If you’ve been meaning to start a meditation practice but keep putting it off, this article is for you. It’s time to stop putting it off and start putting it into practice. Here are nine reasons to start meditating today.
It will help you sleep
Meditation reduces stress, calms a racing mind, and relaxes the body. All of these things contribute to a more restful night’s sleep. This benefit can be felt regardless of what time of day you meditate, but most people meditate just before bed if they’re hoping for better sleep.
You can try a body scan meditation, a guided visualization, stress relief, or one specifically for better sleep. You can also simply focus on the breath for a few minutes. When you’re meditating to sleep better, the only thing to avoid is any meditation that specifically indicates that it will increase your energy.
It can offer an instant mood change
Losing patience with your kid? Angry with your spouse? Irritated with your boss or a client? Meditation can offer an instant mood change. Well, maybe not instant, but nearly so. Taking a few minutes to meditate can reduce or eliminate feelings of frustration, anger, impatience, fear, shame, and so much more.
All you need to do is find someplace quiet and away from whatever or whomever your feelings are directed at. I recommend spending at least 15 minutes meditating for an instant mood change, but if all you have is five minutes, give it a try.
It helps with weight loss
This benefit is a little tricky. Obviously, if your weight is the result of a medical condition, meditation isn’t going to magically make you lose weight. But, meditation can help. It can also help with changing the way you eat – eliminating junk food and incorporating fresh, healthy foods.
if you are an emotional eater, or you eat when you’re bored, meditation can help. Click To TweetWhen it comes to weight loss, finding the right meditation is a huge help. If you eat out of stress, boredom or to deal with emotions, you’ll want to look for a meditation that helps you take an honest look at yourself and how you’re feeling. Identifying and understanding how you feel is key to overcoming this kind of eating.
If you’re seeking to stop eating unhealthy foods and start eating healthier foods, you’ll want to look for meditations that encourage visualization. Or you can do your own and simply visualize yourself eating the healthier foods and enjoying it. See yourself savoring and enjoying the healthier options as your body slims down.
It can help cleanse other people’s energies from you
Have you ever been in a good mood and then you hung out with someone who was mad – and suddenly you were mad too? Or maybe you were feeling pretty happy and suddenly you felt sad after spending time with someone who’d just gone through a breakup or a death? Some people pick up on other people’s energy, feeling their emotions and holding on to them. This can be frustrating not only because of your sudden mood change but also because you might not know how to change it.
Meditation can help you cleanse other people’s energies. You can also use meditation to protect your own energy and avoid picking up the energy of others. Look for ones that indicate they are for cleansing energy, calling back energy, or protecting your energy.
It can boost motivation
Taking a few minutes to sit quietly can boost motivation and make it easier to do what you need to do. It clears the mind, allowing you to more easily see what you need to do. It also gives you the chance to increase your energy which helps motivate you to get more done. Some meditations can even give you motivation for specific tasks like working out or public speaking.
When it comes to motivation, you want to find meditations that are specifically about motivation. If you’re looking to be motivated for a specific, and particularly unlikable or uncomfortable task, try searching for a meditation specifically about that task.
It can ease a chaotic life
Let’s face it, life can be really chaotic sometimes. Between kids and all their needs, a business or work that makes demands on our time and mental effort, running a household, and trying to maintain relationships with romantic partners and friends and family, we can often feel like we’re constantly trying to put out fires all over the place.
Meditation can help ease that chaos. It gives you a break from chasing all the thoughts that come with the chaos. Sometimes this break leads to a breakthrough that allows us to see how to tame some of the chaos. Other times it simply gives us a mental break that gives us the energy to get back in there and keep fighting to manage it all.
It can clean up the disaster zone of your mind
Does it ever feel like you’re sifting through piles of garbage in your mind trying to find that one thought or idea? Or maybe it feels like your thoughts are constantly coming at you like some kind of enemy combatant on a battlefield? Or it might feel like there are a thousand voices in your head all clamoring to be heard at once and so you can never just have a single, clear thought? This might be one of the best reasons to start meditating.
If your mental state feels like a disaster zone to you, meditation can help clean it up. It’s an opportunity to take a step back from your thoughts and let them pass on without judgment or attempting to hold on to them. This can help clear the mind by allowing you to understand your thinking better – when you’re not judging your thoughts or trying to hold on to them, you can pay attention to more of them and see where your mental energy is going. You can also begin to more easily discern what thoughts are important and which ones you can let go of permanently. This mental clarity also contributes to improving your memory and creativity.
It can assist with recovery from addiction
Pills, alcohol, party drugs, sex, or even food are just a few of the things that we can end up addicted to. And let me be clear: you are not going to simply meditate away your addiction. But meditation can be a helpful component in the addiction recovery process.
meditation can be a helpful component in the addiction recovery process. Click To TweetMeditation can help you understand who you are, why you became addicted, and what it is you’re trying to hide from, numb away, or otherwise avoid with your addiction. It can be a useful go-to activity when you’re feeling the urge to give in to your addiction. In fact, many recovering addicts find meditation during their early recovery and they often credit it with helping them stay sober.
A relaxed mind makes room for greater intuition
Your intuition, or gut feeling if you prefer, is an excellent guidance system. It knows just what you need and what’s best for you. But if your mind is constantly going or always stressed, your intuition is going to get shut down a lot. Trust me, as a recovering overthinker myself, I know how it feels. But a relaxed mind allows your intuition to come through loud and clear.
Meditation allows your mind to relax, let go, and take a backseat to the rest of you. This lets you hear and feel the signals from your intuition more clearly which then allows you to listen to and follow your intuition. The more you listen to and follow your intuition, the more it will speak up and guide you. The more you let your intuition guide you, the more aligned and happier your life will be. Again, this might be one of the best reasons to start meditating.
The list of reasons to start meditating is long…
There are many more reasons to start meditating and very few reasons not to. Take the first step today toward a consistent meditation practice. Choose a reason and start meditating. Enjoy the process and if you feel like you aren’t seeing results from a single session, don’t let it dissuade you. Keep going. I promise you’ll see the results.