What are some helpful techniques for how to meditate and how will these benefit my health?
Most shrug at the thought of meditation as a practice let alone want to discuss how to meditate. They either have no time for or no interest in understanding. And often these same individuals are those that are conscious of the food they put in their bodies and the exercise they conduct each day. This is the next level, a neurological exercise that will prove to benefit your health in the many years to come in a real scientific and measurable way. Lets take a look.
HOW TO MEDITATE
There are many ways one might create the daily habit of meditation, I am going to outline a simple structure that anyone can follow to enter this activity. But feel free to interpret and find what is comfortable for you.
- Commit to Meditate: it really isn’t crucial to start out with an overwhelming amount of time like an hour or more. Simply commit to starting with 2 mins a day and that will be enough of a starting point to feel good about starting this new habit.
- Pick a time: This can also me finding a trigger. A time can be set as an hour or min on the clock but sometimes that is hard to commit to as most of us are flexible with our day so much to others we rarely find time to commit specific intervals for ourselves. But we all have lunch breaks and coffee breaks. Those first few minutes after we wake up or before we go to bed. Setting a trigger might be a better habit forming task then setting a time, but you decide what works for you.
- Finding a spot: This should not be a busy area or one you are likely to get interrupted. if you have a 15 min break that is more then enough time to maybe go out to your car or truck, recline the chair and meditate for a moment. Or maybe there is a break room at work or somewhere that works for you. If its a park bench outside, do it. Just make sure it is quiet enough for you to focus.
- Be comfortable: whatever that means for you. You don’t have to sit, you can lay down, you can use a pillow for your head if you like. If siting in a lotus position is uncomfortable, stretch your legs, the point is to be relaxed and at peace, not to be twisted up like a pretzel if that is uncomfortable for you.
- Breath: This is the most important part aside from clearing your mind. As you take a breath in, feel it flow in from your nostrils and fill your lungs and belly. You can have your eyes open or closed but if they are open have the gaze softly looking at the ground or something not distracting. As you exhale, again follow your breath as it leaves you this time through your mouth. Count a few moments then repeat. A slow, concentrated breath is something so few of us perform at any given point of the day and it can be very beneficial to our bodies.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS
We just looked at how to meditate, next i want to check out the benefits. I am going to keep away from many of the “peace of mind, wholeness” effects that often make others unfamiliar with the practice of meditation shrug away from the usefulness of it. Instead I am going to take a moment to list the scientific based reasoning to start meditating today.
- Boosts your immune function
- Decreases pain and inflammation
- increases memory and improves attention
- Decreases anxiety, stress and depression
- Increases brain coritical thickness especially in areas related to introspect, grey matter in the hippocampus, volume in areas related to emotion regulation and self control.
- Slows aging
Sure there are many other benefits being discovered every day, but only one really needs as much focus. We need to take care of our brains just as we do every other part of our bodies and this is one great way to do so. Only 2 mins a day, give it a try.
I hope you found this article on How to Meditate: What are the Benefits helpful.
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