How Meditation can Help with Stress and Anxiety – Five Benefits behind having a Meditation Practice
Meditation has become increasingly popular in the health community. That is because there are so many reasons meditating is good for our mind, body, and soul! One of the biggest incentives to start meditating is that meditation can help to reduce stress and anxiety.
How? Here are the ways meditation can help!
Reduces Negative Emotions
When we meditate, we practice the art of being conscious and in the present moment. This is known as stilling the mind. When we still the mind, we are quieting down the mental chatter that goes on in our heads. The mind is a powerful generator of thoughts, and often times with stress and anxiety, these thoughts can be ones of worry, doubt, and fear. Since our thoughts create our reality, this manifests into anxiety and stress. Through meditating, we are reducing these negative thoughts that fill our brains, in return, we feel better and our mental and emotional health improves.
Become More Patient
One benefit of meditation is that it helps to instill more patience. We can often get impatient when our brains are telling us of the next thing to do. When we keep anticipating and planning our next moment instead of being present, we can become dissatisfied with our current situation and become anxious about what is to happen next. Meditation helps in slowing down our minds so we can find peace in the present.
Reduces Stress
There have been multiple studies showing how meditation can help in reducing stress. One study has shown that nearly 1,300 adults experienced a reduction in stress levels while meditating. This is because meditation improves the symptoms that cause stress, which are increased levels of cortisol. High levels of stress can lead to health issues such as insomnia, increased blood pressure, and even heart disease.
Reduces Anxiety
Anxiety and stress go hand-in-hand. For example, an 8-week study of mindful meditation helped participants reduce their anxiety through lowering their cortisol levels. Anxiety can result in many forms of mental issues, from PTSD, phobias, social anxiety, OCD behaviors, and panic attacks. Meditation has been shown to help with all of these types of anxieties.
Live in the Present
Lastly, through meditation, we are focused on living in the present moment. This is important because much of anxiety and stress is caused by living in the future. This future is full of what ifs and worry. By putting ourselves back into the present moment, we can lessen these feelings of anxiety and stress, bringing in more peace instead.
There are so many other great reasons to start meditating. If you are new to meditation, try it for 10 minutes a day and start noticing the improvements in your life!
