How Meditation Can Help You in Your Daily Lives
What is Meditation?
Meditation is a technique that encourages a heightened state of awareness and focused attention. Many religions and cultures all around the world practice mediation in their daily lives such as hinduism and buddhism. Mediation is considered a process by which we can train our mind to focus and to reflect better on our thoughts. Outside of religion, many people use mediation for either spiritual reasons or for their mental well-being.
How Does Meditation Help Us?
Meditation is best known for reducing stress and anxiety, while also promoting emotional health and self-awareness. It is also said to help in physical health by improving sleep and help control pain for those who suffer with chronic pain. A study done on university students in Germany wanted to see how a meditation intervention may improve the well-being of university students (Totzeck et al., 2020). In the study, the students were split into two groups, one who would undergo the intervention, and the other who wouldn’t. They were then set to complete a Positive Mental Health Scale (PMH), along with a 1 year follow-up as well. The results showed that those who underwent the intervention ended up having decreased feelings of depression, anxiety and stress. This study is one example showing how mediation has been linked to better mental well-being.
A study done on university students in China was interested in how a mindfulness-based group intervention would help students suffering from a sleep disorder (Fu et al., 2022). Similar to the previous study mentioned, the students were split into two groups, one who took part in the intervention, and the other who did not. The mindfulness intervention took place weekly for two hours, with a total of 8 sessions altogether. Participants were then set to complete a self-reported questionnaire, post-intervention tests, and one month follow ups as well. The results showed that sleep quality in students who underwent the intervention had significantly improved, compared to the students who did not have the intervention. The study further proves that mediation is beneficial and can be used to help deal with ongoing problems we may face.
Some Tips to Get Started on Meditation
If you want to start meditating, there are many things you can do to help get started. Some important tips are to make sure you start slow and try to set a schedule for when you plan on meditating during the day. Try to find a nice quiet spot to meditate, make sure it's a place where you won’t get distracted, so it might be better to keep technology away at the time. It's also important that you feel comfortable, only then can you really be able to focus on what you’re feeling. You should also focus on your breathing, as that will slow down your heart rate and help you enter a calm state of mind. Meditation is a process, and it's okay if at first you struggle with it. As you practice more, you will get better at it!
Sources:
Fu, L., Wei, S., Cheng, J., Wang, X., Zhou, Y., Li, Y., & Zheng, H. (2022). Effectiveness of a Mindfulness-Based Group Intervention for Chinese University Students with Sleep Problems. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19020755
Totzeck, C., Teismann, T., Hofmann, S. G., von Brachel, R., Pflug, V., Wannemüller, A., & Margraf, J. (2020). Loving-Kindness Meditation Promotes Mental Health in University Students. Mindfulness, 11(7), 1623–1631. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-020-01375-w
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