Meditation


          Meditation is a practice that was first used thousands of years ago and is still used by countless people today. Some ponder the usefulness of meditation, others meditate inconsistently, and many swear by its benefits and practice on the regular. It is very common to hear that meditating can foster many benefits for individuals' mental health. With the increase of mental health awareness, many people have began re-exploring meditation to see for themselves what it can do for them.

          RamDass's website states, "The benefits of meditation for anxiety and stress include reducing physical discomfort, putting things into perspective to make better decisions and coping with difficult situations" (RamDass, 2019). RamDass further enlightens their readers regarding meditation by revealing that mediation can calm your relationship with the chaos in your life, help you to manage anger, allow you to let thoughts go by more easily, and more (RamDass, 2019).
   
          Each of these benefits listed by this website relate to anxiety in some way and allow the practicer to relieve tension with their anxiety from one particular angle. Allowing thoughts to go by more easily appears to be something that each anxiety sufferer could work on. From this perspective alone, working on this through meditation allows the anxiety suffer to realize that anxiety is accompanied by a surplus of constant thoughts. Although we might be inclined to stop these thoughts completely, we might find ourselves frustrated with the impossible nature of seizing to think. Learning to allow our thoughts to pass by more effortlessly through meditation is just one example of how meditation can allow an anxiety sufferer to feel less overwhelmed by the nature of his or her anxious thoughts.

          So what do you think? Is meditation something you would like to give a try, or otherwise, practice more often? Whether an anxious person or not, taking a few minutes each day to just breathe can enhance your mental health. If you are a beginner like myself, I suggest using a guided meditation and meditating for just a few moments each day. This will allow you to stay focused on a single person's voice as they help you to focus on sensations such as your breathing, the sounds you hear around you, or the sensations in your body.

          Take a few moments right now and breathe slowly in and out ten times, counting each of your breathes. Try and focus solely on your breathing. How many breathes did you last before your mind wandered? How often did your mind wander? Doing this exercise daily allows the anxiety sufferer to learn how to subconsciously limit their focus on the regular. The anxiety sufferer can tame their thoughts and, in turn, tame the symptoms that accompany their anxiety allowing them to live more freely.

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