Meditation to manage & reduce stress

We all experience stressful conditions in day to day life and body has auto mechanism for it, that is fight or flight. But when this stress prolongs it starts damaging the mind and body. There are many incidents like death of loved ones, breakups, diseases, huge financial losses and many which directly throw us into the hands of stress. Apart from these causes day to day life routine is becoming stressful. Like now a days handling the work pressure, long hours in jam, managing relationships and kids are such issues that cause the mental issues of stress and anxiety. Therefore prevention of stress is a need of current scenario.

We do exercise for physical health, go to gyms and eat healthy. But what about mental health? Moreover unhealthy stressful mind affects body adversely too. So if the mind is affected then both mental and physical health get affected. And Meditation is the way to keep mind fit and healthy.

Stress Response

The stress response causes faster heart rate, accelerates the breathing, lowers down the metabolism, affects sugar levels and many more. Mind is not at peace, you feel agitated, low or hyperactive. Intellect stops working in case of high level of stress and as a result there is loop of stress. The chronic stress leads to blood pressure issues, heart issues, obesity, difficulty in remembering and poor digestion. If prolonged for more time then may lead to incurable diseases. So manage stress. Sooner is better.

Meditation Response

And what actually happens when we meditate? Exactly the opposite to stress response. Meditation calms the mind. Once the mind is at peace intellect illuminates. You will have the clarity, focus and the solution.

Effects On Body & Mind

Meditation lowers the breathing rate, more oxygen to body organs, better circulation of blood and hence better metabolism which further reduces the fat cells. More supply of oxygen and blood will help in maintaining the sugar levels. Stronger immunity will make you less prone to illness. Mind is no more agitated or anxious now. The noise of thoughts settles and you will experience the deep state of relaxation. You will become more positive and energetic. In conclusion, meditation balances the physical and mental health.

Beginner’s Guide

Initially you may find it difficult to sit in for meditation. Because when you sit you might observe cluster of thoughts. But hold on!!! It’s just the beginning. Just sit and observe but do not indulge. You can take the help from meditation masters, or play some meditation music. One can also take help of mantras. Mantra meditation will hold the mind to mantra and gradually you will experience the blissful state. Step by step guided meditation are of great help too. Whenever mind loses its focus, the guide will take you back by instructions. So it is ok to lose the track or not being in the present moment. Don’t let it discourage you. It’s normal. While practicing whenever you find you are distracted just come back to the practice. That’s it.

Meditation is a necessity

Better to make it daily schedule. We clean out our body daily, we bath, we brush but then what about mind. What do we do for cleaning mind? Meditate! Include meditation in your daily schedule. Relax and sit daily to maintain your mental health. Keep your mind fit too. Start with fifteen minutes and sit for as long as you wish. We do long hours of activity in a day, meditation is the time for silence doing nothing.

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Sleep, Stress and Meditation

The more we are stressed lesser is the quality of sleep. This will lead to sleep deprivation. As a result we will experience low energy throughout the day. Stress may lead to insomnia too. And to cover up that we will take small or big naps in a day which clearly means irregular sleep patterns. Even if we sleep it is just for the name sake because dreams and thoughts continuously run and we are unable to get sound sleep. Hence body and mind could not be at rest. No rest, no energy and more of lethargic we feel whole day.

Further this would affect the work and surroundings. And this loop goes on causing harm to mind, body and life. During sleep pineal gland secretes hormones that are very much needed and beneficial to us. But if we do not get the right sleep which we will never get if we are stressed out, then we will be deprived of the healthy hormones. Gradually gland stop working as we are not activating it. This may result in hormonal imbalance.

Meditation is the deep relaxation. It not only reduces the stress but also fills the holes created by sleep issues. Meditation supports relaxation and sound sleep. When we meditate brain works calmly during the activities and while we sleep at night it relaxes completely. In fact only ten minutes of meditation before sleep is a great catalyst to promote sound relaxation. And as said above glands activated at this time will do the rest of the work. Hence hormonal health is maintained which means better immune system and better health.

Emotions, Mind & Meditation

Meditation also releases the blockages of subconscious mind. Mind is behind the body. So if body is unhealthy that signifies there is blockage in the mind too. Unfulfilled desires causes anger and anger causes heart issues. So if the person has heart issues or high blood pressure issues that may be caused by anger. There can be number of reasons of anger like unfulfilled desires. Adding more to it, suppressed emotions cause back pains. So to cure the back pain from root it is important to let go of suppressed emotions. Here meditation helps. It cleans the mind and cures from the root. So in order to maintain good physical, mental and emotional health meditation is the need not an option.

Be in the meditation, let go of I ness and experience the miraculous results.