How Regular Meditation Practice Can Improve Your Health and Happiness

“We can’t always change what’s happening around us, but we can change what happens within us.” -Andy Puddicombe

Is Meditation for you?

Meditation has been in the news cycle on and off for decades. And of course, it’s been around for millennia as a tool for greater introspection, peace,  and calm. Some folks also use meditation as part of their spiritual practices, even though mediation itself does not align with any religion or dogma.

Today, let’s talk about why meditation could be a wise practice for your overall health, happiness, and well-being.

And what are those nebulous markers anyway? While regular meditation won’t cure everything that ails you or ward off every loss or life challenge, meditation can bring you, in both the short and long term, to a more content, relaxed, unworried, and confident state. 

Plus, meditation can also dial down physical risk factors that negatively affect your overall health and wellness. Let’s get to the heart of what meditation can do for you today, next week, and over the next decade when you practice with even the smallest amount of consistency.

Top Meditation Benefits

If you’ve been curious about meditation but nervous to try it out, these top meditation benefits may be the nudge you need to get started.

People who’ve meditated regularly (even once per week!) notice:

• • Reduced stress and anxiety: Who doesn’t want THAT amidst professional deadlines, frazzled parenting, overloaded schedules, and a long list of “to-dos” at home and work each week?
  • Increased self-awareness: The one super-power we can all cultivate. And you NEED greater self-awareness to understand yourself, your behaviors, and to make the changes you’d like to see in your life. You’ll need self-awareness to show up the way you most want in your life and make decisions based deeply on your values--what’s most important to you.
  • Improved emotional and mental health: A regular meditation practice can help you cope with emotional and mental hiccups–and even chronic conditions–that affect your mood, motivation, and joy each week, month, or season. Meditation can lead you back to joy when you experience pain and loss, or need regular calibration for the ups and downs in your life.

What Happens when you Meditate?

During meditation, even for just a few minutes, you’ll notice several changes that can happen in your body and mind (even if you think you’re one of those people who “just can’t sit still!”)

1. Your breathing and heart rate slow down. 
2. Your blood pressure gets lower.
3. Your brain may feel a bit “busy” at first (making you wonder if all this slow breathing is working), but after a little practice your racing thoughts get more spacious and less frantic.
4. You have a new sense of focus in your mind, especially if you use a guided meditation resource like ours.
5. You may fall asleep and stay asleep with greater ease.

The Hidden (not talked-about) Benefits of Meditation

How about connecting with your VALUES? (I mentioned this above, but it bears its own section.) Before meditating, I wasn’t sure what my values were, let alone how to act on them in my daily life.

Getting quiet and connected with yourself allows the very things that are most central to your being to float to the surface where you can see and befriend them. And values (like honesty, clear communication, or respecting your body and limits as you define them) can take many forms, like how you want to conduct yourself at work, at play, and in relationships. 

By the way, intuition and inner wisdom follow closely on the heels of your values. Once you’ve cued into the way you want to behave and make decisions, you may find that you get inexplicable “nudges” about how to choose your friends, workplaces, or even your daily grocery purchases! 

(Psst: that’s your intuition and inner wisdom whispering louder in your ear.)

Great, so How do I Start Meditating?

This one’s easy. You just…begin. You don’t need any special tools, space, or “mood-lighting” to get you going.

(For more on how to begin meditating, check out this short video link.)

I DO suggest that you find a quiet and comfortable space where you can sit or lie down in peace and ease. If that means lying or sitting on a cushion, chair, or bed, then go there. Definitely cut down on the noise and distraction around you if you can. This is your time.

Try reserving 10 minutes (or so) a few times per week to start. Or perhaps, 5 minutes daily.  This time is where you’ll commit to being with yourself in this quiet place no matter what happens–even if you feel like you can’t do it or it’s not working. There is no “right” way to meditate—there is only YOUR way.

Meditation takes time and practice to work on you. Let go of the belief that your mind will “stop thinking.” Our brains are designed to think, so you’ll never empty your mind of thought. But, with regular practice, you may notice more space and calm between your thoughts–where they don’t feel so overwhelming and numerous.

Above all, meditation is a practice of observation—of inviting your brain to focus for a while on something of your choosing. Like your breath, the way your skin feels, or even how your feet strike the pavement if you’re walking while meditating. (That’s a thing too, btw.)

Meditation may not always feel comfortable or restorative. Sometimes the practice can stir up things that will wake you up, shake you up, and invite you to go even deeper in your exploration. And that’s okay. 

Allow your practice to be what it is—to meet you where you are, and to keep going.

If you want a little more guidance as you begin? 

Join me in the Safe Container of Move and Meditate

I’m excited to offer a 6-week guided pathway toward self-care that feeds your foundation of satisfaction, contentment, and body ease. We are enrolling for our once a year opportunity to join me live weekly for group coaching alongside this powerful 6-week course. 

I’d love for you to learn more about how we do this on our website.  When you click the link, you’ll discover all the details of how to “move beyond damage control and into whole body fulfillment and self-trust.”  Here you'll get all the details on how to make this level of self-care and transformation a reality for you. 

Take good care,

Sara