Table of Contents Show
No one knows about the actual roots of meditation. It is believed that the origins are in India and that it already started several thousand years ago. According to an article written by Susan Chow Ph.D., neighboring countries must have adopted those techniques very early.
Meditation also soon became part of many religions throughout the world. You can still find forms of meditation in Buddhism, Taoism, and Zen.
As you might imagine or might have read about already, it was and sometimes still is considered a way to get in touch with mystical or sacred forces. Nowadays, meditation is commonly used for stress reduction, finding your inner peace, and relaxation.
Why meditation is important
Today, we live in a world of constant information overload. Let me provide you with an example from my own experience. I am working for various clients daily. In addition to that, I am constantly online, all the time while awake.
In the evenings, when spending time with my family, I feel that I am overloaded. Some days I am not even able to have a conversation for too long with my wife and my son. I do feel terrible about that, but that’s mainly because I am constantly “consuming” content all day long.
I read emails all day, the news, watch educational videos, and have Teams calls and phone calls alike plus, I have to manage a business and a team. As you can see, it’s a lot, but it’s not that I am complaining about anything.
“Meditating helps me stay centered and is good for my well-being”
So if you are in a similar situation, I highly recommend you try it.
What meditation can help you with
Everybody knows, even when they have tried meditating only once, that it can give you a special sense of balance and peace. But there is more to it than just getting relaxation and coping with stress. The other benefit from it is that your emotional well-being and your health can increase as well.
I will talk more about the benefits of meditation that I experienced myself in the next chapter.
The benefits of meditation
There are several more benefits of meditation than I talk about in this article. I am only going to talk about the benefits I experienced. The good thing is, that all those benefits don’t end just by ending a meditation. They do last longer throughout the day. And the more you practice, the more intense this effect will be.
I will not talk about the positive side effects meditation may have on illnesses because I am not a doctor or specialist here. So if you would like to know more about that, please consider talking to your general practitioner.
If you are interested in learning more about this, I can recommend some articles to you that you should read:
- When Science Meets Mindfulness – The Harvard Gazette
- 7 Science-Backed Health Benefits of Meditation, According to Experts – Prevention
- 7 Ways Meditation Can Actually Change Your Brain – Forbes
Stress reduction and relief
I won’t dig too deep into the topic of stress reduction and relief here because that topic is very important and worth another article on stress reduction and stress relief.
What meditation can help you with is learning how to reframe your view about stress. It also can help you with building more resilience to stress. So, its ability to reduce stress is significant. It all boils down to soften the way you perceive stress and relating to it in a more accepting way. Mindfulness is key.
If you are stressed too often, your body is in a constant state of fight or run. In the long run, this can also lead to physical and psychological damage. Another beneficial side-effect of meditating is the following.
Reestablishing emotional health
Meditation can lift your mood significantly. It’s more of an indirect impact that you won’t feel right away, so let me explain more to you about this.
What meditation does really well is that it helps you to relax. Due to more relaxation, you will over time get rid of a lot of stress in your life. This leads to a huge lift in your mood. In the end, this also leads to stronger and better emotional health.
I usually describe it that way that I feel more centered, living in the now instead of the past or future, which allows me to not take everything too seriously, stay emotionally stable and not feel stressed.
Enhancement of self-awareness
You can reduce negative emotions through meditation, focus on the present and therefore increase self-awareness. Practicing meditation a regular basis helps you to clearly see yourself through the process.
Your brain is constantly producing a lot of noise. You constantly do have thoughts on your mind and you also constantly judge yourself and your thoughts. Meditation helps you quiet that noise significantly.
In addition to meditation, there are also a couple of other techniques and books you might consult along the way. Being self-aware of my own thoughts became crucial for me. As soon as I realized how bad I was sometimes thinking about myself or talking to myself, I was able to start working on it.
Sleep improvement
Another very important part of your life is sleep. It does not necessarily mean that you have to sleep 7 – 9 hours a day, even if some scientists believe that this is the standard everyone at a certain age should sleep. The sleep foundation provides a very good overview of scientific research and the hours someone should sleep.
I personally believe that everybody is different. There are people that need more sleep than others. Meditation can help with having longer non-REM sleep phases that are responsible for feeling refreshed in the morning. This is the stage where brain waves are very slow and your muscles are more relaxed.
How to get started with meditation
First of all, you might want to get a quick introduction to the different types of mediation techniques. I do favor one or two over the others. So I can recommend trying out different things first, before practicing meditation more regularly.
I recommend reading more about this in my article about meditation techniques. When you are new to meditating, it might make sense to start with a few minutes a day. Over time, you can extend your meditation practice up to half an hour which should be enough for everyone.
Conclusion
In western culture, the practice of meditation is getting more and more popular. Based on my own experience, I can confirm that meditating is an excellent way to find relaxation on a daily basis.
