Hi Babes, I missed you last week! Summer is now well underway and things continue to get pretty hectic at Retreat Ranch. My youngest kids have been pretty active and making the best summer memories. While I personally love the energy and excitement, the truth is managing it all can get exhausting. I cannot afford to drop the ball as a human, wife, mom and entrepreneur, so I look to daily meditation to help keep myself centered and focused. Today, let’s discuss the three key benefits of mindful meditation. Namaste!
Mindful Meditation Helps Reduce Stress
You’ve probably read and heard it a million times, that meditation helps with stress. It’s true and what’s more it has a track record of being a successful stress reduction tool, and is scientifically proven. A 2019 article from the American Psychological Association explains that mindful meditation can improve mental and physical health. In fact, this is supported by over 200 studies from researchers across the global. The key driver comes from training your thoughts and attention to achieve a higher level of being; this encourages a state of calmness and positivity.
Mindful meditation is all about centering your attention on the here and now. When you establish a grounded presence, you bring awareness to your thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations and of course, regulation of your breathing. The goal here is to train one’s mind to accept these feelings without reaction or judgement from your inner self. To do this you need to recognize each thought or feeling and let them go. Practicing this reflective exercise allows you to train your body and mind to react better to life’s stressors.
Mindful Meditation Encourages Love for Yourself and Others
Being kind to yourself often gets overlooked when you’re responsible for many things and/or people. You put yourself last and focus on making life better for everyone else. Here’s the thing though, you cannot pour from an empty well. By dedicating daily time for mindful meditation, you grant yourself grace to be self-compassionate. In a roundabout way, practicing self-love, and self-empathy allows you to be more altruistic to others.
You see, during your meditative state you might think of your loved ones and consciously or unconsciously send positive intentions or forgiveness their way. Hey, I’ve also got science behind me on this one, too! A 2012 study on altruism showed a strong link between meditation time and altruistic orientation. Beyond scientific validation, meditation is a successful multi-millennia practice for a reason. It is a tried-and-true method that encourages self-compassion, gratitude, and love for all living and non-living things around you.
Meditation Fosters Better Self-Esteem
Want to improve your self-esteem? Try meditation. With all the focus on reflecting inward, meditation forces to accept your strengths and weaknesses and to truly find inner peace, you need self-acceptance. This means forgiving yourself, celebrating your victories and finding out what makes you tick, or not.
When you have a better understanding of yourself, nothing can negatively impact how you feel about yourself. I won’t get all ‘sciency’ and ‘spiritually’ here. Why? I would love for you to take a minimum of five minutes, but up to ten minutes each day to practice mindful meditation, even just for one week and see for yourself. Stuck? Try insight timer. A free mediation app with thousands of mediations you can access, searching by what you need (anxiety, sleep, stress) and/or time you have available (even as low as one minute!).
Mindful meditation can change your life from feeling like you’re trapped in an anxiety-ridden, stress ball by decreasing your stress, loving yourself more and being more altruistic. When you meditate for you, you also indirectly meditate for others. This can only shape your environment for the better and really, that’s key to a great life.
In my Yoga Teacher Training Course, I get more in depth on the technical and theoretical benefits of yoga. Sign-up today and change your life for the better.
