Why try meditation, how to meditate, and what meditation has to do with movement
Plus, scroll down to read about my experience with meditation
10 reasons you should try meditation
1. Everyone can do it
You might think that meditation is just for spiritual gurus, for the Buddhas of the world that sit criss-cross with their thumb and forefinger touching, humming ‘om’ for hours on end. Think again. Meditation is something that almost everyone can learn how to do and even benefit from. Maybe it’s hard for you to sit criss-cross. Maybe you feel uncomfortable closing the eyes. Maybe you prefer to lay in your cozy bed. That works. Meditation requires no specific skills or abilities, just a bit of training, like most anything in life. What's more, there's tons of different ways to meditate, whether you're sitting still, shaking and dancing, being quiet, or screaming! Meditation is achievable in many ways.
2. You can do it anywhere
Meditation also requires no extra props- just you and your mind. That means you can do it in the parking lot, in your bedroom, even walking to class. You don’t have to have your eyes closed, you don’t have to be stagnant, you don’t have to be on a yoga mat. Make meditation your own! Notice where and when you feel most stressed, tense, or overwhelmed. Could meditation become a part of your day?
3. Meditation relieves stress
Dr. Hoge, a psychiatrist at Harvard, found that a stress reduction program for people
with generalized anxiety disorder based in mindfulness improved anxiety symptoms
more than the control program that involved general stress management techniques.
Anxiety and stress in general are associated with controlling powerful thoughts in the
mind that do not warrant the amount of attention we give them. Meditation can resolve
this. Mindfulness can teach us to recognize which thoughts are nagging, unnecessarily
strong worries and which thoughts are productive problem-solvers. It encourages us to
notice our negative thoughts and dismiss them, as they are not a part of who we are or
what we need to concern ourselves with. This reduces stress because we are left with
the productive thoughts and a clear head.
4. Meditation promotes self reflection, awareness, and growth
There is no better way to get to know who you are than to spend some quality time with yourself. Meditation involves looking inward, acknowledging the thoughts that come in your brain, and coming to terms with what is important. This can be a rather uncomfortable experience especially if you’re not used to being alone with your thoughts. This is why it is so critical. It is hard to understand the way we think without taking the time to see how our thoughts work. Once we are in tune with our brains, our life functions just a little bit smoother. We have become self aware, reflected upon what is serving us, and grown through the process.
5. Meditation improves mental and emotional health
Study after study has found how beneficial meditation can be for one’s mental and emotional health. One strong review found that meditation could reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. Another demonstrated that people who meditate have quicker recovery in emotional response and therefore better management of negative emotions. The nature of meditation to reduce stress and help a person become more in tune with their body, mind, and spirit leads practitioners to naturally find improved mental and emotional health, as there is less tension between their thoughts, their lives, and their being.
6. Meditation lengthens the attention span
In the beginning, practicing meditation is hard. That’s because our attention spans are
short: we are conditioned to multitask and do things quickly in today’s busy society, so rarely does anyone naturally have the ability to concentrate on something for even 10 minutes. You can think of meditation as a way to practice your attention span. Practicing holding your attention on one thing will lengthen it! In a study at the University of California, Davis, one researcher found that those people who had practiced meditation had improved sustained attention and task performance, and even after the participants had stopped practicing meditation, this benefit persisted even five months later.
7. Meditation improves memory
Neuroscientists have found and confirmed that there is a link between meditation and enhanced memory. One way this has been demonstrated is in the growth of the cerebral cortex, a part of the brain that is involved in learning, concentration, and memory. When you meditate, your blood flow to the brain is improved, strengthening the blood vessels in the cerebral cortex and oxygenating the brain cells. This reinforces your brain’s abilities, including memory capacity. What’s more, meditation can help your memory bring back subconscious thoughts you think you’ve already forgotten. Meditation is an effective way to “harness the power of the subconscious mind” because it is so inward focused without distractions.
8. Meditation improves sleep/sleep abilities
If you’ve ever practiced meditation, you may have found yourself dozing off in the middle of your session. This is totally normal for beginners, as meditation is essentially a technique to trigger the relaxation response. For this reason, meditation is a great way to get a better night’s sleep. In one study, those adults that learned to meditate reported less insomnia and fatigue than controls who instead learned about sleep techniques. By learning how to meditate, you’re able to limit the stressful thoughts that enter your brain as you lie in bed and find a sense of profound relaxation easier. This not only assists in falling asleep, but your deeper calmness also helps you stay asleep.
9. Meditation decreases blood pressure
Not only does meditation have inward benefits, it can also help the physical body! (Hmmm.. healing of the mind, body and spirit... Sound familiar?) Various studies have been published that link meditation to reduced pain, slowed brain aging, and more. One of the most significant correlations is with blood pressure. This is likely because high blood pressure (and therefore heart attacks and strokes as well) is associated with stress. Stress, in turn, is related to the dysfunction of telomeres, or stretches of DNA that protect our genetic data. They protect us from premature aging, cancer, and even early death. In one fascinating study, meditation showed an increase in the production of telomerase, a gene that elongates these telomeres, just as much as had the participants practice significant lifestyle modifications like weight loss, reduced salt intake, constant physical activity, and limited alcoholic intake. What this indicates is that meditation has real scientific benefits that can support our livelihood, even save our lives.
10. Meditation improves mood
Meditation has numerous effects on the body, all of which improve our daily life, so it naturally follows that people who practice meditation are happier. But there are also brain based indications that meditation improves mood. In a study that compared meditators to runners, both groups had high levels of endorphins after their activity, and the meditation group scored even higher than those who might be experiencing a ‘runner’s high.’ Meditation can help you experience less pain, improve your ability to cope and adapt to change, increase your creativity, and more. Is it any wonder that meditators are happy?
How to meditate
Many people kickstart their meditation journey through the use of apps. Calm and Headspace are two highly popular ones that can help even the most unfocused become a little more zen. Especially in the beginning, it is easier to have a voice from an app to concentrate on than to focus completely inward. This can be challenging, and even scary.
Whether you use an app or you simply focus in by yourself, many people that practice meditation find the most important aspect to be the breath. Try counting your breaths; in one, out two, in three, out four, until you get to ten. Then, start again. You might notice that although you keep counting, your mind begins to wander, and then all of the sudden you’re on breath number 17! Do not fret. Simply recenter yourself and begin again. A common misconception about meditation is that your mind must be completely blank. This is not the case. In reality, it’s nearly impossible to prevent our mind from thinking. When we meditate, we allow thoughts to enter our brain and then do our best to let them exit without dwelling upon them. Think of your thoughts like clouds passing by in the sky. You do not need to meditate long to feel more relaxed, grounded, and at ease. In fact, even just 5 minutes of focus can make your day and your mindset that much better. So why not try?
What does meditation have to do with movement?
At this point you might be thinking “Meditation? The act of sitting still? How does that relate to a website on moving and healing?” You’re right; meditation generally is not movement. It’s the exact opposite: it’s the lack of movement. But this can be just as critical in your healing and health as movement is. In fact, stillness is practiced in dance/movement therapy. It can encourage the practitioner to settle into discomfort or to prevent distraction from their inner selves, among other reasons. Stillness is also practiced in yoga, as meditation is often used in the beginning and at the end of yoga practices. Yogis typically start class in child’s pose, focusing on the breath. They end class in savasana, or corpse pose for approximately five minutes, which provides another opportunity for meditation, breathwork, and stillness. The creation of yoga classes often involves stringing together a pose with it’s counter-pose. For example, a pose that requires spinal extension would likely be followed by one with spinal flexion. In movement as a whole, there is a similar ideology. Pose, counter-pose. Movement, stillness. They provide different sensations and experiences, but both are important and could be effective for your healing and health.
My own meditation experience
Last year, I committed myself to finding peace through meditation for 10 days. Check out my experience here! I no longer meditate three times a day, but meditation is an important part of my yoga practice. I meditate every day when I get on my mat before and after class and I have found it to be a really effective way to transition from my busy life into a more calm space to practice yoga, as well as to transition out of yoga to a more relaxed outside life after class.