Meditation has grown in popularity due to its potential to reduce stress and promote mental clarity. In fact, some estimates assert that roughly 14 percent of US adults either practice or have practiced meditation at some point in their lives, which is a huge increase from the 4 percent figure that was estimated as recently as 2012. While 14 percent may not sound like a lot, that figure equals roughly 38 million US adults.
Of course, that also means that roughly 86 percent of US adults have never attempted to meditate. While meditation appears to be easy, in theory, it can also be intimidating to start. Many people assume that meditation requires signing up for a class and adhering to a strict set of principles. Meditation also has connotations with being connected to Buddhism and other religions. The reality is that meditation is something that anyone, even novices, can do at any time without an instructor.
Just Stick to the Basics
There is no true, singular definition for meditation, but this activity can be described as calming yourself and focusing your mind on the present in order to promote awareness and mindfulness. While that may sound like a mouthful, meditation can be quite simple.
The best way to start meditating is to sit still, close your eyes and start taking deep breaths. At first, it can help to find a quiet spot in your house to remove as many potential distractions as possible. However, this is not a requirement for meditation. The most important thing to do is to focus on your breaths.
Don’t Beat Yourself Up, No One is Perfect.
Keep in mind that you are not being tested on your ability to meditate. Meditation is not a competition to see who can be mindful the quickest. In this sense, meditating by yourself in the comfort of your own home can be more beneficial than trying to do it in a class with other people.
Do not become discouraged when your mind begins to wander, because it will eventually wander no matter what you do. In fact, acknowledging when your mind does begin to drift to other things and then returning to focusing on your breathing is a key ingredient of healthy meditation.
Stay In the Moment and Make a Note of How You Feel
When you decide that it is time to stop meditating, just start making mental notes of how you feel. You should think about how you feel inside and out. How does your body feel? What are you thinking about? Which emotions are you feeling? This act of being in the present is often referred to as mindfulness.
What Are the Health Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation?
In addition to supporting mental health and reducing the risk of anxiety and depression, there is a growing belief that meditation may support a wide range of other functions and processes that influence whole body health.
Keeping the Stress Hormone in Check
Cortisol is a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal glands and is also known as the “stress hormone” due to its critical role in your body’s natural stress response. When you are faced with a “fight-or-flight” situation, the hypothalamus section of your brain works with your pituitary gland to signal the adrenal glands that cortisol production is needed. Your adrenal glands then flood your body with this stress hormone to help you return to stasis or “come down” from stressful situations.
When your body’s stress response is functioning at an optimal level, cortisol is a crucial component of comprehensive wellness. Not only is cortisol essential to stress response, but it also helps your body with a variety of other functions and processes that influence whole body health, including the response to inflammation, the sleep-wake cycle and the regulation of blood sugar, metabolism, and blood pressure.
Unfortunately, repeated, and extended exposure to stressful situations can lead to the overproduction of cortisol. At that point, the stress hormone often does more harm than good. To make matters worse, the fact that glucocorticoid receptors can be found in almost every tissue in your body means that chronically high levels of cortisol can negatively affect many of the systems that your body relies on to function at an optimal level, including the immune, respiratory, nervous, cardiovascular, and musculoskeletal systems.
On the bright side, activities that can have a positive effect on cortisol levels have the potential to restore the functionality of those systems to optimal levels.
Promote Healthy Sleep Patterns
Researchers have found that mindfulness meditation can support quality sleep cycles, even in people who are struggling with sleep disturbances and other sleep issues. Not only does stress contribute to poor sleep, but poor sleep also contributes to stress. This negative feedback loop relationship means that you could potentially make massive improvements to both sleep health and stress response by practicing mindfulness exercises on a regular basis.
Support Heart Health
Medical experts also believe that regular meditation and mindfulness exercises can have a positive effect on cardiovascular function through multiple avenues.
The first positive effect is the meditation’s ability to directly promote balanced cortisol levels. That effect alone can promote optimal heart health.
The next way that regular mindfulness exercises can lead to healthy cardiovascular function is their positive effect on sleep health. Again, optimal sleep cycles can further support healthy cortisol cycles and a reduced risk of chronic stress. By maintaining a healthy stress response and cortisol levels, you can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Give Your Immune System a Boost
Immune function is another aspect of whole body health that can benefit from consistent mindfulness exercises. Optimal immune function can be supported by healthy cortisol levels because high levels of cortisol can lead to reduced immune function through increased inflammation.
Yet, multiple studies suggest that mindfulness meditation can also enhance immune function on a cellular level. This research shows that not only can consistent meditation support your mental health, but it also has the potential to support your physical health as well.
Find Time Every Day to Practice Mindfulness
The most important thing to remember is that there is no one perfect way to meditate; just find a routine that works for you and be consistent. You also do not need to spend hours with your breathing exercises. Instead, start by practicing mindfulness for a few minutes every day. As you get more used to meditating, you might find that you want to spend more and more time focusing on how you feel in the present. As these exercises become ingrained in your daily routine, you could find yourself feeling your best in both mind and body.
If you believe that you are still struggling to maintain balanced cortisol levels, there are certain nutrients that may be able to promote reduced stress and healthy sleep patterns, especially when used in tandem with consistent mindfulness exercises. Browse the professional grade nutraceutical products offered by EVEXIAS Health Solutions to find the combination of nutrients that works best for you.
