Introduction:
If you have been reading these blogs since I started, it is possible that you would like to try meditating out, just to see if you do gain any benefit from it. There also exists the possibility that you are aware of some of the benefits which can be gained by practicing the art.
Whilst I am going to list the ten benefits of meditation which are detailed here, if I wanted to I could create a really long list, some of which would surprise you. However, let us for now stick to the ten major benefits which are more commonly known.
Benefit 1: Your mind is slowed down.
Have you ever thought why you get stressed out? One of the more common reasons is that you have too much on your mind, thinking about work, what to buy your partner for their birthday, what did you have to pick up on the way home, and so it goes on. You try to concentrate too much, which causes you to get stressed as you are trying to focus on too many things at once.
To put it another way, you lose your patience, have little focus, this results in you thinking that you have done very little with your time, despite the effort that you have put in, or taken advantage of any opportunities that you might have been given.
If you begin to learn how to meditate, you will slow your mind down. This will enable you to focus and concentrate on one thing at a time. Do not consider this to be a retrograde step, but an improvement by being able to focus more clearly, whilst controlling many parts of your life.
Benefit 2: It helps to relax your mind
We have been talking about focus, we now mention relaxation, please understand these are two totally different things. You can take care of a problem that really stresses you out by focusing on it. When you have dealt with the problem you could still be stressed out.
When you meditate you are able to relax your mind completely. This is not only a great way of getting rid of stress, but it also relaxes your mind. No doubt you have heard that meditation gives you serenity and inner peace, that is exactly what you get.
Benefit 3: Your body is also relaxed by meditation
Not surprisingly your body and mind are tightly connected. If your mind becomes less stressed, so your body becomes more relaxed. Understanding that they are very closely connected, you will realize that if you work on your mind, then this will help you to improve your physical relaxation.
Benefit 4: Your perspective improves
One of the many reasons that you can feel stressed is that you feel that you are going on an endless belt of jumping from one problem to another. Too many people this seems to be an endless nightmare, which does not seem to stop.
If you stop and think a minute, the majority of things that are causing you to stress, are in reality nothing to worry about at all. If you look at the overall picture, they are very often quite insignificant. If you learn to meditate on a regular basis, the overall picture becomes much clearer. When you begin to gain a perspective, you will then begin to find some level of inner peace.
Benefit 5: Emotions and perceptions are distanced
When you suffer from stress it appears to you that the whole world revolves around just you, your ambitions and your own personal value. This is another way of saying each time something goes wrong you see at as a huge failure.
When you have a disagreement with someone, you know that you should be calm about it, but you aren’t, this leads to the disagreement becoming a full-blown argument. You find it very hard to let go of your emotions.
Learning how to meditate helps you to separate your emotions and your perceptions. Perceiving some things, does not mean that your interpretation of things has to be in an emotional or negative way.
Life is not all about you, you do not have to make a drama out of a crisis, the more you practice meditation, so the calmer you feel.
Benefit 6: Your focus becomes more powerful
Whatever you focus on, so your energy flows, the problem with this is that if you are stressed, whilst you try to focus, the power is no longer there. This leads to you trying to get something done, now matter how hard you try you find that you have now will power to do it.
It is though something is sapping your energy, it just leaks away, stopping you from having a razor sharp focus. When you learn to meditate, learning to control your mental thoughts, so you strengthen your focus. This enables you to use your will power to concentrate on defined tasks, thus becoming more effective and productive.
Benefit 7: Your focus becomes clearer
Focus not only involves will power, but also clarity, this enables you to make sense of things. However when you are stressed or under pressure, your brain can become fogged, this leads to you thinking that everything is the same, you are not quite sure what is what, or what your priorities are.
Given the above, is it surprising that when people are stressed that irrespective of how much focus they put in to try to complete or concentrate on a task, they fail to succeed. To those who have these moments, it does not matter how much they try, it is though what they are doing ends up producing the wrong results as they appear to be doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.
Practicing meditation allows not only your focus to become clearer, but also to strengthen it. This situation allows you to use your values to enable you to concentrate your focus. This has a double effect as your productivity becomes more positive, this also enables you to make things happen more effectively.
Benefit 8: Your blood pressure is lowered
Numerous research studies carried out by scientists have found that those who practice meditation consistently, are found to have their blood pressure lowered. This is very important to many Nations as cardiovascular disease is growing in not only the United States but in the other developing countries.
People today do not exercise as much as they used too, the television and computer have replaced the walks of yesteryear. The result is that more and more people are dying from heart related issues, meditating lowers your blood pressure naturally, with the possibility that it could prolong life.
Benefit 9: Emotional damage can be speeded up
Do you find it difficult to forgive people or struggle with emotional issues? learn to meditate, this enables you to distance yourself from memories which are not only painful, but which can induce anger. Eventually you will see things in a different light or perspective, which puts you in a position where you are able to forgive.
What I am not saying is that you will forgive someone who has done you serious harm if you meditate. That choice will always be yours. By mediating your perspective on things can cause changes, this means that you are more likely, should you choose too, forgive and get on with your life. Doing this helps you repair the emotional damage.
Benefit 10: Can help repair psychological damage
Unfortunately we all do not come from ideal upbringings or childhoods. The past is what it is, relationships what they were, times were either good bad or a bit of both. Would it not great if all our backgrounds showed that we had loving caring families.
The truth is that many people have had terrible upbringings or childhoods, this results in those people suffering psychological damage, very often in vain which can take years to recover, if some ever do. Those who meditate tend to have a differing perspective on things. Which allows them to view both the present and the past from a different viewpoint.
If you have been harmed in the past, or victimized, you do not have to carry on looking at yourself in that way. In a similar way too emotional healing, whilst meditation puts you in a position where you can free yourself, it does not happen automatically, you have you choose to free yourself of the past.
Conclusion:
If you still have doubts about mediation, do try to keep the above benefits in mind. Yes it is a commitment, but in most cases you will find that the disadvantages which you feel that you have been most definitely outweighed by the advantages which you will gain by regularly practicing meditation.
Be peaceful
Stuart