How Meditation Helps?

Do you know how will meditation helps you in current situations of Stress these days? Everyone is stressed in this pandemic time. The only thing helpful is meditation. We are feeling its effects on our mind and body. Stress quickens our heart rate and breathing and increases blood pressure. When constantly under stress, our adrenal glands overproduce the hormone cortisol.

Overexposure to this hormone can affect the function of our brain, immune system, and other organs. If it continues to persist, it can contribute to headaches, anxiety, depression, heart disease, and even premature death.

Though we may not be able to eradicate the roots of stress, we can minimize its effects on our body. One of the easiest and most achievable stress-relieving techniques is meditation. Although the practice of meditation is thousands of years old, research on its health benefits is relatively new, but promising. For depression, meditation was about as effective as an antidepressant pill.

Meditation is thought to work via its effects on the sympathetic nervous system, which increases heart rate, breathing, and blood pressure during times of stress. Meditation helps to bring all this under control.

Studies from UCLA found that long-term meditators had better-preserved brains than non-meditators as they aged. Participants who’d been meditating for an average of 20 years had more grey matter volume throughout the brain — although older meditators still had some volume loss compared to younger meditators, it wasn’t as pronounced as the non-meditators. “We expected rather small and distinct effects located in some of the regions that had previously been associated with meditating,” said study author Florian Kurth. “Instead, what we actually observed was a widespread effect of meditation that encompassed regions throughout the entire brain.”

Another study done at Yale University found that mindfulness meditation decreases activity in the default mode network (DMN), the brain network responsible for mind-wandering and self-referential thoughts – “monkey mind.” The DMN is “on” or active when we’re not thinking about anything in particular when our minds are just wandering from thought to thought. Several studies have shown that meditation, through its quieting effect on the DMN, appears to do just this. And even when the mind does start to wander, because of the new connections that form, meditators are better at snapping back out of it.

Types of meditation

Meditation comes in many forms, including the following:

• Concentration meditation teaches you how to focus your mind. It’s the foundation for other forms of meditation.
• Heart-centered meditation involves quieting the mind and bringing the awareness to the heart, an energy center in the middle of the chest.
• Mindfulness meditation encourages you to focus objectively on negative thoughts as they move through your mind, so you can achieve a state of calm.
• Tai chi and qigong are moving forms of meditation that combine physical exercise with breathing and focus.
• Transcendental Meditation is a well-known technique in which you repeat a mantra—a word, phrase, or sound—to quiet your thoughts and achieve greater awareness.
• Walking meditation turns your focus to both body and mind as you breathe in time with your footsteps.

While meditating you don’t need any equipment. All that’s required is a quiet space and a few minutes each day. Start with five minutes initially, when you develop a habit you can extend the time for longer hours.

The specifics of your practice will depend on which type of meditation you choose, but here are some general guidelines to get you started:

• Sit comfortably in a chair or on the floor with your back straight.
• Close your eyes, or focus your gaze on the object you’ve chosen like any crystal or any religious idol.
• Breathe slowly, deeply, and gently.
• Keep your mind focused inward or on the object. If it wanders, gently steer it back to center.
• Breathe peace and quiet into your heart and mind. While you’re breathing out let your thoughts flow.
• You can also chant out loud. Many people use the Sanskrit word “shanti,” which means “peace.” Or choose a word from your own religious tradition. “Chanting out loud can help drown out thoughts,”.

With regular meditation, you will help you and give a sense of relief from the chaos going on in your mind. Meditation helps you be stable. Also you will feel sense of achievement on developing a habit that you stick up to. It develops in you a sense of mindfulness and person with much of insights about their life. Meditation gives you peace. This Peacefulness in your mind and body will help you achieve greatest things in life you aimed for.

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