In this article:

  Benefits of Meditation

  Meditation and Mindfulness Practices

Examples of Mindfulness Practices

 Have you ever had someone tell you to take a deep breath when you’ve been feeling emotions like anger, sadness, or anxiety? It turns out that deep breathing is a core part of meditation which greatly calms the nervous system down. In the midst of our fast-paced and chaotic lives, finding moments of stillness and peace has become paramount. Thankfully, meditation and mindfulness practices allow us to reconnect with our true essence and cultivate a calm state of being. Remember, whenever you feel any big emotions, STOP, close your eyes and take a few deep breaths and then see how you feel before you react.

Meditation offers an array of remarkable benefits that not only positively impacts our emotional well-being but also our physical health. From reducing stress and anxiety to improving our lung health, the advantages of meditation are profound. Mindfulness also reduces cognitive decline from aging as the practice tends to slow down the natural aging of short-term memory and cognitive flexibility decline. Mindfulness practices are key for reducing psychological pain by reducing stress and helping you cope better with anxiety and depression. There’s nothing a little breathwork, yoga, grounding techniques, and sunlight cannot fix. It is always beneficial to incorporate lifestyle changes whenever you are going through a hard time before resorting to medications. This may be getting out in the morning sun, walking barefoot on the grass to ground yourself, yoga in the sunlight, and meditation and deep breathing in the sun. If not cured, these practices can help you cope better and even complement the right therapy and medication prescribed by your psychiatrist for your anxiety and depression.

 Practicing mindfulness is a like a fitness routine for your brain. Just like you take care of your physical fitness by exercising, your brain also needs to work out to prevent aging. Despite what some people may believe, meditation and mindfulness are not just positive talk and happiness all the time or emptying the mind completely. It is about sitting still with your thoughts, taking deep breaths and letting go of all thoughts, and instilling a sense of calmness. If any thoughts come, let them, and then release and let them go again. It is inevitable that your mind will wander during meditation and is quite difficult to not think about a particular thing if you focus on not thinking about it. For example, if I tell you to not think of an elephant, all you’ll be able to think of is an elephant! Similarly, if you keep thinking, ‘I’m not going to think about a certain negative thought’ during mediation, that is all that will be on your mind. With consistency and discipline, you’ll get better at letting your thoughts flow and accepting any emotions that come and go with your practice. An example of letting emotions flow is when some people cry and feel a rush of emotions during certain yoga practices. That is because different parts of our body store traumas and emotions and our hips are where a lot of difficult feelings and trauma is stored, hence, hip opening poses may make some people cry. Just welcome those emotions and then let them go. I promise you will feel so much better.

Meditation and mindfulness do not have to be complicated. It can be as simple as sitting down in a quiet place and focusing on your breath for five minutes. Sit straight with your legs crossed or even lie down or sit in a chair with your back supported. Allow your head and shoulders to relax and keep your head over your heart and heart over the pelvis in a sitting position to avoid slouching down. Close your eyes and take a deep breath, feeling the chest and belly expand and rise with each inhalation and contract with exhalation. During breathwork, you can practice different breathing techniques like belly breathing, box breathing, or the alternate nostril breathing technique taken from yoga. Thoughts will come and go during this practice and that’s okay. Just notice them and try to refocus on your breath. With anything, consistency is key here. A daily practice of meditation and deep breathing will provide many psychological and physical health benefits. You can start your meditation and breath work from 5 minutes initially and then build it up to 10-20 minutes daily to reap the maximum benefits.

There are various breathing techniques, such as alternate nostril breathing, box breathing, and diaphragmatic breathing. Choose any and they will benefit you. For example, to do Box Breathing, also known as 4-4-4-4 breathing, just close your eyes and envision a square box. Inhale from one corner of the box and exhale at the next and continue for all 4 corners of the box. This helps you focus on slowing your breath down and calming you.

Yoga is not only beneficial for your physical health but also your emotional well-being when paired with breathing techniques. It is known as a moving meditation and an effective tool for combatting anxiety and depression. If you want, you can do your yoga practice in the morning sun with bare feet on the grass to really get those grounding effects. There is a plethora of yoga videos on YouTube targets emotional and mental health that you can benefit from.

A technique for this is Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR), which can be used as an anxiety reduction tool. To practice PMR, find a quiet place free from distractions and either sit or lie down. Take a few slow deep breaths and bring your attention to your body starting from your feet and slowly moving upwards focusing on one body part at a time. Squeeze the muscles of your feet tightly and then slowly relax and let them go and notice the tension melting away. Move upwards to the calves and do the same and then do the same thing for the thighs, glutes, hands, arms, abdominals, neck and shoulder, jaw, and lastly forehead subsequently. Notice how calm you feel at the end of the practice, and you might even doze off before you finish this practice if you do this in bed before sleeping.

 

Difficult feelings like anxiety and depression can fill you with self-doubt and worry but these can be easily managed with a consistent practice of mindfulness and meditation along with practicing self-compassion. Let go of your inner critic and flood your mind with positive affirmations and uplifting thoughts while also acknowledging and accepting the negative ones. All of these practices paired with daily breathwork, meditation, mindfulness, and self-care practices can greatly calm the nervous system down and pull out of the fight or flight mode.