
Woman practicing mindfulness meditation on the beach by the water
Mindfulness meditation is a mental practice that involves focusing on your experiences in the present moment instead of dwelling in the past or stressing about the future. To put it simply, it is the act of paying attention to what you are experiencing as you are experiencing it.
There are many benefits to this mental exercise.
Here are some interesting ones you may have not known about:
- Get better sleep – anyone who suffers from poor night’s sleep on a regular basis will benefit greatly from this type of meditation. Research with adults diagnosed with sleep disturbances discovered that mindfulness meditation had significant effects on increasing quality of sleep and remediating sleep problems. This in turn, carries over to improvement of overall quality of life.
- Progress towards weight loss goals – Many people are stress-eaters and a clinical study involving overweight women who stress-eat found that mindfulness intervention stabilized weight fluctuations among those who are obese encouraging them to progress towards their weight loss goals.
- Lower your stress levels – every single person at least once in their life has experienced stress. Many of us live with daily stress and the feeling of being overwhelmed. Learning to control or minimize the effects of stress on the body and mind is vital to our overall health. Studies show that focusing on the present through the practice of mindfulness can potentially reduce levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.
- Say goodbye to temporary negative feelings – sitting all day at a desk or computer is not good for our overall health and well-being, and yet, in our fast-paced society this is what most of us do. A study assessing college students’ daily walking movement, found that incorporating a mindful walk into our day removes these temporary negative feelings we experience and improves our focus on the important things.
- Chronic pain management – so many people suffer from chronic pain, some after accidents which leave them with a long-term debilitating condition, some from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and some can be diagnosed with cancer and lose hope. Managing chronic pain through mindfulness has proven successful and is a very hot research topic right now. With mindfulness there have been significant results in improving pain levels, anxiety and motivation to participate in day-to-day activities.