Our conscious thoughts are synonymous with a stream, changing their direction and pattern according to our life events, like a stream does with the changing land terrain. However, not every direction shift is in our favor, and meditation is an attempt to control our overthinking and how we perceive the events around us. Every day, innumerable thoughts cross our minds without being consciously aware of them. These may be the stress-inducing and provoking negative emotions in us. Meditation is about streamlining our thinking and refocusing them to radiate positive energy. It is a set of techniques to control and alter our consciousness for an improved mental and physical state. So, where ever you are, try to spend some time in solitude and reap the benefits of meditation. Here are some reasons to convince you that meditation is worth your time.
1. Helps in Addiction Treatment:
Treatment of substance abuse disorder can be very hard on the patient, where the mind and body are in constant conflict. With the insides filled with chaos and the body being nothing less than a mess, the patients often succumb to the pressure and resort to relapse. Therefore, the goal should not only be limited to getting your system rid of toxic drugs. The mind has immense power over the body, and streamlining it to support the cause will help in faster recovery. It necessitates professional counseling. However, with already high treatment costs of addiction, you might not be in a position to add another expense to your growing expenditures lists. But don’t worry, as meditation has got you covered! While searching for effective and affordable treatment options for substance abuse, meditation certainly tops the list. It can help you stay calm and handle the withdrawal symptoms. At most, you will need to pay for the classes if you are not already familiar with the meditation techniques. Whatever the case, meditation will help deal with drug cravings and restore your mood with low costs and high effectiveness.
2. Boosts Your Memory:
The busier we get, the more we tend to forget things. One reason for this is our lack of focus. How often do we listen to someone talking without hundreds of thoughts flitting through our minds? We engage in a task already worrying about the next one. With our short attention span and half-hearted efforts to stay focused, things tend to slip our minds. Meditation enhances the focus through various techniques, such as concentrative. The goal of this technique is to release all your thoughts and maintain your concentration at a particular point without letting your mind wander. Secondly, consistently meditating increases the blood flow of your brain, increasing the development of blood vessels in the cerebral cortex. Responsible for the higher functions of our brain, such as language and retaining memory, a healthier cerebral cortex ultimately means better memory. So instead of relying on the alarms and reminders set on your mobile, train your brain to do it independently through meditation!
3. Reduces Stress:
Meditation is an exceptional tool for relieving your mind from stress. It instills tranquility and calmness over the nerves. It quiets the negative thoughts and tames your body’s stress response. Over time with consistent meditation, you adapt to handle stressful situations with more dignity and resilience. It might be because meditation induces positive mood changes in a person, and a good mood makes a person more resilient to stress. So, if you find yourself in an unending stress cycle, sit back and give your mind some room to breathe through meditation.
4. Improves Physical Health:
Our body and mind are interconnected. An improved mental state means the better functioning of our body systems and vice versa. In addition to inducing good changes in psychological health, meditation also results in physiological improvements. It normalizes heart and breathing rate and boosts our immune functions. It is also of immense help to heart health. If you meditate consistently, you are less likely to have higher cholesterol, hypertension, stroke, and diabetes than people who do not. Meditation also improves digestion by balancing your gut microflora, i.e., the good bacteria inhabiting your intestinal tract. One cause of its imbalance is excessive stress and anxiety. When you lower their intensity through meditation, you are also improving your digestive system!
5. Helps Control Insomnia:
Do you have trouble falling asleep at night? Insomnia is a state of hyper-arousal of the mind, the opposite of what is required to fall asleep. If the condition does not go away, you will start to associate the nighttime with irritation and worry of being unable to rest. This psychological engravement will further rob you of your sleep. The guided sleep meditation will help you control your anger and depression and help your ‘wired’ brain tap into peacefulness. The emotional regulation will calm your nervous system and prepare you for sleep. Biologically speaking, meditation lowers cortisol, i.e., the stress hormone, kicking in the relaxation response. Even if you are not an insomniac, meditation will help you improve the quality of your sleep with fewer nighttime awakenings.
Conclusion:
Meditation bores its fruit when you master the art of bringing it about and remain consistent. Sitting still in silence and refocusing your thoughts might be challenging and frustrating at the start. You might find your thoughts wandering now and then. But do not get impatient and toss the practice away. What matters is that you notice your thoughts drifting off so that you may redirect them to the present. It will be some time before you tap into the real essence of meditation, but remain consistent and experience the magic.
