What’s up with meditation and why is everyone doing it?

If you’re into wellness, you are very aware of the word meditation. What does mindfulness and meditation have in common? The answer: allow you to be more self aware and be present. The practice of meditation is seen in various competitive sport themes, high achieving executives, and celebrities. There is something about meditation that seems to help people feel better and we want to make sure you are aware of that too.

This isn’t just an anecdotal discovery. A meta-analysis research study in 2014 published in the Journals of the American Medical Association in Internal Medicine, titled: “Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis” discussed the the findings.

Out of 18,753 citations, 47 trials with 3515 participants - here is what the team of researchers found.

What can meditation help with?

Moderate evidence to improve:

Anxiety

Depression

Pain

Low evidence to improve

Stress/distress

mental health related quality of life

positive mood

attention

substance use

eating habits

sleep

weight

Is meditation better than any active treatment?

Researchers found no evidence that the said programs were better than any active treatment like exercise, behavioral therapies, and utilization of drugs. This doesn’t mean that you should throw out meditation altogether. If anything, adding it to your routine may help create a sense of knowing and calmness that you may be lacking. Of course, that is case by case and anecdotal for most.

Whether you choose to continue with the meditation practice or not, we are here to support you! Check out our Mondays Mindset Meditation class! If you can’t make it here is a quick cheat sheet.

Meditation 101 : the sitting at home version

Step 1: Choose to sit or lay in a comfortable position

Find one thing in the room that you can focus on. Maybe it is the sound of your breath, the cars driving by, the wind, the sound of the fan in the room

Step 2: The breath

Breathe into your nose, out of your mouth - 4 counts each

Step 3: Mindful of your body or mind

Shift your focus now to the tension you feel in your body and with every exhale allow it to relax

If you have any limiting thoughts or levels of frustration, you can also focus on that thought and as you exhale visualize the thought leaving your mind

Step 4: Continue to do this until you feel your space is at peace or if you have set the timer for 10, 15, 20, or 60 mins. You can stop.

Now give it a shot and let us know how it went. Otherwise, join us in the month of December starting 11/30 to 12/31 for our weekly meditation