What can meditation do to boost your mental health? Why is mindfulness so powerful? How can you add mindfulness meditation into your daily life?
A number of studies have proven the benefits of practicing meditation regularly.
In addition to the physical benefits, there are also a lot of mental benefits. It’s no surprise that meditation is a great way to boost your mental health and well-being.
Some benefits include decreased stress levels, lessening the symptoms of anxiety and depression, just to name a few.
There are a lot of different types of meditation but all have positive effects on one’s mental health and well-being.
In our busy and screen-addicted lives, our mental health can take a huge hit. But the good news is that you can do something about it. Let’s dive in to what meditation can do to boost your mental health.
How Meditation Can Boost Your Mental Health
Meditation has gone mainstream. This is especially true during the last two years. More and more people are turning to mindfulness and meditation to cope with the stress and anxiety from the pandemic.
So how can meditation actually help us?
Research has found that meditating can change your brain. In addition, it can change the way your body responds to stress, anxiety, and everyday triggers.
Now, these are the ways meditation is able to boost one’s mental health.
Meditation to Boost Your Mental Health: Better focus and concentration
Mindfulness meditation helps you focus on the present. When we are meditating we practice how to become the observer of our thoughts. While there are thousands of thoughts that go through our heads every day, meditation is a way for us to step back and just watch those thoughts as they pass by.
This practice strengthens our concentration and focus. In addition, it can improve your concentration on other tasks in daily life.
Meditation to Boost Your Mental Health: Improves Self-Esteem and Self-Awareness
Mindfulness meditation encourages us to slow down. Through meditation, we go into a deeper self-reflection.
We watch our thoughts and try not to respond to them. This helps us become more self-aware.
Additionally, through meditation, you get to discover positive attributes about yourself.
In addition, self-awareness is key to boosting one’s self-esteem.
Meditation Improves Your Breathing
Your breath is your anchor. Whenever you are feeling stressed, go back to your breath. If you are feeling anxious, go back to your breath.
Breathing techniques are at the heart of meditation practices.
When we practice these breathing techniques regularly, we are able to relax the body and quiet the mind.
To start, you can practice breathing for 5 seconds, hold at the top of your breath. Then, breathe out for another five seconds.
How to Start Meditating: Simple Meditation for Beginners
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need one long hour to meditate.
You can even start with five minutes a day and then add more as you go.
What’s more important is being consistent with your practice.
So, to start, try blocking off just five or ten minutes a day for quiet time. We recommend setting a gentle reminder on your phone to alert you that you’ve finished the five minutes. A timer is also good to alert you in case you fall asleep.
Remember, just like going to the gym, meditating takes time to master. Additionally, it takes consistent practice in order to really reap its benefits.
More Ways to Boost Your Mental Health
Meditation has a lot of great benefits for your mental health.
In addition to meditation, here are other ways you can boost your mental health and well-being.
Related: Mindfulness Tips for Anxiety
Find Your People
It is said that you are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with. This can be in-person or online.
Think about who you talk to the most? Who are you surrounding yourself with? Do these people have good qualities? Do they light you up and bring you joy? Or are they downers and block you from growth?
Whether these people are your family, friends, or a group that you met online, make sure to choose who to spend your time with. If the people in your life are not bringing out the best in you, then find others who do.
Be Grateful
Gratitude is strongly associated with happiness and overall life satisfaction. And for good reason.
When we practice being grateful for what we have, we learn to see the positive side of life. Also, we learn to appreciate what we have.
Try writing down or saying out loud three things you are grateful for before you begin each day.
Then you’ll see the wonders that gratitude does for your heart, head, and body.
Here’s a way to start adding gratitude into your daily life:
- Before you get up in the morning, give yourself five minutes to just be.
- Listen to your breath.
- Now, think of three things that you are grateful for.
- No matter how many challenges you may be facing, find three things that are going good in your life.
- Take another deep breath in and out.
- Now, you’re ready to start your day.
Hug Someone
If you are feeling stressed, hug it out! Hug a loved one or even your pet.
Research has shown that hugging a loved one increases the production of dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin in the brain. This improves your overall mood.
If you live alone and don’t have anyone to hug, hugging your pet dog or cat gives the same increase of dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin.
Exercise Regularly
A list on how to improve your mental and physical health won’t be complete without exercise on it. Exercise is one of the best ways to boost your mental health. Why? This is because exercise releases endorphins. These endorphins create feelings of happiness and euphoria. And who wouldn’t want that?
We hope these tips have encouraged you to start practicing meditation. Or add it to your daily routine. There are so many benefits of meditation when done consistently and regularly.
Related: Top Benefits of Yoga
In Conclusion
Your mental health and well-being are so important. So remember to make time in your day to prioritize it.
We hope this article gave you a few ideas on how to help boost your mental health and wellness.