Meditation is exercise for the brain. Try to meditate daily, even if it’s just for 10 to 15 minutes.
Mediation can also train you to control your thoughts, especially stopping the constant mind-chatter of senseless worrying. Meditation develops the ability to look inward and change an emotion you may not want to feel, like anger, frustration, unhappiness, etc.
No, there is nothing wrong with feeling these emotions or being “stressed,” but dwelling for too long on worries and fears is not conducive to good health. Ongoing research shows the many physical and mental benefits of keeping your cognitive cool. Each time you practise meditating, you are strengthening your ability to decide what thoughts you want occupying your mind (so try to make them “good” thoughts!).
Do a variety of meditations or stick to one you like. And, incidentally, meditating doesn’t mean you have to wear beads, sit cross-legged or stare into a candle flame while chanting. Here are several of my personal favourite “meditation” ideas:
Sit quietly and visualize a bright white light surrounding you. Feel your body functioning perfectly and efficiently.
Relax in a warm tub, close your eyes and list all the things you are grateful for. Even if things aren’t going your way, you can still find many things to be grateful for: that you are alive, that you have a bathtub to relax in, that you have a roof over your head. Do you own a coffee table? Sure, be grateful for that too. Because while you are in a state of being grateful, there is absolutely no way you can be worried, afraid, angry or depressed.
Meditate as soon as you awake in the morning by thinking of all the positive things that will happen today (traffic to work will be light or you’ll find a $10 bill).
Meditate while you fall asleep at bedtime, reciting all the wonderful things that happened to you during the day (like the light traffic or the $10 you found).
Make up your own type of meditation. Perhaps just listen to the sounds around you, without analyzing or thinking about them at all. Keep your mind present. It’s actually quite fun to see how long you can do this before your mind wanders. And the longer you can do it, the better you become at being able to control your thoughts or, at the very least, avoid thinking about your troubles.
Practice makes perfect!
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Eve Lees has been active in the health & fitness industry since 1979. Currently, she is a Freelance Health Writer for several publication and speaks to business and private groups on various health topics.