How Can Meditation Help You On A Daily Basis?

Meditation is currently on the rise and many have already begun to enjoy everything that this practice can bring us and see how it can help us on a day-to-day basis. Numerous studies show its benefits to reduce stress, improve sleep rhythms, lower cortisol levels, improve learning, memory and, ultimately, make life fuller and more conscious.

An example of this is a study carried out at the University of California at Santa Barbara, which showed that with just a couple of weeks of meditation practice, participants’ attention and memory were improved during the reasoning section with a test. reference in this area.

Despite all the scientific advances and the study dedicated to this area, there are still people who doubt or seem reluctant to start in this activity. Some of the myths surrounding these techniques are just widespread ideas, but not true. Next we will see how meditation can help us in our day to day life.

Meditation benefits and guidelines

The main benefits of meditation are:

• Meditating is easy. Perhaps at first it costs a little more, so it will be easier if we allow ourselves to be guided and understand it as a concentration on the breath or repeating a mantra silently to facilitate the task.
• The goal is not to quiet the mind.  The goal is to find calm within thoughts. Shift the focus of attention when other thoughts come. As you identify less with your thoughts and stories, you experience more peace and open yourself to new possibilities, which gives you more scope to enjoy what surrounds you each day.

• In just a few weeks of dedication to the practice, benefits can be realized.  Scientific studies show that with just 8 weeks it is achieved: less anxiety, calmer and the areas of the brain related to memory, empathy, self-awareness and stress regulation grow. Practitioners also improve sleep, concentration, lower blood pressure, stress and anxiety, and improve immune function. In 2011, Sara Lazar’s research team at Harvard University showed that mindfulness practice can actually change the structure of the brain. After the 8-week MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) course, a thickening of the hippocampus (a structure that plays a fundamental role in learning and memory) and in other areas of importance for emotional regulation and processing was observed self-referential.

• Meditation helps us to be and to be.  Meditating is reconnecting with your true self, the opposite of escaping from the moment.
• Take just a moment of your time.  Meditating gives you time to stop, with just a few minutes you order and calm your mind before acting.
• Wide variety of ways: Meditation can be practiced in different ways and in different positions. Standing, walking, doing yoga, mindfulness, etc. You just have to find the best practice that suits each one.
• What if we feel that the mind does not stop thinking? In 30 minutes we can have 300 thoughts, an amount that saturates anyone’s mind. On the other hand, accustomed to working at full speed, slowing it down requires practice and patience.

• Observe the benefit: trusting the process, takes practice and time. Enjoy the small advances and pleasures that meditation brings us.
• Finding the way that works for each one.  Better to spend only 10 minutes than to endure 30 because they say it is better and feel bad because we can not do it.

Meditation, a technique for everyone

Some of the real benefits that meditation can bring to our daily lives can be enjoyed by starting with a few simple steps:

• Don’t be hard on yourself.
• Don’t have any expectations, just watch the moment.
• Do not insist if they do not lead you to an inner silence.
• Stay alone, if possible in a quiet place.

Considering what meditation offers us in our day to day, we see that these activities have many benefits. They help us to stop and be aware of what we live here and now and give us the opportunity to reconnect with ourselves and live what happens at all times. Meditation is for everyone.