When I'm really passionate about things, I tend to tell anyone I come in contact with about them. The one thing that I seem to have had the most conversations with strangers, and non strangers, about is meditation.
Why meditation?
As someone with severe, diagnosed, anxiety, I have found meditation the most successful treatment so far. As someone with diagnosed adhd, again, meditation allows me to focus. As someone with really bad insomnia, meditation helps me sleep.
It is really interesting to me that so many people that meditation is simply sitting still and not thinking. While that "is" what it seems to be, the reality is that while meditating, your are allowing your subconscious mind to work through the issues facing it. You can meditate almost anywhere, even while walking and running!
As you practice meditation, and it is ALWAYS a practice, you learn to allow the mind to have thoughts. There is simply no way to force the brain to stop thinking. The literal job of the brain is to think. As you meditate, thoughts arise, this is natural. The practice of meditation is to learn how to acknowledge those thoughts, without focusing on them or forcing them to leave.
Meditation has a lot of benefits. I have mentioned a few that I have discovered. Science has also discovered a few more.
One that I find particularly amazing is that daily meditation has actually been shown to decrease age related memory loss. I love the thought that daily meditation can actually help improve my memory later in life!
Guided meditations are an amazing place to start, if you aren't sure where to begin. Some guided meditation sessions are only 5 minutes long, others are over 2 hours long. It all depends on which one is right for you. If you don't know where to begin, I have some guided meditation sessions available for free on my website.
Meditation has also shown to help improve your emotional awareness and your kindness. These are things that are super helpful in society.
I'm not going to lie, meditating isn't easy, especially if you choose to forgo the guided meditation and try it on your own. Your monkey mind is going to be screeching loudly for the attention it is used to having. It takes patience. Meditation will also bring up a lot of emotions and feelings. These can be uncomfortable, or downright painful. A lot of meditation instructors advise that you keep a meditation journal, a place to write down any feelings, thoughts, or emotions, that come up during your meditation. However, on a positive note, dredging up these emotions and memories actually has been shown to allow people to work through them in a healthy, safe, way. (This is not to suggest that you replace any mental health professionals with meditation. Meditation works WITH therapy.)
Well, with all of that being said, I think I have given you enough to think on today. (See what I did there???)
Peace, Love, and Light,
Kris