Why Meditate?

Meditation reduces stress and anxiety, and prevents depression – which means better health, happiness and wellbeing!

Stress is known to be one of the leading causes of health problems in the world today. Whether stress manifests inside us as the result of things happening in our personal lives, our job, personal problems, or any challenging situations we may face, the build up of too much stress can be harmful. It can physically damage our bodies and our minds, negatively affecting our health and wellbeing.

Meditation reduces stress. This is important because when we are stressed our bodies release stress hormones. The first signs of these is when our heart rate goes up. We can also feel tense or anxious. Prolonged stress floods the body with a deluge of stress related hormones which can start having a negative impact on our health. A build up of them increases our risk of heart disease, depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, obesity, insomnia, autoimmune diseases, anxiety, cancer, fatigue, stomach ulcers, and many other health debilitating conditions.

Sometimes it’s not possible to remove the cause of the stress, for example, we can’t always avoid getting stuck in a traffic jam. And quitting a job isn’t always an option because of the financial implications that would come from having zero income. However, it is possible to change the way we deal with stress. Meditation helps us to cope better mentally and emotionally. We get better at processing our thoughts, feelings and emotions about situations, and deal with things more effectively.

Another benefit of meditating is that it helps the body to gradually release the stress and toxins that’s already accumulated in it. This helps to create a buffer and prevent the build up of further stress accumulating. Because meditation helps us to relax, our bodies release a flood of good chemicals and hormones that help them to repair, rejuvenate and heal.

Meditation helps us to stop becoming so entangled in our thoughts, so we can bring our minds to rest. It allows us to operate from the part of ourselves that our normal thinking minds never will. It helps to keep our mind, body, thoughts, feelings, and emotions in a balanced state. It also opens us up to becoming more aware of the fleeting nature of our minds and our thoughts. Meditation also cultivates our ability to stay more present, more fully, in the moment, enhancing our concentration and memory.

Through a gradual process of self-transformation, it frees us from the negative conditioning that we have possibly developed over the years (on a subconscious level). It also liberates us from states of discontentment, unhappiness, or suffering that our thoughts can sometimes recycle into our lives. It helps us develop the ability to see things and situations with a sense of clarity, and fresh perspective, away from the stagnant flow of negative thoughts, and judgements.

One of the meditations I teach, Mindfulness Meditation, has become very popular in the health industry because it’s so effective. In addition to Mindfulness being a traditional meditation practice, it is now widely used in the NHS, and around the world, as a form of therapy. Many studies have shown that mindfulness meditation is at least as effective, if not more effective, for treating mild to moderate depression than antidepressant drugs. It’s also cheaper than the medication and has no drug-induced side effects.

If you feel burned out, stressed, anxious, tense or worried, try meditation. Just a few minutes of meditation can help to restore inner calm and wellbeing. Meditation is a simple and fast way to unwind, and it’s possible to reach deep states of relaxation within just a few minutes. It’s very effective at wiping away the day’s stress, and replacing it with a deep state of calm and inner peace.

Meditation helps us to rejuvenate – revitalising the mind, body, and soul. Other benefits of being more relaxed from meditating allows our bodies to repair and heal. It also increases our vitality so we feel more energised and alert. Another added benefit is that meditating regularly helps us to develop more resilience, so we are able to deal more calmly and effectively with the things that we might normally cause us to feel stressed or anxious.

Experiencing true peace means being surrounded by the whirlwind of everyday troubles, challenges, and predicaments of life, while feeling an inner sense of calm and ease in your heart. Thanks to having a regular meditation practice, no matter what is happening around you, or what life throws at you, you are able to handle it, with grace, dignity, and ease.

Sleep is vital to our health and wellbeing. Lack of sleep is known to negatively affect our wellbeing. It can lead to all kinds of issues, from feeling fatigued, irritable and stressed, to not being able to concentrate or function properly. Not sleeping well also negatively impacts our health by reducing our immune system. Luckily for us, meditation improves our quality of sleep in a variety of ways, ultimately leading to more restful peaceful nights. We wake up feeling more refreshed and rejuvenated, with more energy and mental clarity for the day ahead.

Meditation helps us to feel brighter. Research shows that meditating is a proven way of enhancing the brain’s ability to concentrate, memorise, learn, and adapt quicker to new situations. Meditation is a powerful tool for transforming the brain because it helps stimulate new neural connections.

The brain is capable of adapting and developing throughout our lifetime. Neuroplasticity shows that connections between neurons can be improved. New ones can be created, and old ones that no longer serve us can be degraded or even terminated. As a result, our grey matter can shrink or thicken accordingly. One study found that after just eight weeks of meditation, participants experienced beneficial growth in the brain locations associated with concentration, learning ability, and memory. The research on the brains of long term meditators showed that those aged from 40-50, had the same, and in some cases more grey matter, in the area of the brain associated with memory and decision making, than people 20-30 years younger than them who did not meditate. Research also shows that meditation increases the gamma wave activity in our brains. These waves are helpful in measuring our consciousness, cognitive functioning, and mental abilities such as: learning, processing information, attention span, perception, memory storage, and recall.

People who meditate seem to succeed and accomplish more in their lives. They are able to move more freely with the flow of life, rather than resisting or struggling with it. They gracefully deal with whatever life presents them with. As a result, they are more relaxed, more accepting, more adaptable, and more productive, accomplishing more with seemingly less effort. They are more likely to take inspired action, achieve their goals, fulfil their dreams, and be more successful in all areas of their lives. Many people who meditate say they are able to work with a more zen-like flow, and just get things done.

Meditation helps us to feel inspired. It enhances creativity, intuition and improves problem solving skills. People who meditate regularly transcend the normal ways of thinking. They are also more receptive to intuition, inspiration, and ideas. This helps in all walks of life, especially when it comes to enhancing creativity, which is especially beneficial for creative people of all disciplines, from writers, to artists, musicians and more.

People who meditate feel more satisfied, more of the time. Regular meditation catalyses a greater sense of happiness and joyful wellbeing. Things that would have once troubled or worried you are dealt with rationally and effortlessly, without becoming entangled and trapped in any of the ‘drama’ that our usual thought patterns, reactions or emotional responses create. With regular meditation, we are able to experience life with a deep sense of inner calm, and non-judgemental acceptance. We become more balanced and in harmony with our natural state of being. When we live life connected more fully to this state of being, we are able to navigate life’s obstacles and challenges more gracefully, enabling us to live a life with more satisfaction, fulfilment, happiness and contentment.

Meditation has many positive effects on our mental and physical health, including reducing our blood pressure. It also has a positive affect on our heart rate, and it enhances our immune systems and brain activity. Meditation also improves skin conditions and allergies. It improves the heart health for patients with angina, cardiac arrhythmias, and coronary heart disease. It reduces cholesterol too. Meditation also brings relief from coughs and bronchial asthma, and it’s great for pain reduction. It even reduces problems with duodenal ulcers, fatigue, constipation and insomnia. Meditation has also improved people’s fertility.

Meditation has been proven to accelerate the healing process. It boosts immunity, and improves our overall health and wellbeing. Studies also show that people who meditate heal faster, and recover from injury and illness quicker. They also visit their doctor less, and spend less time in hospital, compared to those who don’t meditate. These are just little snapshots from a small portion of scientific studies to give you an idea of some of the positive health associated benefits.

Meditation helps to generate a deeper sense of love, connection, and oneness; with others, nature, and the world around us. It enhances our relationships and increases our sense of unity. It cultivates harmony, inner knowing, inner calm, understanding and compassion. Through meditation, the sense of being a separate ‘me’ (ego identity) dissolves, and we begin to merge and integrate more fully, being at one with all that is. We are able to experience the true nature of ourselves, our reality, and our connection to a higher energy consciousness which is intelligent, joyful and loving. This energy consciousness is the life-force which animates all things, and is interwoven within all things throughout the universe.

Meditating can help us to transcend ourselves. Meditation, and the mystical experiences that can arise from it allow our conscious minds to expand, explore, and to connect to so much more than what we know to be human consciousness. Meditation is the gateway to the universe and it can takes us on a magical journey of discovery.

Meditation accelerates spiritual growth and awakening. Traditionally meditation was, and still is, used for spiritual growth, a way to connect more deeply to our spiritual source, and a pathway to reaching a state of enlightenment. Enlightenment has a profound effect on a person. Once experienced, nothing is ever the same again.

Meditating can elevate us into higher realms of consciousness and perception. Meditation helps create a higher vibrational state of frequency within us, which allows for a harmonious alignment with higher states of consciousness and awareness. Higher perceptions, and the exploration of other dimensions and realities also become possible. We can also become more in tune with the psychic realms, have mystical experiences, or tap into what some call supernatural abilities. Our hearts and minds become like an antennae, capable of receiving and sending information because of the resonant state of being that meditating can facilitate. It allows us to both transmit and receive higher frequencies as well as operate at a higher vibrational frequency. Sometimes the experiences that occur in meditation can seem mystical, or magical, and it’s not always possible to adequately describe them with words.

Meditation is a positive, life enriching practice, that works, and comes with an abundance of benefits. It improves the quality of our lives in many ways. Neuroscience proves that through regular meditation, we positively change our brains, and consequently our minds. Research also proves beyond doubt that we enhance and improve our overall health, happiness and wellbeing. We also begin creating new habits, intentions, attitudes, and behaviours. These changes can have amazing effects on our daily lives.

We can also be confident that when we are meditating, and it feels like nothing is happening, something is happening – albeit automatically, on a deeper level, unseen and out of our control — somewhere in the background of our subconscious selves. Meditating regularly can be life changing and profound. You will begin to experience the truth of this for yourself by having your own meditation practice. If you stay with it, over time you will come to realise that you’ll get far more out of meditation than you could ever put into it. Meditation is the perfect excuse to take some time for yourself, and to sit, and do nothing for a while.