These days, it can feel tough to stay in the moment. When we’re bored, we usually go straight to our phones. This might not seem like a big deal but, when we’re going through stress and anxiety, constantly distracting ourselves can actually make things worse. That’s where meditation can help. It can make us healthier, both mentally and physically, by teaching us to stay present in the moment.
Let’s look at a few ways meditation can help us:
1. **Less Stress**
Sometimes we don’t really notice how stressed we’re getting, but this sort of ongoing stress can start to harm our bodies. It can mess up our sleep schedule, make us eat more, and even result in hair loss. If it gets really bad, it can lead to heart and gut problems. The good news is, regular meditation can fight off these harmful effects. When we’re stressed, our body releases a hormone called cortisol causing a lot of these problems. Studies have shown that staying in the moment with mindfulness meditation can help lessen this.
If you’re stressed out lately, you might want to try meditation to dial things back.
2. **Pain Relief**
Over 50 million Americans live with chronic pain. If you’re one of them, you know even daily tasks can be a struggle. As concerns about opioid addiction have grown, doctors have been looking for other ways to help people manage their pain. Techniques like cognitive behavioral therapy, acupuncture, and physical therapy are being used more often. Meditation is also getting noticed for its potential to help. Some research has shown that it can help people handle short-term pain better, and it might even help ease lower back pain.
If you’re dealing with pain, talk to your doctor about whether meditation could help.
3. **Fight off Depression**
Depression can rob life of joy and make it hard to find a purpose. Part of what can trigger it is ongoing stress and anxiety, often powered by negative thoughts and worries that things won’t get better. Mindfulness meditation can help break this cycle. It trains your brain to return to the present moment when these negative patterns start.
4. **Lower Blood Pressure**
Heart disease is a leading cause of early death worldwide. One way we can promote heart health is by managing our blood pressure. Having high blood pressure over time can damage the heart and narrow the arteries, raising the risk of a heart attack or stroke. But meditating can help with this too. Studies have found that types of meditations like transcendental and mindfulness can actually lower blood pressure.
Trying meditation out is easy these days. You can find loads of instructional videos online to get you started. You’ve got nothing to lose, so why not give it a shot?
Here are some keywords related to this topic:
Benefits, Meditation, Mental Health, Physical Health.
