Wondering what meditation means? Why is meditation important? How to meditate? How can you do meditation to lose weight?
Here’s all you need to know about meditation.
So, read on!
Contents
What Meditation is?
Meditation is the art of focusing our mind on one thing, idea, or concept for a certain period.
Meditation can take many forms. It’s important to note that meditation should not be used as an escape from reality. Instead, meditation is a tool we use to check in with ourselves and clear our minds.
From a scientific perspective, meditation can help with focus and concentration, increase the grey-matter mass in certain areas of our brain – including areas involved in learning and memory – reduce fatigue, lessen anxiety and depression symptoms – including high blood pressure and insomnia.
Cool Facts about Meditation:
- 1. Meditation is a practice that started in Eastern religions before spreading to the west and becoming more mainstream.
- 2. The word meditation comes from Latin: “meditatum,” which means to ponder.
- 3. While meditation is a practice that started in ancient times, the way we see it now is entirely different and adapted to our society.
- 4. Meditation is something that benefits more than one aspect of our life: physically, mentally, and spiritually.
- 5. Meditation may be the only technique that has been shown to increase grey matter or mass of the brain. This means that meditation may make your brain look more “grown-up.”
Why is Meditation Important?
There is a lot of information when we wake up in the morning when we watch TV news before bed when people talk to us during our lunch break.
It’s essential to take some time out of this fast-paced lifestyle and be present, not think about what you need to do next week or even tomorrow – be here in this moment.
Meditation can help clear our minds and just let go of all the unnecessary clutter.
Benefits of Meditation:
- 1. First, it can make you feel refreshed.
- 2. Second, it makes your brain healthier by increasing the volume of grey matter.
- 3. Third, it helps avoid depression.
- 4. Fourth, it reduces insomnia and nightmares.
- 5. Fifth, it can help with pain relief, relaxation, improved energy levels, improved concentration, reduced fatigue, and muscle tension.
- 6. Sixth, it can improve your immune system’s functioning by increasing the number of antibody-producing cells (B lymphocytes).
- 7. Seventh, regular meditation can give you better control over your emotions and lead to better relationships with others.
Meditation To Lose Weight
Meditation is a process of deep relaxation. It lowers blood pressure, slows down the heart rate, gives you restful sleep, and the most important one is meditation to lose weight. Meditation is one of the most popular ways of losing weight.
Meditation can make you lose weight by following simple steps. It helps in reducing stress, which is one of the major causes of eating. It helps in releasing the feel-good hormones called serotonin which controls appetite, mood, and sleep. Also, it helps in reducing cortisol levels by making your body feel relaxed.
Meditation can come in many forms, and you can meditate while focusing on your breath or listening to certain sounds.
How To Meditate – Best Meditation Techniques
So how to meditate? It is simple – follow the proper techniques.
Following are some simple meditation techniques that anyone can do in their own home.
1) Yoga Nidra (Hypnotic Sleep)
Yoga Nidra is a meditation technique that came from Hatha Yoga.
You can do it simply by sitting or lying down, and it is perfect for people who are new to the idea of meditating.
The key with Yoga Nidra is to listen to your breathing – do not judge it, listen with soulful meditation music.
As you breathe in, always imagine that you’re living in positive energy (you can visualize this as light). As you exhale, feel like all the negativity is leaving your body. This helps you become more aware of yourself instead of being cluttered by other thoughts or distractions.
2) Tapping meditation
Tapping meditation has been popularized by Dr. Peta Stapleton – a world-renowned clinical therapist and author, who believes that tapping is an easy, quick and effective way to tap into our subconscious mind.
It’s effortless – you need a hard surface, like your kitchen floor or bedroom carpet, lint-free cloths (like tea towels) or t-shirts, some water, and music.
You can also listen to soulful meditation music performing this.
3. Guided Meditation
Guided meditation is an effective way to clear our minds and just let go of all the unnecessary clutter.
You can do it with or without meditation music. But if you want to listen to some guided meditation music, then check out the YouTube channel by Jason Stephenson. He has over 600 meditations on his channel.
Before you begin your meditation, make sure that there will be no distractions. Turn off the TV and radio. Wear something comfortable, dim the lights and sit in a quiet corner of your home and listen to meditation music for more calmness.
4) Visualization Meditation
Visualization meditation is all about creating a particular scene in our mind and meditating on that. We can see this type of meditation used by professionals such as athletes to prepare themselves for competition.
Do it simply by lying down or sitting up, with eyes opened or closed – it’s all about what makes you comfortable.
5) To Breathe Or Not To Breathe?
Some people claim that the way we breathe directly impacts our meditation and how focused we are.
Two different breathing techniques will help us clear our minds and focus only on ourselves.
One takes deep breaths, inhaling through our nose slowly, filling the stomach first before the chest. As we exhale, we let go completely of any tension in our body by sighing or grunting slightly.
This helps release all the negative energy from your body. While breathing like this, do not think about anything in particular. Just focus on our breathing and how it affects our body.
The other technique is to breathe through the mouth in short breaths, in through the nose, and out through the mouth with a sigh (inhaling quickly before exhaling slowly).
Meditation can help us become more present, not thinking about what we need to get done next week or even tomorrow – be here in this moment.
Be aware of your surroundings. Our minds are naturally drawn to the other things that we need to do in the future. This makes us stressed and anxious about things we don’t even have control over.
Meditation helps us to stay in the present and calm. If you practice meditation regularly, you may experience an increase in your creativity while also gaining new perspectives on creative issues you may face in their lives or work.
References
https://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-meditation-for-beginners-20160919-snap-story.html#:~:text=1.,in%20a%20type%20of%20reflection.
https://www.hormone.org/your-health-and-hormones/glands-and-hormones-a-to-z/hormones/serotonin#:~:text=Serotonin%20is%20the%20key%20hormone,sleeping%2C%20eating%2C%20and%20digestion.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320392
https://www.everydayhealth.com/meditation/types/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4895748/