Isn’t our mind the very essence of our being—what makes us feel alive? What are we without our mind? Flesh and blood? You’d probably agree. Our perception, experiences, feelings, and the ability to think and act are all processed by our mind. Doesn’t that require us to keep our mind healthy at all costs?
A healthy mind is one that is not scattered all over the place. It is not grieving the past nor is it anxious about what might befall in the future. It is focused and productive and at the peak of its creativity. It can be all this only when it is free of stress. Stress is responsible for making a mind dull and for triggering emotional and physical problems. Have you noticed how easily someone can get you to shout and howl when you are already stressed?
On the contrary, a healthy mind keeps you calm and composed even at troubled times. You are able to enjoy what you are doing now, be it reading this article, getting a report done on time, or walking your dog. It strengthens your relationships with people. In fact, your mind is so powerful that it can also affect your physical and emotional health. You are more likely to fall ill when you are stressed because your immune system weakens.
If you can manage your mind, you can manage everything else—relationships, career, health, you name it. And meditation can help you do it from where you are sitting right now. Yes, combat stress with meditation: an age-old technique that can make you feel new every moment. Meditation is one of the most effective ways to keep your mind healthy. Just as we maintain dental hygiene by brushing regularly, meditation can be our tool to maintain mental hygiene. Let’s see how in the sections that follow.
1. Meditation For a Stress-free Mind
Do you feel that your lifestyle is a cause of stress and anxiety? Does your mind feel heavy and burdened all the time, as if it is caught in a web of thoughts? Do you want to break free from everything that is holding you back? If yes, then meditation is the right thing for you. It will relax your mind instantly no matter where you are. It will de-stress you, refresh you, and fill you with enthusiasm that you can tap anytime. It helps in the regeneration of the brain cells that get affected due to stress. Just a few minutes of meditation every day can be the energy booster that can help you stand up to life’s challenges with greater ease and confidence.
2. Meditation For An Uncluttered Mind
Do you remember how, when you were a kid, your teacher would erase the blackboard before she’d write on it again? Our mind is quite like that blackboard. To fill it with new and innovative thoughts, we need to erase unwanted ones from it first. It is here that meditation plays a pivotal role in clearing our mind of past impressions. Meditation keeps our mind fresh and focused in the now. Without a doubt, this will help us excel in whatever we are doing since the present moment is the field of all activities.
3. Meditation For A Sharper Mind
Do you want a mind that can store more than what you can even imagine, so that you don’t have to go back to your reminder apps and emails? If yes, meditation is the answer. Meditation channelizes your thoughts in a positive direction and gives you clarity of mind. When your mental power is channelized, focused, and clear, you are able to gauge and retain for much longer what we perceive with our senses. And even before you realize it, you will start retaining and recollecting many things you couldn’t easily remember before.
4. Meditation For A Younger Mind
Just as we need food for energy, we need meditation to help us make the most of the energy that we get from food. In meditation, we are able to reenergize ourselves, again and again, whenever we want. Meditation saves us from the decline of cognitive abilities. As time progresses, all of us might experience some degree of decline in brain cells, which affects us both physically and mentally. These changes are forgetfulness, lack of focus, and decrease in problem solving ability, to name a few. If age is coupled with high levels of stress, cognitive decline might even lead to depression, dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and so on.
Meditation is one of the best techniques to counteract this decline. It helps in regeneration of the brain cells that are aging with every minute of our lives. It cleanses negative vibrations and fills us with the joy and enthusiasm of a kid. Then age truly just remains a number. Read about tips to slow down your aging clock
5. Meditation For A Sharper Intuition
People who meditate tend to have a greater and better intuitive sense. Whispered thoughts manifest in our minds and there are even subtler thoughts that we can only feel. These subtler thoughts originate from a space that is pure and unaffected by experiences and impressions. These subtle thoughts are what we call intuition. Meditation removes unwanted thoughts and the stress that is covering our intuitive senses so that we are able to listen to our intuition and take sound decisions in life.
Monica Kanwar, a journalist at The Tribune says, “I never leave my home without meditating for twenty minutes every day. It’s because of meditation that I can cope up with the stress of everyday deadlines. It has increased my productivity manifold”.
