Did you know that practicing mindfulness and mindfulness meditation helps you better handle stress?
In fact, these are some of the best practices you can engage in to increase your capacity to deal with stress. We are all exposed to stress, now more than ever.
The key to remaining healthy is to do those things that help your body decrease stress to a greater degree. One way you can do this is to practice mindfulness meditation.
You first need to learn about mindfulness meditation. There are benefits to this practice, including the healing of nerves, a decrease in the incidence of heart attacks, improved sleep, decreased anxiety, and better mood. It can even boost your creativity and increase your IQ.
There are several different meditation courses you can take, including some that are available online.
In-person classes are probably better as they offer a more individualized approach. They can help you learn mindfulness and mindfulness meditation that can help you handle stress.
If you’re interested in learning more about how to do this, join the Facebook Community for individual and personalized support.
What is the difference between meditation and mindfulness?
Meditation of all types induces a kind of brain activity that is different from being asleep or alert. It is actually up to five times more restful and relaxing than sleep.
It is this deep state of relaxation that allows the body to decrease stress and, because both sides of the brain are used, it helps increase the communication pathways between the two halves of the brain, both the logical half and the creative half.
On the other hand, mindfulness is just a type of meditation. Mindfulness involves staying in the present moment without ruminating on the past or worrying about the future. It’s learning about how to be in the present moment without judgement or attaching a story to any thoughts that might arise.
Both techniques help you to decrease your stress levels.
How do meditation and mindfulness work?
- Both mindfulness and mindfulness meditation help your brain make sense of everything that is happening in your life. It can improve your focus on the present moment. All of this can help you better stay out of stress and connect with your intuition, even when you aren’t actively practicing these techniques.
They both have the following bodily functions:
- Increase dopamine and serotonin levels, which are the neurotransmitters that improve your focus, maximize sleep, and elevate your mood
- Decrease the levels of the stress hormone, cortisol
- Increase the ability of the prefrontal cortex to function. This helps you organize and respond to stress without being fearful
- They both influence your telomeres and growth factors. These help you protect your genes.
Therefore, by practicing mindfulness techniques, you can focus your mind and can change the way your brain functions. They also influence your genes and your overall health.
How to start practicing mindfulness and meditation practices
Meditation
Meditation is generally thought of as sitting cross-legged on the floor while sitting very still and breathing. In fact, there are several ways to meditate.
You can meditate in bed or by sitting in a chair. It can be done while doing activities, such as showering, eating, brushing your teeth, doing the dishes, or just walking.
Another type of mindfulness is biofeedback, which involves you focusing on your body to change your heart rate and blood pressure.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness meditation can be practiced just about anywhere and at any time. An easy way to begin is to put your focus on only
one thing. You can focus on your breath or say a mantra like “ohm” or any other mantra that feels right.
When breathing, you need to focus on what you feel like after each breath. Whatever you focus your mind on, you need to bring your attention back to what you’re focusing on if you tend to have your mind wander.
You can also practice being mindful in your every day life, this means, staying the in present moment and not allowing your mind to drift to the past or the future.
Spend about 5 minutes or so in the beginning and work your way up to meditating for longer periods of time.
If you’re interested in learning more about mindfulness meditation, join the group community HERE.
Here are a couple mindfulness meditations to get you started!
