8 benefits of regular meditation
Meditating daily brought an incredible self-awareness and peace to my life.
“If you are quiet enough, you will hear the flow of the universe. You will feel its rhythm. Go with this flow. Happiness lies ahead. Meditation is key"
Buddha
Five years ago, I decided to give a try to meditation for the first time. Back then, I was very concerned by my level of anxiety and my hyperactivity tendency !
The first months of practice were definitely not a piece of cake.
I could barely meditate more than two minutes without feeling bored, besieged by my own thoughts, impatient !
Fortunately for me, I love challenges, so I just decided to persist.
After a few months, I started to notice benefits and learned different ways of meditating. Soon enough, It helped me grow by making my practice easier, flourishing!
Let’s focus today on how amazing meditating has been for me and can be for you.
Here a FEW (amongst many others) benefits of meditating frequently (even 2 minutes a day, yeah yeah, yeah !)
1) Drastically reduce and stabilize stress levels
I, by nature, am a stressed person. Meditating on mornings, and evenings helped to create a peaceful, gentle space for myself. I notice that I go on with my day in a softer, calmer and more confident way.
2) Promote emotional health
By sitting with yourself, you allow your emotions to show up and speak. Free to express themselves, they are no longer repressed and bring with them many treasures and understandings.
3) Enhance general self awareness
By focusing on the body, we start to notice, understand and know ourselves. We become aware of our energy, our pains, our strengths, can easily locate and use them to our advantage.
4) Improve sleep
If, like me, you have some insomnias tendencies, meditation greatly helps easing a running mind, create a calmer space in order to fall asleep. It is a great ally to come back to the body and pay attention to its needs.
5) Help control pain
That one truly changed my life. A few years ago, I was at a retreat in a Buddhist temple and spent days there, meditating. The most amazing thing happened when my periods showed up unexpectedly with, of course, massive abdomen pains. Being encouraged to meditate through the pain, acknowledge it, actually helped me release it. I started to focus on the painful area, and ask it to soften while I was exhaling. It worked marvels, and I am still using this technique today when pain arises in my body.
6) Increase creativity
This one is my favourite ! You cannot even imagine how many worlds I have been creating, connecting with and visited during meditations !! Let your imagination run wild, create incredible places, feelings, rituals and enjoy !
7) Develop intuition
By becoming more tuned and calmer, we allow intuition a bigger place to deliver messages. The mind is interfering less, the intuition is free to show up and speak its messages.
8) Clarity and focus gain
As said in the previous point, while meditating, the mind is not speaking as much (It still is though, and it is absolutely OK). We can see with more clarity, find solutions to our problems quicker, more efficiently.
Remember that everyone is different, we all have a unique practice.
Do not worry if you do not like to meditate more than 5 minutes, if you fall asleep or if you think that your mind is driving you crazy. The most important is to keep it light, fun and enjoyable.
Keep on going and ENJOY !
PICTURE CREDIT : Charlotte from Deep into soul