The Benefits of Meditation for Your Mental and Emotional Health

If you decide to take up meditation, you’re going to tap into potentially profound benefits in your life. You can start lowering your levels of stress by connecting with that which pains you and releasing it mindfully and gently. Your focus on many matters will improve as you find ways to be kinder to yourself and others. Knowing the benefits of meditation can help you find your practice, and that’s easier when you have professional guidance and some knowledge of how to meditate.

Meditation Benefits You Should Know

According to Mayo Clinic, meditation can help you find balance, peace, and calm. The benefits cover both physical health and emotional wellness. They also usually last long after you are done with your actual meditation sessions.

Modern living means information overload that accumulates more each day, and that drives up your stress levels. Meditation is a great way to counteract this because you can focus on the present moment, which reduces negative feelings and boosts your self-awareness. When meditating, you can gain fresh perspectives on circumstances that are stressing you. Use meditation to harness or sharpen your powers of stress management, creativity, imagination, tolerance, and patience.

Physical benefits are also available in numerous ways. Meditation has an influence on lowering the resting blood pressure and heart rate of those that practice it. Many practitioners also enjoy improved sleep quality. While research is far from definitively conclusive, there is scientific work that suggests meditation helps with the symptom management of many conditions, such as chronic pain, cancer, asthma, heart disease, and tension headaches.

Meditation should never replace conventional medical treatment, but it’s always smart to consult your doctor about how it might help as a complementary form of medicine.

Learn From an Expert

If the process of meditation intimidates you, it might just be because you have no idea how to do it. It’s just not something commonly taught in schools or by parents, but there are experts available. Thom Knowles, for instance, is a serious teacher of meditation that shares his wisdom about the practice with those who want to learn. Professional sessions are available, but there are also introductory talks that are free of charge and come with no obligation. You can take advantage of these as a virtual session from anywhere, or you can attend a meditation in New York for a ceremony or to learn about Vedic Meditation.

There are many forms of meditation you can practice, and Vedic Meditation is just one of them. However, it’s an ancient form handed down through the generations from Vedic civilization in Ancient India thousands of years ago. The Veda was a body of knowledge that provided the origins of philosophy, meditation, and yoga across the Indian subcontinent.

Vedic meditation, in particular, puts emphasis on effortlessness. The practitioner lets the surface and release of their thoughts, and they accept what happens in their body while they meditate. This style of meditation is usually taught by an instructor known as an initiator. A typical practice schedule is 20 minutes twice daily.

How to Practice Meditation

If you want to practice meditation on your own, then it can be very simple. This is a good way to try the practice before seeking expert instruction or just meditating when you don’t have access to someone who can teach you. The first step is simply taking a seat someplace comfortable, calm, and quiet. Second, set a time limit.

Take notice of your body, and find a comfortable seating position that is stable. Feel your breath as it comes in and goes out. Take notice of anytime your mind starts to wander. If it does, don’t judge yourself for where your thoughts go. This is the start of practicing kindness to yourself.

Kindness is what you need to close your meditation with. Thank yourself for taking a few moments to just be there with your breath. Accept that your attention will wander during meditations, but you can always be gentle in bringing it back.

Conclusion

Having read all of this, you might be wondering how often you should meditate. Once you get a taste of the benefits of meditation, you might want to experience them as much as you can. However, it’s not the kind of thing where you can keep score and “win.” What’s more important is perhaps just taking 5 minutes or more a day to sit down and be at peace with yourself.