On Wednesday, April 8th I was in the rehabilitation home my mother is in and while watching her work out with the physical therapist I figured I would search the web for some mental release for myself and the meditation routine I do just about every day, well every other day is being more realistic lately. I recently came across the following article, “75 Benefits of Meditation For An Inspired Life.” (http://www.endoriot.com). Now if you have never done meditation it’s not that hard, you really don’t need anything more than a towel for under your bum, a nice quite, cool (for me) spot indoors or out that’s all up to you. I sit down and depending on my back my poses vary, you just need to sit in a chair, on the floor wherever and I then start going backwards in my head and remembering all the good things that has happened in my life. You can have music playing, a candle or 20 burning, incense going whatever helps calm you down. And guess what, your meditating. So the author of the article came up with 75 quite positive benefits to taking on a meditation routine, which can take as little as 5 minutes a day, just 5, less time than it takes to drink a cup of coffee or shower.
Psychological Benefits:
- Builds self-confidence
- Increases Serotonin levels
- Resolves phobias and fears
- Helps control own thoughts
- Helps with focus and concentration
- Increases creativity
- Increased brain wave coherence
- Improves learning ability and memory
- Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation
- Increased emotional stability
- Improves relationships
- Mind ages at a slower rate
- Develops Intuition
- Improves relations at home & work
- Able to see the larger picture in a given situation
- Develop will power
- Develops emotional maturity
- Grows a stable, more balanced personality
- Greater tolerance
- Gives composure to act in a considered & constructive way
- Need less sleep to recover from sleep deprivation
- Decreased tendency to worry
- Helps make more accurate judgments
- Decrease in restless thinking
- Require less time to fall asleep, beneficial for insomnia
Physiological Benefits:
- It lowers oxygen consumption rate
- Decreases respiratory rate
- Increases blood flow and slows the heart
- Increases exercise tolerance
- Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation
- Good for people with high blood pressure
- Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate
- Enhances the immune system
- Helps in chronic diseases such as arthritis, allergies, etc…
- Helps in post-operative healing
- Decreases muscle tension
- Reduces pre-menstrual symptoms
- Reduces activity of viruses and emotional distress
- Drop in cholesterol levels, lowering risk of cardiovascular disease
- Helps with weight loss
- Higher skin resistance
- Improved flow of air to lungs, resulting in easier breathing
- Higher levels of DHEAS (Dehydroepiandrosterone)
- Cure headaches and migraines
- More inclined to sports, activities
- Harmonize your endocrine system
- Reduced need for medical care
- Greater orderliness of brain functioning
- Relaxes the nervous system
- Heals infertility (the stress of infertility can interfere with the release of hormones that regulate ovulation)
Spiritual Benefits:
- Helps keep things in perspective
- Provides peace of mind
- Helps you discover your purpose
- Increased compassion
- Growing wisdom
- Increases self-actualization
- Deeper understanding of yourself and others
- Brings body, mind, and spirit into harmony
- Helps learn forgiveness
- Changes attitude towards life
- Helps one live in the present
- Creates a widening, deepening capacity for love
- Increases the synchronicity in life
- Allows the experience of ‘One-ness’
- Attain enlightenment
- Increases acceptance of oneself
- Discovery of the power and consciousness beyond the ego
- Deeper level of spiritual relaxation
- Creates a deeper relationship with God
- Greater inner-directedness
- Allows the inner sense of “Assurance” and “Knowledge”
- Reduces pattern of judgment
- Allows one to ‘let go’
- Opens one to limit-less belief
- Shifts one to being happier with simplicity, nature, and the self
** Those in bold and underlined are some of my personal favorites.
The art of meditation is not only free, it requires no equipment, is not time consuming and has no negative side effects. The only individual you are around your entire existence is yourself, so why not begin to gain a better relationship with the beautiful existence you are and reap the physical benefits! Meditation allows one to break away from the limited thinking of human existence and experience your true potential, so consider starting today! Join me in committing to start meditating for just 5 minutes a day to help us relax more and as caregivers don’t we deserve that? If you enjoy the benefits of 5 minutes a day, on week two we can increase to 10 minutes a day and then week three 15 minutes a day. If you have any questions, or would like to add to this list please feel free to do so.
Sources:
http://www.endoriot.com/2013/12/75-benefits-of-meditation-for-inspired.html?m=1, 04/08/2014, 2:35PM
http://doctorsontm.org/tm-research/journals, 04/08/2014, 2:35PM
http://uk.tm.org/scientific-research, 04/08/2014, 2:35PM
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