Have you ever felt like the weight of the world is on your shoulders? It could be stress. While stress is a part of our daily lives at some level, it shouldn’t overpower our lifestyle. If you worry about things to the point where you cannot function anymore, you may have chronic stress.
Understanding Chronic Stress: It’s Not Just You
Mental health issues often remain unaddressed because people don’t feel comfortable discussing them. While awareness of mental health issues is higher, people still need help. Chronic stress has become a major public health concern. It impacts individuals worldwide at some level, and without the right help, finding solutions to these issues is a little too challenging.
Did you know nearly 80% of Americans alone experience moderate to high levels of stress, according to the American Institute of Stress? This number is much higher globally, which makes it a massive pandemic worldwide.
Constant stress can feel like baggage that you are forced to carry throughout your everyday life. It can also lead to health problems in different forms, impacting one’s quality of life. Some common impacts of this stress include:
- Heart disease
- Depression
- Anxiety
- High blood pressure.
Combating Stress: What is Meditation?
Stress is undoubtedly a massive problem, but what if there was a simple and effective tool to deal with it? There is one, and it is meditation. Meditation itself is an ancient practice with modern scientific support for stress-busting abilities.
Most people think of meditation as a means to relax. However, it isn’t about emptying the mind or achieving mystical states. Instead, it’s a more systematic approach focused on training attention and awareness.
Think of it as a way of resetting and recalibrating your life’s focus. With medication, you learn to focus on a single point instead of having that haphazard sensation common with stress.
Meditation helps you focus on different aspects of your body, one at a time. It can be your breath, a mantra (a repeated sound or phrase), or even bodily sensations. This helps individuals gently acknowledge thoughts and return focus to the chosen point when thoughts come up.
Digging Deeper into Meditation
While meditation is a simple concept inherently, some people might find it more complicated. Let’s look at it in a different way. Try to think of your mind as a busy gym. Your thoughts can be like energetic people running around.
However, meditation is a gentle exercise that strengthens your focus muscle (the prefrontal cortex). It becomes easier to quiet the mental thoughts and achieve a state of calm alertness as you start training this muscle.
Research by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) journal Frontiers in Psychology suggests meditation strengthens the brain’s prefrontal cortex. This area of the brain plays a crucial role in managing emotions and stress.
Meditation and Its Benefits: More Than Feeling Good
Meditation isn’t just about feeling good instantly. Studies reveal it has a series of health benefits that might go unnoticed. According to a 2010 study by the American Psychological Association Journal Psychological Bulletin, meditation can be effective in reducing anxiety, stress, and depression. You need to learn about the full range of benefits it can have.
- Reduces Blood Pressure: High blood pressure is a raging problem for a vast majority of individuals worldwide and it’s often connected to stress. A 2015 review in the American Heart Association Journal of Hypertension reveals that meditation is as effective as some medications in regulating blood pressure.
- Strengthens The Immune System: A 2013 study published in the journal Psychoneuroimmunology found that meditation programs boosted the immune system against the flu vaccine in adults. A stronger immune system means a stronger you, and meditation could be the key to it.
- Improves Sleep Quality: The quality of sleep impacts your body’s revitalizing process, physical and mental health, and overall well-being. According to a 2014 review published in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews, meditation programs help with sleep. They can significantly improve sleep quality in adults with chronic insomnia [6].
Mindfulness Meditation: Your Ally for Mental and Emotional Well-Being
Apart from the general stress reduction benefits, meditation offers specific techniques. These techniques are great for targeting emotional and mental well-being. There are a couple of ways you can approach this idea.
One popular way is mindfulness meditation. In this kind of meditation, you focus on the present moment without judgment. It provides a chance to the individual performing it to see their thoughts and emotions without getting caught up in them. Once you learn to see your thoughts objectively, you gain a sense of perspective and emotional regulation.
Most people try to find meaning in life and satisfaction externally. This leads to an endless cycle of seeking approval from the outside. Meditation resets the power struggle, ensuring you seek value from within. Once you become your biggest supporter, you don’t need validation from others.
Think of it like this: Imagine you’re watching a movie. It’s easier to read the characters’ emotions and actions without feeling overwhelmed by them. You also do not feel swept away by the plot, despite experiencing it in some way.
Mental Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness meditation creates the same detached awareness of your own thoughts and feelings. This ability can significantly reduce stress and anxiety, providing more control in life.
You gain a sense of control and inner peace when you’re not constantly reacting to your every thought or feeling. This, in turn, leads to greater mental and emotional well-being.
The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, offers a mindfulness meditation course online to help you get started with this practice. However, if you’re looking for a more personalized experience, mental health sessions can be of great help. They can help you understand meditation practices, and your emotions, and identify potential issues before they impact your life.
Meditation can be a great tool against unwanted stress and anxiety. It offers better physical and mental health, ensuring you live a more fulfilling and rewarding life. However, if you feel like this process is a little overwhelming, don’t think twice before seeking professional assistance.
Helply is a great place to get started and address your mental health concerns. Their professionals are trained to assist clients without putting one’s personal information at risk. Even if you’re not looking for mental health sessions and need genuine guidance, they can help you.
Meditate and Become a Better You with Helply!