We’re starting to see a more mindful and wellness approach to living a more holistic life. That’s why there’s shows like Marie Kondo and activities like journaling to concisely see and reorganize your thoughts. It’s really the little life choices that we make to help us switch our thoughts and become positive and healthy. We’re also seeing more people showing interest in meditation and other mindful approaches. The only thing is that many people don’t know how to meditate.
We already know that stress and lack of sleep has everything to do with breakouts and acne. Meditation and yoga are potentially more powerful in helping our breakouts than a moisturizer would. The reason? Meditation and yoga can be seen as ways to prevent, whereas moisturizers and spot treatments are treatments after it happens.
Meditation Benefits
There’s been interesting studies and findings on what meditation helps with. These claims include training your mind to focus, being aware of yourself, and redirecting your thoughts. Additionally, many people also use meditation as a way to reduce stress, control anxiety, and promote emotional health. It also helps enhance self awareness, increase attention span and focus, and improve quality of sleep.
How to Meditate
For those of you who haven’t tried meditation before, here’s a very simple breakdown on how to meditate.
Find a quiet place to sit down and close your eyes. You can sit cross-legged on the floor or on a chair with your feet planted on the ground. Once you settle down, concentrate on slowing your breathing, thoughts, and your mind down. Try to enter a state where you’re hyperaware of your surroundings. Once you establish that, keep your eyes closed as you focus on your body and your limbs. Try to drown out any thoughts and emotions that you might be holding onto from the day. And for a second, allow those thoughts to move past you and let go.
It’s perfectly normal if you find yourself drifting off or having thoughts come up. What matters is that you notice your thoughts as it happens and allow them to pass through you.
To start off, you can try meditating for five to ten minutes. Other people prefer meditating for thirty minutes to an hour depending on their preference.
Science Behind Meditation
On the surface, it might seem like you’re sitting there with your eyes closed and you’re breathing slowly, but what’s actually happening inside is a whole different story. Meditation has everything to do with the brain and our central nervous system. In case you need a refresher from your high school biology class, your central nervous system is what helps you control your limbs, your thoughts, and your actions.
The brain is composed of two parts: white matter and grey matter. The grey matter is found on the brain’s surface while the white matter is located deep in the brain. Both of these portions control and allow our bodies to function normally. This includes waking up in the morning, making decisions, and eating.
Let’s break these portions down a little more.
Grey Matter
The grey matter is responsible for allowing us to smell, see, hear, touch, and taste. It’s also responsible for our memory, speech, emotion, self-control, and decision making.
According to many research studies conducted on meditation, including the one from Harvard, the group that meditated showed increased density of grey matter when compared to the group that didn’t. This increase in density led to increased learning, self-awareness, compassion, and introspection.
White Matter
White matter controls the speed for processing information. Similar to a subway, the white matter mostly remains deeper underneath the surface with many links and passages. These passages connect and send signals over to different areas of the brain so that you have one coherent thought. When we become stressed or when we become anxious, the passages start to harden, which then leads to insufficient areas of communication in other areas of the brain.
That’s why we tend to feel forgetful at times when we’re under huge amounts of stress or anxiety.
But when you meditate, studies show that the hardening process reverses while the grey matter increases and connections strengthen. Best of all, meditation is also found to release your “happy” hormones, which may help bring a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment in your life. And for others, learning how to meditate helped them stay calm throughout the day and sleep well during the night.
Regardless of the reason, feel rest assured that meditation can bring a lot of benefits to the body and the mind. After all, we have the studies and research available to support this.
For more detailed information on meditation and other remedies, check out the full video:
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