Three Reasons You Should Meditate Daily

Meditation is a practice that's been around for thousands of years, and today it is a common technique for relaxation and reducing stress. There are many ways to meditate, including guided meditation, mindfulness meditation, Tai chi, and yoga, so there will be a way suitable for everyone!

Meditation is usually best done in a quiet environment with as few distractions as possible, especially when you’re just starting out. Get yourself in a comfortable position to begin, and try to focus your attention on something. You can focus on a specific object, an image, a word or phrase, or even your own breathing. Doing this helps to empty your mind from any negative thoughts or worries. Try to control your breathing, taking slow, deep, even breaths, trying to fill your lungs completely each time. Scan your body, focusing on a single body part at a time, noting where you are holding tension and trying to relax and release that tension before moving to another body part.

Meditation has lots of benefits, both mentally and physically, so keep reading to find out my top 3 reasons why you should meditate everyday.

Helps reduce stress and anxiety.

This is one of the most common reasons people meditate today, and lots of studies have been done to explore its effects. Research has found a link between meditation and cortisol levels, a stress hormone responsible for increasing inflammation levels, increasing blood pressure, and negatively affecting your sleep. Meditation was shown to reduce the inflammatory response caused by stress, which is why it's also been shown to improve symptoms associated with anxiety, depression, fibromyalgia, and inflammatory bowel syndrome.

Increases attention span and improves concentration.

Studies have shown that meditating for as little as 13 minutes a day for just 8 weeks can be enough to improve attention and memory. Not only can it help improve concentration, it can improve your accuracy in completing certain tasks, and also help you focus for longer periods of time. It does this as it can reverse some of the negative patternings in your brain, the ones contributing to worrying and poor concentration.

Can help with addiction.

By helping to increase your self awareness and self control, meditation has been shown to help people with certain addictions, like smoking, alcoholism, and binge eating. It helps by increasing your awareness and understanding of the triggers, allowing you to redirect your attention and control your impulses. It can break the dependency you have for certain negative cravings, helping to dissociate the feeling of the craving from the act itself, allowing you to ride out that craving and not giving in to it.

If you want to find out more about meditation and how it can help you, or even find out more about other things you can do to help reduce stress or improve your attention span, why not book in for a free discovery visit!