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| Did you know that you can use yoga to help to meditate (and strengthen your body and soul)? Find out the “insider secrets” of yoga here. |
Did you know that something as simple as meditation can help you improve your health? Meditation is not only a great way to relieve stress and anxiety, it’s also a wonderful way to help you elicit healing and improve your health.
Meditation not only offers you a rare opportunity to escape your thoughts, it can also help you lower your blood pressure, decrease muscle tension, relieve headaches, relax the nervous system, increase the blood flow and slow the heart rate.
Meditation is a tool that has been in use for hundreds of years, dating all the way back to ancient Egypt. Ancient people used meditation for centuries to appease the gods and make a higher connection.
Meditation is one of the oldest forms of spiritual, mental and health and wellness practices in existence, and there is really no telling exactly how far back it goes.
Meditation can help you lower stress hormones such as cortisol and can even help you sleep better, and it is a wonderful practice to use as part of your daily life. It helps evoke what they call the Relaxation Response.
Meditation helps you gain clarity and focus because it helps you slow your breathing down and relax your muscles. Let’s look at the five ways meditation can help improve your health.
1: Meditation can help you lower your blood pressure.
Dr Randy Zusman, a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, had patients who were suffering from high blood pressure, try a meditation-based relaxation program for three months in 2008.
After trying the program, 40 percent of those patients experienced significant drops in blood pressure. This is an incredible statistic that shows that something simple, such as meditation, can make a big difference for your health.
For blood pressure, you might be wise to try meditation rather than always relying on medication!
2: Meditation can help reduce stress.
Stress is another huge reason meditation is so effective, and it just might be the key to good health. Stress is a major contributor to many diseases, so counteracting it may just be the key to optimal health.
When your body is exposed to stress, it triggers the stress response, which enables you to act quickly. Stress also triggers an adrenaline rush, known as the fight-or-flight response.
When adrenaline releases into your bloodstream, your breathing becomes faster, your pulse races and your blood pressure rises. A regular program of meditation can help you ease stress and anxiety away, and it can do wonders for your mental health.
3: Meditation can help ease symptoms of depression.
When you meditate, your brain releases powerful neurotransmitters and serotonin, which influence your moods and behaviour. This can also help ease insomnia, get rid of headaches, and help relieve anxiety.
According to a study published by the journal “Behavior Research and Therapy,” 28 people who were suffering from depression had great results when compared with people who received treatment as usual.
Science is only just beginning to tap into the amazing benefits of meditative practice, so with more research comes more validity.
4: Meditation can help reduce the risk of heart disease.
There is reassuring evidence showing that meditation can help reduce the risk of a heart attack or a stroke. One study showed that meditation reduced incidence of heart attacks, stroke, or even early death from heart disease.
The main finding of this landmark study suggested that mind-body techniques, such as meditation, could have a major effect on cardiovascular events, which is very promising.
Even after a five-year follow-up, researchers found a 48 percent reduction in the overall risk of a heart attack, stroke or death from any cause amongst those who meditate, which is outstanding.
5: Meditation can help with pain management.
Several studies have shown that meditation can even help with pain management. One study conducted in 2010 suggested that meditation and mindfulness could significantly reduce sensitivity to pain.
Another study suggested that techniques such as meditation may increase the thickness in certain brain regions involved in regulating pain and emotion, which is incredible.
Although people typically practise meditation for spiritual reasons, there are many other benefits beyond what you might typically think.
Little and Often
Even as little as 10 minutes a day can offer some wonderful health benefits because at the least, it offers you some great stress methodologies. Meditation creates a deep state of relaxation and a general feeling of well-being, and it can even help increase your concentration and peace of mind.
Meditation can be very beneficial to your emotional health and your physical health because it releases powerful feel-good chemicals into your brain. These types of endorphins are powerful mood boosters, so meditation, especially when done regularly, can help boost your mood and ease issues such as depression.
If you practise meditation regularly, you will feel much calmer and more in control of your life at the very least. You may also find that you handle stress and anxiety much better.
Meditation helps you go with the flow you might say, and it is a great tool to use for your mind, body, and spirit.
Did you know that you can use yoga to help to meditate (and strengthen your body and soul)? Find out the “insider secrets” of yoga here.
