time right before bed; it's a double whammy y'all.

How do I meditate though?

With your mind duh, lol. There are so many different types of meditation out there, you really gotta try a few types out, and see what fits you.

Mindfulness meditation is a good place to start though.

Basically in a quite and distraction free area, get comfortable, close your eyes and find your anchor. Your anchor is really just focusing on your breathing, which should be nice deep breaths in and out. This is teaching us to be in the moment, and not in our thoughts. Now, thoughts are going to enter your mind. Don't try to block them out, don't judge anything, and don't entertain any thoughts. Instead gently acknowledge those thoughts, and find your anchor again. When we're meditating we our observers watching thoughts go by, we aren't there to interact with them.

All of this will take some time to figure out, so be kind to yourself during this process, and continue to be kind to yourself everyday for that matter.

Congrats y'all!! You made it through another article, and are that much better for doing so! As always my goal is to empower you with the skills and knowledge to succeed. Hopefully you got at least one helpful thing out of this article, and if not R.I.P homie. I'd like to leave you with a challenge. Try meditating for just 5 minutes tonight, and see how it feels. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me, my email is all over the website. Until next time y'all, peace!!