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Why Meditate?

Meditation has both mental, physical, and emotional benefits. The process of being in the moment with your present thoughts allows worries to escape your mind. You give yourself permission to not think about stressors or have to get anything done in this moment. It’s okay to not be “productive.”

This releases your mind from the stress of not doing enough. This can help to bring out emotions you suppressed and ignored by staying constantly busy. Also, it can allow you to release any stress you were holding in your body. Your blood pressure lowers through the deep and concentrated breaths you take, and your body feels calm.

Stress is one of the leading killers in our society today. It can cause many fatal diseases and causes an unhappy mental state. Kick stress to the curb with a daily morning meditation. 

10 Benefits of Meditation

Beyond stress alleviation, there are many other benefits that can come with meditation. Here are a few benefits that will make you want to start meditating today.

It’s a Good Routine to Practice

Your morning or nighttime meditation routine will become the start or end of your day. This sets aside a time for you to concentrate and say goodbye to the other stressors of the day. Your morning meditation allows you to start your day off on a great note, free of worries. A nightly meditation routine gives you a chance to wipe away everything that happened during the day, so that you can have a better, more restful night’s sleep. As humans, we thrive in routines; meditation sets up the right routine for you. 

Calms Down Your Mind

Meditation is a great way to calm your thoughts and clear your mind. This allows you to be more productive in your work later on. When you don’t have anxieties creeping up on you, you have more mental space to think through each problem that you have to solve. A calm mind allows for more to get done. 

Sets an Intention for Your Day

You can say an intention or mantra with your morning meditation. This intention will be a phrase you can come back to throughout your day when you feel times of unease and struggle. The intention allows you to turn back to the peace that you felt while meditating. Use this mantra anytime you need to be reminded of calm throughout the day. Morning mantras can start your day off on the right note. 

Shifts Your Mindset

When you start to meditate more frequently, you will find that you start to have a more positive outlook on life. Your negative thoughts become less and less intrusive. Your negative thinking patterns are often created by your worries and the lies you tell yourself about how you believe life is supposed to be. Through meditation, you are able to see the truth about your life and not simply the negative thoughts that so often cloud our judgment. You’ll find that you start thinking with a positive mindset easily, without naturally gravitating towards negative thinking. 

Helps Handle Stress

Beyond eliminating stress, you’ll also learn coping techniques that can help you confront stress head on. Instead of letting the stress beat you up and weigh you down, you are more apt to accept it as it comes and approach it in a more productive way. Stress is bound to happen, but meditation can make it easier to handle. You can learn how to get through, how to react, and how to confront stress through a place of overcoming, rather than letting it defeat you. 

Appreciation of the Moment

So often we are stuck in the past or left thinking about the future. We forget to slow down and feel our emotions in the present. However, with meditation, we aren’t allowed to forget about the present. In the depths of our meditation practice, it is the only thing we can focus on.

This appreciation of the moment can help you to start experiencing more important moments of your life. Just as you can prevent a past experience from clogging your view of the present, don’t let a possible future experience hold you back from what you can accomplish today.

Increases Creativity

Meditation can help us unlock parts deep within our brain. When we let all of our “To Do” lists go, we open our minds to creative thinking. You may be surprised at what your mind conjures when left alone. This is the exact reason why you may get your most creative thoughts in the shower. You’re immersed in the task of showering and, unconsciously, your thoughts have the ability to wander freely. When we stay too much on a schedule and prioritize production over being present, there is no room left in our minds for fun or creativity. Meditation allows your mind to soak in this creative nature. 

Develops Better Relationships

Our mood affects our attitude and relationships to other people. When we rest our minds through meditation, we give ourselves a better mindset and mood that will also impact the people around us. No one likes to be around with someone who is constantly stressed, agitated, and irritable all the time. Creating a better “you” through meditation means the ability to foster better relationships. 

Increases Determination

Let’s face it, putting all distractions down to focus on your mindset and breath is utterly terrifying. However, the more times you meditate, the more you will find yourself able to do things that you may not have otherwise been motivated to do. Now, you will be determined to succeed.

Supports Contentment with Life

When we fill ourselves with gratitude for the moment, we become more content with the life we’ve laid out for ourselves and the ability to weather any storm. It is important to appreciate everything that is in your life in the present, and meditation allows us to do just that. This content in life can lead to greater happiness and fulfillment. 

 How to Meditate

If those benefits sound great to you, consider starting your own meditation practice. You don’t need to be a scholar on the art of meditation to be able to do it well. Simply get into a comfortable position and start focusing on your breath. 

Focus on Your Breath

Feel your natural breathing rhythm and focus on elongating each breath, taking deep inhales and exhales. When thoughts come to mind, don’t suppress them. Rather, let them bubble up to the surface, and then let them fade away into the world around you. If you find yourself becoming overwhelmed by your thoughts, you can always return to your breath.

Add in a Mantra

Adding in a short mantra or intention can also help to strengthen your practice. This short phrase is similar to concentrating on your breath. Whenever a thought enters your mind that’s distracting, turn back to your affirmation and progress through it. The affirmation can also help guide your practice with what you want to accomplish, not just through this meditation session, but to carry with you throughout the day, as well.

Resources for Meditation

As meditation grows in popularity in the western world, there are many resources to turn to in order to guide you in your practice. Some find it helpful to read about the history of meditation and best practices in books before they dive into their own practice. You can also look up guided meditation videos and podcasts. The internet has a myriad of resources at your disposal to help craft and expand on your daily meditation practice.  

Take it Slow

Don’t beat yourself up if you can’t meditate for long stretches of time right away. Distractions are normal and even the most trained meditator gets lost in the world some days. Take your morning or nighttime meditation routine as it comes and try to improve on it every day.