The Power of Meditation

Dec 30

Did you know that 10-15 mins of daily meditation can have several beneficial impacts in various areas of your life? I know, it may seem hard to believe, a little woo-woo, or that I am just trying to sell you something, but that’s not the case. Research has consistently shown mediation is able to provide an array of positive results to our mental, emotional, physical, and social well-being.

I am not merely speaking from research I have read but from years of personal experience. I am no stranger to mental health difficulties, throughout the course of my life I have experienced extreme anxiety and panic attacks to months of depressive episodes. Prior to mediation, my mind was my worst enemy, as overthinking and worry plagued me on a daily basis.

Research has shown that daily meditation may be able to help you:

Reduce symptoms of depression + anxiety
Help manage and/or lower stress
Increase compassion for yourself + others
Improve sleep
Improve concentration, focus + memory
Improve self-esteem + self-awareness
Aid in decreasing chronic pain

Meditation has even been shown to help people suffering from symptoms of PTSD, addiction, and age-related memory loss.

Getting started

One of the wonderful things about meditation is that it is free, and always accessible. There are thousands of wonderful, free-to-use, beginner-friendly, and advanced meditations to listen to and follow along with all over the internet. One of my favorite places to access this type of content is Youtube!

It feels appropriate to share some recommendations for anyone who might be interested in trying out meditation for themselves. Below are a few wonderful meditations I would recommend to everyone! (Please note, I have no affiliation or relationship with the maker or creator of this Youtube Channel or platform, as far as I know, they have no idea I exist, I just truly love their work and have utilized their meditations for years now, and also recommend them to everyone I get the chance to in my personal life.)

5 Minute Meditation for Beginners

5 Minute Mindfulness Meditation

10-Minute Guided Meditation to Clear Your Mind

Listen to this 5 Minute Meditation Before You Sleep

3 Minute Mindfulness Meditation

Another great thing about meditation is that you can receive the benefits in as little as just 5 minutes (and even less than that, from my own personal experiences). I recommend starting small when taking up a new meditation practice. You can choose to meditate for up 3-5 minutes every day for a week and work yourself up from there. Always remember to remain open-minded and patient with yourself, like all new things, whether that is working out, starting a new job, or taking up a new hobby or skill: it requires patience, dedication, consistency, and most of all gentleness with yourself during a new experience.

Here are some of my top tips for starting and implementing a meditation practice

Start small: This isn’t ‘go hard or go home’ time. This is relax, allow and go inward time. Starting small allows you to stay consistent and disciplined while making the process easier and more enjoyable for you. The art of meditation and mindfulness is a skill, it takes practice, time, care, and consistency - just as working out or any other craft. Expecting yourself to love it and receive instant benefits in one 5-minute session, in my opinion, is a small form of self-sabotage. I don't recommend ever doing that.

Commit and persist: Commit for 5 days, a week, two weeks - it doesn’t matter. Commit to your mediation practice daily, for an extended period of time, for a certain amount of time, and persist in that commitment. No matter what happens! Miss a day? No big deal, just pick it back up tomorrow. Miss 2 days? Oops, it happens. This is new, you forgot, no biggie - first thing tomorrow! A month has gone by and you totally forgot about it? Perfect, at least you remembered eventually! Better late than never. Committing and persisting allow you to build self-discipline, which has all kinds of beautiful effects, but also allows you to see and experience the benefits of meditation for yourself. You can listen, watch, read and hear about the benefits of something all day long but until you consistently and persistently implement such things - it’s all knowledge and words, not personal experience which is what provides the beneficial results. You can only know if something truly works for you if you commit to it and try it.

Find what you like: We all have different ways we enjoy working out or getting movement in, different ways we find we sleep best and different ways we like to spend time with the people we care about. Meditation is no different. We are all individuals. Meditation is a personal and individualistic practice. There are no one-size-fits-all mediation practices that work for everyone, just like there are no one-size-fits-all workout regimes that fit everyone. There are all kinds of different mediations: short, long, walking, laying down, morning, afternoon, nighttime, guided, silent, visualization, and even ones that use different breathing techniques. Figure out what you enjoy the most and what you can commit to, and go from there. Don’t force yourself to stick to one type of meditation. That’s just no fun, and definitely not necessary.

My Journey with Meditation

I am deeply passionate about meditation because I have personally experienced the healing, rejuvenation, and benefits it has and continues to provide me for several years now. Mind you, I did not start out loving meditation, nor being good at meditating. I started at a time when I was desperate for something to help the crippling anxiety I was constantly carrying out. Mediation had always seemed cool enough, people talked highly about it anytime I heard about the subject, so I gave it shot. I remember it vividly: I was excited, nervous, and desperate, I had no idea what to expect or what it would be like, I was a complete and total newbie.

I committed myself to 5 minutes a day, every morning, for a week straight and it was.. awful. I hated it. I was frustrated, annoyed, and furious at my mind's inability to just, shut up. I never knew I had so many thoughts, and bad thoughts at that (ah! the self-awareness!). I was offended by my own mind, and I felt powerless because I couldn’t turn it off, and I sure as hell couldn’t just quit (an ego thing, for sure). It was somewhat of an emotional rollercoaster, and I pride myself on being able to do anything I set my mind to, and I was for sure, in those moments, not feeling able to become someone who meditates.

The week passed, the sessions were complete and I was overjoyed (that I didn’t have to meditate anymore, of course). I stopped. It was torturous. I tried. Discovered it was not for me. Oh well, maybe something else.

A few days passed and then I noticed something. The overthinking, anxiety, and insecurity started to creep up again. I remember thinking, reluctantly, ‘maybe meditation was helping’. A couple more days passed, which included some reflection on my newly-found-possible-revelation and before I knew it, I (with frustration) started meditating again. Desperation is a powerful thing, and sometimes, when the vices are right, it’s a positive thing. I committed to 5 minutes a day, again, this time for a month and then, I thought, I would be able to see if it was really working.

Over that month, my life changed. Forever. I fell in love with meditating, I grew better at it, and I loved seeing the progress and results. It wasn’t always easy, or fun, and I definitely missed a day or two, but I persisted nonetheless. I learned to be nicer to myself, how to calm my mind and became better at regulating my emotions and thoughts.

Meditation is why I am who I am today and the reason why my mental health, confidence, and overall well-being have continued to improve year after year. It’s the reason for a lot of really amazing things in my life, and has taught me and continues to teach me a lot of really wonderful things about myself and life as a whole.

My desire is to encourage anyone who may be searching for something to help, feeling lost, or just desiring to add more positive experiences in their day-to-day life, to give a meditation practice a shot - you never know, it could change your life for the better, forever (like it has me, and countless others).

Much love,

Resources:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/12-benefits-of-meditation#2.-Controls-anxiety

https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/benefits-of-meditation/

https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/tips/8-things-to-know-about-meditation-and-mindfulness