Keeping your mind on the present is a bit tough these days. We often check our phones instead of getting bored when we have a free moment. This might not seem like a big deal. But, it can be a problem when we are stressed or anxious. Meditation can help us stay in the moment and this can make our minds and bodies healthier.
Here are some awesome benefits of meditation:
1. Gets Stress in Check
Stress is something we tend to overlook a lot.
Consistent stress can really mess us up. It can mess up our sleep, make us eat too much, and could even cause our hair to thin. If we ignore it, it could lead to heart problems and stomach problems. So, reducing stress can make our lives much better.
Meditation can help heal the damage stress causes. Stress pumps up the levels of a hormone called cortisol. This hormone leads to lots of negative effects of stress, like inflammation. Mindfulness meditation, a type of meditation where we focus on the now, can lessen the inflammation caused by stress.
If you’re feeling the heat from stress, think about trying meditation to relieve some of it.
2. Aids in Managing Pain
Over 50 million people in America struggle with constant pain. If you always feel in pain, even simple daily tasks become tough.
Many doctors are no longer prescribing opiate painkillers to patients because they can lead to addiction. They are looking for other ways to help patients manage pain, like cognitive behavioral therapy or physical therapy. More and more people are using meditation to manage their pain.
One study showed that meditation can help you handle acute, short-term pain better. Another study found that meditation may offer short-term relief for lower back pain.
Before you try meditation to manage pain, talk to your doctor first.
3. Fights off Depression
Depression can really decrease the quality of life for people who have it. Not being able to enjoy the things you used to can make it hard to see the point in life.
Meditation can help fight off stress and anxiety, which can cause depression. Stress and anxiety often come from negative thoughts about yourself and not seeing how things can get better. Mindfulness meditation can help break these negative thoughts by training your brain to focus on now instead of worrying.
4. Lowers Blood Pressure
Heart disease is one of the biggest causes of death in the world. We could all pay more attention to our heart health.
Lowering our blood pressure is a powerful way to keep our hearts healthy in the long run. High blood pressure makes the heart pump too fast. This can cause the heart to not work right. Also, it can lead to your blood vessels getting narrow, which could end up in a heart attack or stroke.
Meditation, along with eating better, can help lower blood pressure. Studies have shown that certain types of meditation can make your brain shut up and relax. When this happens, your blood pressure goes down. They also saw less swelling and wider arteries in people who were relaxing.
Give it a Try
Learning how to meditate is a piece of cake now. Just watch some videos online that teach you how to do it. And in no time, you will have all you need to get started.
