Benefits of meditation for a healthy heart and body

During these uncertain times, it is important to focus on ways to help manage fear and anxiety while coping with our ever-changing world as we know it.

Meditation practices can be a great way to help find balance as we learn more about COVID-19 and how it will affect our lives moving forward. Although we can’t rid ourselves of daily stressors, meditation may provide the mental shift needed to equip you for life’s oncoming obstacles.

Given all the buzz surrounding meditation, you might be tempted to dismiss it as trendy. But this centuries-old practice of calming the mind and easing day-to-day stress is backed by loads of scientific evidence.

 

How Meditation Can Help with Stress

Numerous studies have shown that mindfulness training boosts happiness and quality of life, increases working memory and resistance to distraction, and improves emotional regulation, according to Penn's Program for Mindfulness.

Learn how meditation may help our bodies and brains recover from the effects of stress.

 

Meditating to Maintain Mental Health

Problem:

The amygdala and the default mode network are two areas of the brain that frequently have a specific function in our mental health (DMN). The part of the brain known as the amygdala is responsible for controlling attention, memory, and emotions including fear, rage, and sadness. Even while "feelings" aren't always terrible, things might go wrong with them.

Your brain's other area, the default mode network, is responsible for daydreaming and other distracting, wandering thoughts of mental indolence.

Daydreaming may seem carefree and pleasant, but if left unchecked, it can lead to less carefree and fun conditions including melancholy, anxiety, and sleeplessness.

 

Solution:

Developing a regular meditation practice helps reduce activity in these two brain areas, relaxing our brains, thoughts, and emotions as a result. You could have better sleep, fewer worries, and a happier attitude on life.

 

Meditation for heart health

Problem:

Cortisol, adrenaline, and norepinephrine—commonly referred to as "stress hormones"—are released when you're experiencing a tough day at work or are feeling overburdened at home. Our "fight-or-flight" reaction, also known as the release of these hormones, causes our heart rates and blood pressure to rise quickly and prepares our bodies for perceived threats. Kidney damage, heart disease, heart attacks, and stroke are some of the main causes of mortality in America and can be brought on by this cardiovascular stress.

 

Solution:

Our bodies' "rest-and-digest" mechanisms are triggered by meditation for heart health, counteracting our "flight-or-fight" reactions. The technique can help you lower your blood pressure and heart rate, which could reduce your chance of developing heart disease.

 

Meditation for Physical Health

Problem:

It turns out that we can genuinely worry ourselves to death. All bodily processes that it deems "unimportant" are abandoned when we're anxious, upset, or overburdened in order to focus energy elsewhere. Unfortunately, your body seems to believe that many essential processes, including our immunological, digestive, reproductive, and development systems, are disposable.

 

Solution:

These harmful messages can be stopped through meditation. By engaging in frequent practice, we may calm our nerves and support our systems' normal functioning as opposed to operating in a reflexive, stress-induced shutdown state.

 

A word from the doctor

Finding a technique of meditation for heart health that works for you is more important than their being a right or incorrect method to do it. Try to set out some time every day to create a pattern and become accustomed to meditation. A small amount of time every day can have a significant influence.

 

Be aware that it could take some time to get into a habit and start experiencing the advantages of meditation, but you'll soon be on your way to leading a better, more peaceful life.

 

If you have any concerns regarding meditation for heart health and your well-being, make an appointment with Dr. Sanul Corrielus right away!