Nowadays, when you read an Instagram post from your favorite fitness “influencer” or tune into a health and fitness podcast (Mind Pump Media, right?), you’ll almost always hear the word ‘meditation’ come up. It’s a hot topic…more fitness experts have begun broadening their fitness content by talking about spiritual and mental health. For good reason! Whether or not you’ve tried or even heard of meditation, studies have shown it has tremendous benefits.
Before you click open a google tab to look up “What is Meditation?”, let me explain it for you here….
What is Meditation?
Meditation is a practice used to teach yourself to become self-aware, emotionally stable and deeply relaxed. When you meditate, you naturally use a technique called mindfulness. The goal of mindfulness is to stop your non-stop thoughts and just focus on being present exactly where you are. If you’ve tried to meditate, I bet you’ll find it’s harder than it seems. It takes a lot of practice to still your mind and sit in complete silence without the want to fidget, ruminate or even stress about your long to-do list. However, it’s not impossible to do. The more you practice, you’ll find the better you can focus and longer you can sit still. The great thing about meditation is you can pretty much do it wherever and whenever you want. As long as you have a place to sit or lay down in silence, you can meditate.
If you’re still feeling iffy about meditation and whether it’s for you, let’s talk about some benefits.
Benefits of meditation include:
- Releasing negative emotions and thoughts
- Increasing self-awareness
- Increased relaxation
- Increased energy
- Decreased stress
- Cultivates focus
When you learn to take time for your spiritual health, you’ll often find several improvements carry over into your physical health. Remember, our mind and body are connected. Meditation can help release stress and tension from the physical body. If you want to read more on the mind-body connection, check out this blog on why spiritual awareness means physical health!
Implementing It into Your Lifestyle
When it comes to maintaining healthy habits, the biggest factor is consistency. No matter how motivated you may be one day it doesn’t mean you will be the next. It’s extremely important to be consistent, so when motivation fails you are still doing what needs to be done. The best way to make sure you stay consistent with your goals and habits is to add them into your lifestyle in a way that complements your schedule. For example, maybe you work all day then train at the gym in the evening after work. You probably don’t have much time to meditate after both the work and gym. Instead, you can implement a 10-minute (or whatever time you prefer) meditation every morning as soon as you wake up. Let’s say you’re not an early riser and prefer to sleep in, that’s still fine! You can choose to do your meditation before bed or even on your lunch break at work or school. If you’re able to fit meditation into your schedule in a way that doesn’t cause more stress or inconvenience, you’re going to be more likely to do it and stay with it.
The bottom line is that meditation is a great practice to start doing for your spiritual and physical health. As you continue this practice, you’ll become more in tune with yourself and the benefits will carry over into other aspects of your life.
