Finding Peace in a Busy Society
Today it seems as though everyone in society is busy. Who isn’t running around trying to juggle careers, schools and home life? This can become a traumatic experience for some. Families today see both parents working and this places added pressure on the entire family. Everyone is always rushed. You go to work to run home and prepare dinner. Then there is homework to be done, laundry that needs doing and there seems like there is never any time for you! The pressure from your peers and friends to fit in and succeed are enormous.
There is no doubt that stress is a huge issue for thousands of people today. In fact, stress is often referred to as the silent killer. It can creep up on you and take hold of your life in devastating ways. Stress often builds up because you just have too much to do or to think about. Your mind is full of things that you want to accomplish and you just feel overwhelmed with it all. So how do you deal with all of this while still keeping your sanity?
If you are dealing with stress in any way, it could be to your benefit to start incorporating some form of meditation into your daily routine. Lately there has been a ton of research conducted on the benefits of meditating on a regular basis. Meditation is nothing new, by any means, it is an art form that has been practised for centuries. So why is it now being looked at as a healing process? Read on..
One of the main benefits of meditation is that it can help calm your feelings. Meditating will help you diminish racing thoughts by calming and soothing your mind. You will find it much easier to prioritize all your daily tasks and chores and you will be able to focus on what is important.
While you may only spend 20 or 30 minutes actively meditating, the benefits of this session will stay with you all day long. With a daily meditation practice, you will learn the skills that you need to manage your stress level effectively. For instance, learning how to let go of the past and not dwell on it can be a benefit of meditation.
When it comes to dealing with stress you want to look at Mindfulness Meditation. This method helps you accept and deal with living in the present. These circumstances are often the root cause of your stress, so this should prove to be an effect way to manage your stress.
Meditation can help both your physical health and your mental well being. As well as stress, meditation seems to be showing positive results when it comes to other health issues. People who are dealing with health problems such as anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep issues and substance abuse have seen great results after meditating.
A major goal of meditating is to discover your inner peace. Most everyone has this desire, it just may not be apparent in some people as it is in others. There are different ways to find your inner peace such as using a physical form of meditation as in yoga or Tai Chi. Repeating a calming phrase is yet another method. It is important to choose a way to meditate that will work for you. You may find that you need to experiment with various methods, before finding the one that works the best for you.
Meditating in Today’s World
The face of meditation has changed to a certain extent today. This has been made possible by the acceptance of meditating in different places and in various ways. The whole purpose of meditating is to allow your mind and body to connect and to discover that inner peace.
The following ways are simple things that you can do to enjoy the benefits of meditation.
- Enjoy sitting back and relaxing while soaking your feet in a tub of warm water with added bath salts. This can help you remove all the stresses from your long, hard day.
- Use an icepack, wrapped in a washcloth, on the right side of your body while sitting and meditating. This is supposed to help cool your liver. It is thought that people with an overactive liver have more mind chatter than others.
- Use some type of external aid to assist you with meditating. This could be a phone app to remind you when to meditate. Or you may prefer to use music or listen to motivational tapes.
- Meditate while walking or jogging. You can listen to motivational tapes or just repeat your favorite quote whilst outside walking. You may wish to focus on just one thing during your walks, such as what a person or thing means to you.
- While yoga and Tai Chi have been around for a long time, these are activities have seen an increase in popularity in recent years. Both are excellent ways for helping you meditate and deal with the stresses of daily life.
- Listening to music is another great tool you can incorporate into your life. Binaural beats are extremely popular and effective when it comes to meditating.
Your doctor or health care provider may also have ideas for how you can incorporate meditation into your life. In fact, doctors are recommending meditation to their patients frequently these days. It is extremely cost effective as all it requires is your time to learn the different ways of meditating.
It is important to choose a meditation method that suits your body and your frame of mind. If you are dealing with a health issue you may not have the ability to sit with your legs crossed for longer periods. It may be easier and more soothing to sit in a chair and soak your feet. When you feel at ease you will find it much easier to meditate and reap the full benefits successfully.
Just look at some of the tools that you use in your life. You probably carry around a Smartphone or an iPad or laptop. This just increases your activity levels. Even on the bus or in the car you are busy doing something. Years ago a bus ride could have been viewed as a restful experience. When was the last time you turned off all of your devices for 24 hours or even less? Quite some time ago I expect!
Meditation gives you that time in your day when you can slow down and relax. Just sitting in a comfortable chair and closing your eyes for 20 minutes can be a huge help. Your body and your mind finally have the time to take a break. You can stop thinking at a million miles per hour, instead you have the time to focus on just one thing – or nothing at all.
Research has shown that using some type of meditation method has helped reduced crime and violence in society. It has also shown increases in understanding, positivity and in people experiencing that peaceful, glad to be alive feeling.
You can really see just how busy we are as a society. This is why taking up the art of meditation is an excellent choice for many people. Meditating forces you to take time out, sit down and clear your mind. After a few sessions of meditating you will notice that your concentration levels have increased as well as your productivity levels. Overall you will start to enjoy living life to the fullest again.
Can Meditation Help Kids in School?
There is no doubt that kids are more pressured today than ever before. The result of this is an alarming increase in the number of children dealing with stress in the classroom. This is a widespread problem and stems from many different sources. Classroom stress can be attributed to children having low grades and feeling pressured because they are not good enough. It can also be caused by feelings of anxiety and depression.
Then there is the issue of bullying and violence in schools. Even teachers are reporting that they are suffering from burnout.
Learning today is done on computers and this can lead to information overload in some children. While this can be a great method for teaching, some children are using their computers for more than that, and not in a productive way. All of these technological advances are great for students and teachers. One downside is that using computers and other mobile devices, doesn’t allow your brain any down time. Even during recess and lunch breaks, children are busy on their phones sending text messages and chatting. When do they have time to spend a few minutes sitting quietly?
Stress amongst school aged children is so rampant that many schools are now introducing ‘quiet times or periods’ into the school day. Some schools do this by scheduling quiet times before school starts and before it ends for the day. This has been put into place not just for the students but for teachers alike. It gives everyone the chance to sit quietly for a few minutes to either read a book or to just rest and relax.
In the United States a committee was established, in 2005, for Stress Free Schools. This was done in conjunction with the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness Based Education and for World Peace. This program reflects the benefits of using quiet time and meditation in schools today. By teaching children at a young age how to handle their stress, it is hoped, that by adulthood they will have a good grip on dealing with this potential killer.
As well as including some form of meditation into the lives of your children, you also want to give them more time to play and just be kids. It seems as though kids are being pressured into growing up and becoming mature at a much faster rate. This may not be done intentionally. Busy parents are just reflecting their lifestyle and habits onto their children often without even knowing it.
Benefits of Meditation
As you are aware there are several ways you can meditate. While each method may have different benefits, we will take a look at the overall benefits of meditation in general.
How Meditation Affects Your Brain
It is so easy to stress out your brain these days. You are busy at work, you have a family to take care of and provide for. This can lead to you not eating correctly, not exercising enough and we haven’t even touched on social impacts such as drinking and smoking. It is easy to see that your brain is extremely taxed out. As you become stressed out you start to make impulsive decisions. You are always in a rushed state, so you don’t take the time to think things through. This can lead to making bad judgements that could affect everyone around you.
Using meditation methods such as the Mindfulness or Transcendental ones you can minimize and even reverse these effects on your brain. By giving your brain permission to stop and relax, you are allowing it to enter a period of restfulness while still staying alert. What this achieves is that it helps to strengthen the communication process in your brain. Without getting too technical, this is where your brain’s prefrontal cortex and different areas that control brain functions are located. The result of this restful period is that your ability to make strong, well thought out decisions is restored. Outwardly you project a more stable and confident appearance to your colleagues.
The overall benefits you will reap from meditating include:
- Feeling as though you have a purpose in life
- Your behavior becomes less impulsive
- Your decision making skills are enhanced
- Your memory works much better than it used to
- You stop abusing things such as cigarettes, drugs and alcohol
- Your energy levels are increased
- You become much healthier overall
- Your immune systems works better
- Your self confidence levels are increased
- You feeling of well being is improved
- Your relationships are better
- You just feel happy and optimistic about your life
So if you are not totally happy or satisfied with your life then you may want to incorporate meditation into it. The nice thing about meditating is that it doesn’t take very long at all. A twenty minute session, once or twice a day, can do wonders for your health.
