7 AMAZING BENEFITS OF MINDFULNESS MEDITATION

Have you ever wondered about the benefits of mindfulness and meditation? We live in an age of unprecedented anxiety and depression. Millions of people are popping pills, drinking too much, taking too many drugs, and doing whatever they can to get out of their head. The irony is that, what's in your head is exactly what's going to save you. Learning about mindfulness in general and mindfulness meditation techniques can completely change your life. It's changed my life.

I've actually practiced it for over 15 years and I can't express enough how important it is to me. It's self love and self care, and everyone needs some form of this in their lives. Learning how to meditate is easy. Learning how to be more mindful is easy. These subtle few shifts in your life will completely change your attitude, your perspective, your happiness, and even your health. So, lets discuss the amazing benefits of mindfulness and meditation.

WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?

Mindfulness is a quality of perspective or heightened awareness of being more centered in your thinking. It's a more focused outlook. The benefits of mindfulness include choosing logic over emotion, peace over anger, and an absence of judgement. Mindfulness helps us to achieve more balance and harmony in our lives.

What are examples of mindfulness?

There are dozens of examples of mindfulness. Some of the most common examples of mindfulness include

There are many mindfulness exercises and mindful activities we can we can start doing regularly to increase mindfulness, one of the biggest being meditation. You can even start by doing mindfulness walking around the neighborhood.

WHAT IS MEDITATION?

The precise meditation meaning is the practice of focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity, to train attention and awareness. The most simple definition if you're wondering "what is meditation really," is that I would say it's a self care activity. Similar to exercise, it's a way to of using physical activity to improve your overall health. Benefits of meditation are both physical and mental.

Many people know the most common meditation benefits can help to center you and give you more peace and harmony in your life. You will gain things in a positive way, but as well you will lose things in a positive way. However, if you've wondered what does meditation do, then you should also wonder what meditation will undo as well. Once time Buddha was asked "what have you gained from meditation?" To which Buddha replied...

WHERE DOES MEDITATION COME FROM?

Meditation has been used for thousands of years, with it's roots in Eastern culture. Earliest documented evidence for a meditation background points between 5,000 and 3,500 BCE. From Asia, Taoists and Buddhists practiced meditation as a way of contemplative concentration, quickly realizing the benefits and liberation and inner knowledge derived from the practice. This is where most of the mindfulness meditation techniques originated.

Since then Mediation has expanded from Asia to Europe and the Americas infiltrating multiple spiritualities and religions.

ARE THERE DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEDITATION?

There are some different ways to meditate. To figure out how to meditate, you want to start with a very basic

question before you ever begin; which is: What is the purpose of meditation?

Well that question precisely can alter how you decide to go about it. People do want different outcomes for different purposes of meditation, or the reasons for meditation. For example:

1) Spiritual mediation - Getting more in touch with your spirituality and religion. Spiritual mediation has been used by many religions such as Hinduism & Buddhism, but many people choose to adapt meditation for other religions as well.

2) Mantra meditation - Using mantras and affirmations for meditation to boost self esteem and rewire your brain.

3) Visualization meditation - By visualizing various images and scenes in your mind during meditation, it can help increase feelings of relaxation, happiness, and confidence with specific goals and outcomes.

I personally prefer a combination of many types of focused meditation.

-Deepak Chopra

WHAT IS MINDFULNESS MEDITATION?

Bringing mindfulness and meditation together is a powerful combination. Mindful meditation is a popular form of meditation, rooted in Buddhism, and is a popular technique for healing, focus, and clarity. While allowing your breathing to guide you, focusing on feeling and sensation, you allow your thoughts to move through with freedom.

It's not moving from thought to thought, sporadically with no control, but being grounded and allowing your mind to see the thoughts as neutral, then you can analyze, and explore. How do these thoughts make you feel? What is causing you resistance? What can you do to overcome this? It's really a deep dive into your subconscious, one of the many benefits of mindfulness and meditation. It's a one person therapy session. It's a quiet moment to start getting in touch with your inner voice and explore your inner universe.

Now, from a scientific perspective. When the eyes are closed, the brain can focus much better. On average, the human brain processes 34 gigabytes of data every day, with the ability to process roughly 11 million pieces of information per second. We aren't really aware of this process, but your brain is processing at every moment. So, when we quiet the mind, aren't staring at our phones, or watching TV, pushing away all sorts of external stimulai, the brain can start to help you heal internally. You get so connected to your heart and energy source, that it will help you feel completely transformed the more you practice it.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF MEDITATION MINDFULNESS?

Meditation and mindfulness go hand in hand. It combines both the daily awareness and practice of a more focused and balanced life. So, here are 7 benefits.

1) REDUCE STRESS AND ANXIETY

When we meditate and do deep breathing, our heart beat slows down, increasing oxygenation and naturally relaxes us biologically. Meditation and stress are arch enemies. So, choose meditation.

2) PROMOTES SELF AWARENESS

Warning: Your intuition will increase. You will start seeing yourself in a different way. First person, second person, third person. You'll see a more 360 view of yourself. It can make you laugh. It can make you cry. It will make you learn and grow. What it won't do is make you more confused. Meditation and self awareness go hand in hand.

3) ENHANCES YOUR EMOTIONAL HEALTH

With clarity and personal insight comes emotional healing. With emotional healing comes emotional strength. This is how meditation enhances your emotional health. Once you explore your emotional lexicon, you can start releasing all sorts of negative energy you've built up over years.

4) REDUCES MENTAL ILLNESS

A study out of Harvard from nearly 19,000 meditation studies has concluded the mindful meditation will easy psychological stresses both in the short term and long term. This is everything from depression all the way to Alzheimers. Meditation helps in the process of reconstructing your neural pathways, which helps to increase and improve memory.

5) BETTER SLEEP

A study out of the journal of internal medicine has proven that meditation aids in fighting insomnia. The study took 49 middle ages older adults who had trouble sleeping, taught half of them how to meditate, and just taught the other half about good sleeping habits. No surprise, the meditation group surpassed the other group by far.

6) REDUCTION IN BLOOD PRESSURE

When we deal with stress, the hormones like adrenaline and norepinephrine are released, forcing a more rapid heart beat and increasing blood pressure. Long term cardiovascular stress will lead to kidney damage, heart disease, and even a heart attack.

By following a daily regiment and "resting and relaxing" our system, it keeps our "fight or flight" response in check. This is why mindfulness and meditation can literally save your life.

7) HARMONY AND KINDNESS

The natural benefits of feeling better are both physical and mental. Deep breathing alone increases circulation within your body, making you feel more vibrant and energetic. Combine it with a revitalized mindset, your whole attitude shifts.

Meditation will bring more harmony and kindness.

HOW TO MEDITATE PROPERLY

To understand how to meditate properly, it would make sense to fist ask

Meditating properly is highly argumentative. Many will argue that it's very black and white. I disagree. Meditation is something that is very personal to every person who does it, and open to interpretation. People like to meditate in different ways - the same way people like to exercise in different ways. Some like to run. Some like to bike. Some like to lift weights. They are all still getting the same benefits. So, don't worry too much about what to think about when meditating. You can learn about meditation positions online.

Some people like to meditate in a quiet place at home. Some like to meditate in nature. Some like to meditate in bed while lying down. Some like to meditate even while walking. Some like to just do mantras and deep breathing. Some like to explore their thoughts and find answers. Some like to just get in touch more spiritually. There is nothing wrong with any of these.

So, if you're a beginner, don't embrace a perfectionist mentality or fall into the trap of thinking it can only be accomplished one way. Learning new habits and developing new routines demands practice, patience, and deciding what you like. Personally I prefer meditation at home, by myself, devoid of all distractions.

CAN YOU MEDITATE WITH MUSIC?

Yes! In fact, I prefer meditation with music. I find that when I meditate, it's always more impactful for me.

This is because (depending on where you live) there is always usually some sort of background noise that can distract you. I like to have no external stimuli whatsoever, focusing only in my internal environment. Now, the choice of music does matter.

I have found that any music that is very busy or has alot of melody particularly does not work. Listening to bebop or your gym playlist will not do. It needs to be more subdued. Keep it instrumental, and use a meditation playlist on Spotify or Youtube that is relaxing.

MEDITATION AT HOME

To meditate at home, you want to find a quiet place where you won't be distracted or bothered. You can do this on your bed, on the floor, or anywhere you prefer. Where you are is not as important as what is around you.

Being around an type of noise from kids, animals, next door neighbor, or yardwork will take you off your path. You want to make sure you can get some real peace and quiet.

GUIDED MEDITATION FOR BEGINNERS

Guided meditation for beginners means some sort of a guided meditation script is used. This could be spoken on recorded audio for you to listen to and use on your own with headphones, or something that is spoken by a meditation teacher in class.

Learning how to meditate for beginners with guided meditations is highly recommended. Simply click here.

IS MEDITATION DANGEROUS?

Meditation can only be dangerous if you are doing it in a location that may be unsafe. Meaning, mind your surrounding. Meditating on a cliff or meditating on jagged rocks over a large body of water can be unsafe. Especially, because you will largely tune out your physical surrounding.

When you're tapping into your mind and body time and spacial awareness can start to fade, so make sure you're in a safe environment.

IS MEDITATION RELIGIOUS?

Meditation in itself is not a form of religion. It is more of a tool for spirituality, or religion. If nails represented religion, then meditation is the hammer. It's merely a means to assist in the process of your particular meditation goals.

For some, they use meditation for god, meaning feeling closer to their particular deity. Some use meditation for stress, meditation for anxiety, meditation for healing, and much much more.

IS MEDITATION A SIN?

This question might surprise you, but people do actually ask this, alot. So, i'll make it simple.

"In Two words. Hell. No." Meditation is a physical and mental practice that is a universal means for spirituality, though it was started in Eastern religions.

HOW LONG SHOULD I MEDITATE?

Too many people focus on quantity over quality. This should not be the focal point when you begin meditating. You want to focus on results. If you're worried about how to meditate successfully, then you will know by how you feel afterwards.

Do you feel different? What are the emotions? Are you relaxed? Do you feel more at peace? Did you gain more clarity or insight? This is where you want to focus. If there are no changes, then you may want to consider meditating for longer, or analyzing your process.

Best time to meditate for greatest benefits?

Morning! Definitely in the morning. Your brain is refreshed from a night of good sleep, plus your cortizol levels are at their highest in the morning; allowing for better sharpness and focus.

CAN I MEDITATE LYING DOWN?

Yes you can. In fact, it's great to do first thing in the morning when you wake up. You can easily learn how to meditate in bed. Then you get it out of the way first thing. I don't always do this, but when I do, I personally like to put my hands over my heart, go over three things i'm grateful for, then allow myself to get focused for the day. Just make sure you don't fall asleep!

MEDITATION SIGNS OF PROGRESS

As with anything, it takes practice and time. If you're a beginner, don't get discouraged. You may have success after the first time, or you might have more success the third time. Just keep going. You will know when you're showing signs of progress after.

1) You feel lighter and more relaxed

2) You feel happier in general

3) You smile more

4) Shifts in your attitude and perspective

5) You will feel more grateful

6) You will feel more centered, both from a self awareness perspective and emotional perspective

7) You will be more aware of what is happening with you internally, as well as around you, at work, or at home.

The benefits of meditation are absolutely priceless. It is spiritual therapy. Also, it's free! It's all upside here. If you'd like extra help, please use a guided meditation that walks you through the entire process. My personal one combines mantra and mindfulness meditation for 10 easy minutes every single day. Hope it helps you.

Wishing you all love, happiness, and peace.

Namaste.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Matt Jones is a writer and entrepreneur with multiple businesses who loves inspiring others to reach their full potential. He is also a musician, educator, and world traveler who has been to over 40 different countries on all 7 continents. His personal mission is to create and inspire others around the world to be the best version of themselves. He believes in using this one special life for good and achieving happiness.

He is from Los Angeles but is now based in Greater London.