Mental health includes emotional, psychological, and social well-being, yet 1 in 6 people have reported experiencing a common mental problem, including anxiety and depression. Mental health is as important as physical health, as it affects every area of our lives. This is why it is important to take care of your mental health as well as you would take care of your physical health and one underrated way of doing so would be through meditation.
Importance of mental health
It is important to care about our mental well-being as it affects our way of thinking, the way we feel as well as the way we act. Sometimes, a person who struggles with mental health will ask for help in the most unloving way as they might not be in the right state of mind to express themself in the right way.
There are a lot of benefits of a keeping healthy mindset such as:
It plays a big role when we make difficult choices as when our mental health is in the right state, we feel and are more conscious about where we are at and what we want.
It comes in handy when we deal with a stressful situation, as we are able to handle the situation without being impulsive.
Having solid foundation when it comes to mental health promotes healthy relationships.
Power of meditation
Meditation is as an ancient practice that is believed to have originated in India more than a thousand years ago. The idea behind meditation is that it involves clearing your mind using a combination of mental and physical techniques. It is believed that meditation can benefit both your emotional well-being and your overall health.
Studies conducted show that meditation has psychological effects on the brain which can help you manage your stress, anxiety and depression. On top of that, meditation can make you happier as it enhances the flow of positive emotions. This shows that taking out time out of your day to meditate can impact the way you feel, and improve your mental state. It is just a good opportunity to take out some time in day to ourselves to connect with our mind and body, and the most important thing about this is that you don't need to be a religious person to practice meditation which proofs that anyone can do it.
How to meditate
There are different types of meditation as well as elements which sometimes can be off-putting however, you can start simply by following these steps:
Find a comfortable position, somewhere quiet and calm.
Set a time limit, if you are a beginner you can do 5-10 minutes.
Close your eyes or lower your gaze, and focus on mindfulness breathing.
Notice what is going on inside you and if your mind wanders off, bring your attention back to your breath.
To make progress it is recommended to practice regularly even when aiming for a few minutes as it can make an impact. There are many meditation practices on YouTube available for you depending on the area of development which might be more suitable for you but this is something you all can start with.
Extra sources
Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty is a great book to widen up the knowledge of meditation as well as it includes some interesting stories of how he applied some of the routines of monks into his life to train his mind and become happy.
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