There are many benefits to meditation that we are not all together familiar with, most of us hesitant, busy, mind running A types, who foster on being high energy and keeping our energy stores up, but there are some benefits to slowing down even for a moment to focus in on what’s important to us, whether that’s gathering a set of thoughts and upon recitation to self, calming down, as one article recommends, or focusing on your environment “increase awareness of yourself and your surroundings” (healthline.com) in its entirety and taking everything in. [1] There’s a system theme and a purpose for processing all that you need to in a given series of steps we call meditation.
Its common for the mind to wander, what mindfulness meditation teaches us, is to be present in the moment. Paying attention to sensations in the body, as well as having awareness for what is going on around you, not just stuck in your head daydreaming about the past or the present, or worse yet wasting time judging yourself or others, being too self-conscious. It’s a way to train your mind. [2]
The key elements of meditation include: “Focused Attention, Relaxed Breathing, A Quiet Setting, A Comfortable Position, [and an] Open Attitude.” [3] Two types of mediation and examples are: (a) Focused-attention mediations, and (b) Open-monitoring mediation –[4] (mayoclinic.org). — “focused-attention” seems to be the types of mediations we are most familiar with concentrating on what you’re focusing on which could be “single object, thoughts, sound, visualization, breathing, a mantra, or calming sound.” [5]
The other type of mediation is (b) Open-monitoring mediation, which includes having a “broadened awareness of all aspects of your environment, train of thought, and sense of self, including becoming aware of suppressed thoughts, feelings, or impulses.” [6] (healthline.com) -While, “Metta” is a “type of mediation known as loving kindness … begins with developing kind thoughts and feelings toward yourself.” [7]
How your body communicates to yourself matters, meditation helps to uncover attitude and hidden thoughts, [8] whether or not you see the value in it. Take pause, be kind to yourself, it’s a growing practice. There’s no need to shame yourself, it’s one of the most profound ways you can get in touch with your own sense of being and humanity. What a great way to start your day, manage a difficult time, take a break from work, or end your day. There’s no set required way to do it and that’s what makes it so fascinating to us all.
5 Major Benefits to Meditation
· Improves Memory and Attention [8] “recommended 20-30 mins a day.”
· Improves Awareness for Your Thinking (newscientist.com) [9]
· Teaches Us Mindfulness Focusing on the Current Moment [10]
· Reduces Stress [11] “medical conditions worsened by stress.”
· Improves Emotional Health and Self-Image [12]
The power of quieting our thoughts and how we can strengthen those muscles in our brains like muscle memory is to an athlete, to better situate ourselves in the future for having better automatic responses to daily stress, negative thinking, and respond with strength in the face of various environmental stressors even if it’s just a lawnmower outside your window.
You always have the power to channel your energy, especially now in recovery from COVID, it’s important that we don’t spread ourselves too thin, and meditation is one way in which we can harness the energy that we do have and create those mental blocks necessary to avoid being overcome with feelings and sensations that stress can bring into our lives, think of it as your shield, you can make it as strong and resilient as you need it to be, it only takes practice. Mindfulness may be especially beneficial for those experiencing the many physical symptoms of mental health issues, or even minor body aches and pains “focusing our attentions away from the pain” is recommended. [13]
It’s only recently we have begun to notice and accept our need to be resilient to mental health concerns across the board, the good news is that mental health issues are not contagious, as one psychiatrist has stated at UCLA, when asked if bipolar was contagious.
What being a human being is about, having the ability to separate yourself from what’s bothersome. It could even be confusion over feelings or thoughts, that are causing you sickness. Don’t worry you’re not alone. In fact, meditation can help with “boost[ing] mindfulness [to] relieve stress by teaching you to sit with distracting thoughts, acknowledge them, and let them go.” [14] In recent studies “mindfulness meditation,” has been proven to “help relieve stress, treat heart disease, lower blood pressure, reduce chronic pain, improve sleep, and alleviate gastrointestinal difficulties.” [15]
Most of the negative thoughts we get occur when thinking too much about the past or the future, whereas in meditation we learn how to focus on the present. Training your mind to be present works in turn to get you away from maladaptive coping strategies for dealing with problems, which encourages recognizing the time that we have now rather than time lost due to experiencing our problems which may be difficult to overcome in a more helpless state. Empowering yourself includes, “train[ing] our minds to untangle from unhelpful thoughts and cultivate calm, compassion and inner strength.” [16]
Organize what you can. What are your thoughts and what are your feelings? Meditation is a great way to start somewhere separating your thoughts from your feelings. This can occur by establishing a sense of quiet, thinking in a calm space of quiet created by you, and then with active listening through guided meditations or your own recitations manage that quiet space and fill it with what you wish. It could even be music! When you get a handle on managing your own ecosystem within you become that much stronger of a person when it comes to interacting with others in their own conditions with appreciation for your own.
As you improve you become a stronger resource for others to lean to in the event they face instability, you will have the knowledge and ability to get through those difficult feelings, and comprehend the meaning of quiet and how difficult and challenging it was when you first started just achieving that sense of being on your own, it’s a skill we are all capable of getting good at, it’s all a matter if practice.
Self-Improvement benefits to mediation include a greater awareness for yourself, your energy, and your emotions, and how you express yourself. If only you could channel what’s best about you, you could avoid the risk of becoming aggravated by anything standing in the way between you and a happier, healthier version of you. Being at peace is not easy for most, not if you are fighting issues, battling a condition such as depression, mania, anger, or voices. Working on developing better coping mechanisms for handling some of life’s most stressful situations, can be done with meditation.
If you are able to pause and collect yourself, you will become that much stronger of a candidate in the long run for building and maintaining relationships. It’s those who are able to stay calm and remain unaffected who become the best assets in times of difficulty, it’s not that you’re not affected, but you are in being calm, showing consideration without interference, in your own way.
Being able to self-adjust is a huge tool in combatting many unwanted emotions, if it can be solved on your end first, then it will likely not become the problem of others to explain to you, especially now, with the pressure to move on, let go, and not harp on the past.
People move on, and so should you emotionally, why sacrifice your peace feeling sorry for yourself, or getting mad at yourself for things you can’t control, just let go. These are tell-tale signs that you are feeling without awareness and consideration. Having others be at peace with you means avoiding situations in which how you talk about life upsets others. Keep a good head on your shoulders, filter more, have some self-control. To share in instability shows a lack of self-awareness. You can wind up feeling very alone on that route. Don’t rely too much on others to stabilize that can leave you feeling wound up in co-dependent relationships. The goal is always stability, quiet helps for regaining clarity, when keeping busy or when physical activity cannot get your mind off of what’s bothering you.
Sometimes only you know how long it will take, and what needs to be done, to start healing. By the time you get to a smarter phase of your coping mechanism development, you will be so proud of yourself and wonder why you ever didn’t start working on what needed work sooner, forgive yourself.
When we meditate on the positives, growth comes from replacing bad thoughts with new ones, and creating acceptance for our shortcomings in life, with awareness, and acceptance of what does not feel good. Identify it, recognize it, and in the future avoid situating yourself to have those experiences in life, not feeling good by others. It should be in your best interests to blend in with your surroundings and others, so having some self-awareness of how you’re managing your energy through mindfulness is a plus. Don’t be motivated by the wrong interests in life, telling you you’re different, you’re not, we are all the same, more similar than we are different, we all go through this struggle to just be calm.
You can’t react to everything. Most of life requires us to take a step back and to really think about where we are headed in life and what we want for ourselves and others. How you own and operate your mind, can enable you to help others in a powerful way. See one, do one, teach one, is the saying. The best change occurs, when you are in control of your emotions and yourself, start there first without considering what is causing you to think or feel a certain way, the answer lies within mostly.
Better states of being require a belief in yourself and change starts with you, you have to want to set goal, and make yourself feel good, without feeling bad if you are doing well, or feeling bad if you are not well letting others down. People have their own lives to live absent minded you so it’s best to accept when acknowledged, without appear unappreciative of the change in others, as they make progress too.
What may be difficult for you may be something easy, common, or not difficult for someone who is not going what you are going through, value people like that, who encourage that a more normal state can be achieved, where you are no longer self-identifying pushing people away in life, and regain trust to interact with others, without allowing for your hurt to become their memory, bothered by you.
Be able to integrate with others! It will be a shy return to living life post trauma and problem solving on your own, its your journey, you get to decide what to share and what others should know about you, own your stripes in life, eventually if its something that can be known, do you have an explanation for why you were that way, and are you in a better place where you have keen awareness that being that way is not necessary to experience life or difficulty, and choose a more productive route, pausing.
The better read you have on your own quirks in life is what makes you human, there are no rules to living life, we are allowed good and bad days, emotions, sadness, and heartache. Happiness is a team effort that starts with you. If you want others to be happy for you, you have to be happy for yourself. You can’t expect everything to line up for you perfectly in life. Being happy with what you have is a good start to practicing gratitude over resentments. You won’t get far blaming others or following one another into harms way, complain. Everything in life requires structure, good decision making, and making good choices for yourself, don’t be afraid to live life. With more experience you too will be confident and well-adjusted too no matter what happens to you in life, have faith.
One of the reasons to meditate is to be able to “let thoughts pass through your mind without judgment,” meaning to have an “open attitude.” [17] (mayoclinic.org) Always trust professionals, if they’ve seen it a million times, they would know best if you can’t identify what it is that is bothering you, to diagnose, trust starts there. Fear or non-acceptance, holds most people back from doing what they need to do to improve. Developing a new dialogue in the peace of your mind is how to get strong within so that you can overcome your problems and stop the cycle of hurt. Bringing into awareness positive mantras to get you through your day, instead of overthinking and ruminating and being hard on yourself. Why not meditate. The goal is to be a well-adjusted adult, and what shows that more than an ability to control yourself: meditate.
