I thought it was weird, until I tried it for myself. When I was in high school, I had an History teacher who started each class with a few minutes of meditation. At the time, my classmates and I loved it because we merely thought of it as a way to eat into class time, but the more we did it, the more I realized the way it made me feel – more centered, focused, and calm. I never wanted to take the time to pursue it by myself, though, because I didn’t know how to, really. I felt silly sitting in silence by myself.
Getting to college, however, I always felt these moments where I was overwhelmed with all the aspects of a busy college lifestyle. Studies, clubs, maintain a healthy social life, contributing to my sorority. I had a million things to do, and I felt as if couldn’t do any of them properly and to my fullest potential. I also developed serious anxiety when coming to college and meditation was always suggested to me by my therapist, but I still felt so awkward meditating by myself, I frankly felt like meditation was for “hippie like people”. When a cool blogger I follow on Instagram posted about this app she used on her phone, I decided to
download it and just try.
(It’s called Headspace, get it!)
The first time I tried to meditate by myself, I could only do it for two minutes. It sounds ridiculous, but you don’t realize how much useless stuff you worry about until you challenge yourself to sit still. I thought meditation was weird, until I really tried it. Now, I’m grateful for the minutes I can be alone. I try to start my day off by meditating before I even get out of bed. Some days I do forget to do it because I am in a rush, but I can promise you, I feel better the
days I do.
Here are 25 benefits I’ve found from mediating daily. Try it, see if it helps you!
- Constant calm mind
- Good concentration
- Better clarity
- Increased communication
- Lowers blood pressure
- Improves immune system
- Increases serotonin production, which positively impacts mood and behavior
- Increases energy level
- Decreases anxiety
- Emotional stability improves
- Intuition develops
- Greater confidence
- More mental strength
- Increases optimism
- Increases memory retention
- Better information processing
- Better cognitive function and creative thinking
- Lessens inflammatory disorders
- Improves breathing and heart rates
- Helps reduce alcohol and substance abuse
- Improves decision making
- Makes you stronger against pain
- Improves self-awareness
- Helps us allocate brain-function resources.
Article written by GUADS guest writer, Caroline