December 22, 2024

How Does Meditation Help Reduce Stress?

Eduardo Plaster December 7, 2022
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Do you wonder why most people stress about meditating daily? If not for an entire session, then at least for 5-10 mins every day?

The practice of meditation dates back thousands of years. The initial purpose of meditation was to aid in a more profound comprehension of life’s mystical and holy elements. Nowadays, meditation is often used to unwind and reduce tension.

Look at meditation as supplementary medicine for the mind and body. While meditating, you can focus your mind and eliminate the chaotic thoughts that may be causing you stress. Consequently, relaxing and calming yourself.

But that’s all about it on the surface level? How does meditation exactly help reduce stress? Let’s find out!

How Does Stress Affect Your Body?

Stress, or rather distress, to be precise, leaves a lasting impact on our body that manifests itself physically and mentally. Consequently, we end up paying a high price for it.

Overwhelming stress, the one that demands more than what you can give, affects your productivity levels, relationships, overall mood, and quality of life negatively.

On a biological level, long-term distress suppresses your immune system. It puts you at risk of heart attacks. Furthermore, it speeds up the aging process.

Mentally, it leaves you more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues. Stress also reduces your ability to think clearly. It affects how you feel emotionally, your irritability levels, and your ability to remember (memory).

How Does Meditation Impact Your Body?

Meditation reverses your body’s stress response. It reduces the increased heart rate and blood pressure. Furthermore, it ensures your body gets more oxygen. Meditation also reduces cortisol (a hormone released during stress) levels in the body. It promotes the release of Dopamine (a mood-regulating neurotransmitter) and Serotonin (a neurotransmitter with a calming effect).

Since it helps you calm down, meditation improves your attention and focus, impacting your decision-making and memory processes and promoting mindfulness. Stress may also stem from a certain sense of emotional turbulence within you. Meditation helps reduce emotional turbulence by allowing you to step back and take a more objective look at your inner workings rather than being sucked into the drama of your emotional reactions. This, in turn, reduces stress.

Types of Meditation You Can Try

There are several types of meditation practices in the world today. The following are some of the most popular ones –

  • Guided meditation
  • Zen Meditation
  • Moving Meditation
  • Mindfulness Meditation
  • Loving-Kindness Meditation and more.

Wrapping Up

Meditation is scientifically known to calm your body down. It allows you to remove all distractions, regulate your breathing, and relax your body. It may be one of the best ways to reduce stress. And does not need you to go all in and start big.

You can take small steps and start practicing meditation for 5-10 mins, gradually increasing the time as you become more comfortable with the practice. And the best part? Simple meditation does not require any prerequisites. You can do it any time, at any hour, or any place to calm yourself and experience zen. There are many resources online that are akin to getting your own mindfulness coach. So get started now!