By Paola Guerra
With a pandemic, everything changes, uncertainty arises and with it our mental sanity. Mental health is one of the most important aspects of our lives, and ironically is one of the most forgotten. Sure, everyone wants to take care of their body, eat clean, exercise but where does our mental health stand?
Likely you’ve heard of meditation before, and probably your first thought was your favorite movie star trying to imitate Buddha, but do you really know what it actually is and how it can benefit your life?
Meditation is a practice that uses techniques such as mindfulness or focusing the mind on a certain object, thought or activity, with the purpose of achieving attention and awareness, obtaining mental and emotional clarity. An average person has thousands of thoughts on a normal day. Imagine how many thoughts you have had being stuck between four walls for more than 4 months. No wonder why some of us are overwhelmed and stressed.
Just like physical activity is vital for our body, mental clarity is crucial for our mind. Meditation allows you to eliminate the crowding of thoughts that may cause tension or anxiety, easily restoring your calm and inner peace within minutes.
According to Mayo Clinic, benefits of meditation include:
Gaining a new perspective on stressful situations
Building skills to manage your stress
Increasing self-awareness
Focusing on the present
Reducing negative emotions
Increasing imagination and creativity
Increasing patience and tolerance
The key to understand meditation, and experience all its positives is the right use of the mind and the breathing. Focusing your attention is one of the most important elements. This is what sets your mind free from your negative thoughts. In addition, meditation involves deep, even-paced breathing using the diaphragm muscle to expand your lungs, thus slowing your breathing and relaxing other muscles making this activity more efficient. Nevertheless, the most important aspect to conquer meditation is an open attitude which allows forgiveness and a judgement-free space.
Building meditation skills might be hard at first but there is nothing that practice can’t master. If you want to start a healthier life I highly recommend this practice, it doesn’t require a lot of time, within 10 minutes you can drastically change your day. Furthermore, meditation is accessible for everyone, it will not cost you one cent and it will add immense value to your life, there are multiple guided meditation videos on youtube available for everyone that will give you an insight of how meditation works. I’m sure once you add it to your routine you will never want to go back. Why are you waiting to try meditation? It won’t harm you ; )
Bibliography:
Mayo Clinic. 2020. A Beginner's Guide To Meditation. [online] Available at: <https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/meditation/in-depth/meditation/art-20045858> [Accessed 27 August 2020].
En.wikipedia.org. 2020. Meditation. [online] Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation> [Accessed 27 August 2020].