Give Your Brain A Good Workout. Meditate!

What do you prioritize in your daily routine? You brush your teeth, you wash your face, you shower, you eat healthy food, you workout. If you feel sick you take extra vitamins, drink juice, maybe even take a trip to the doctor. You stay on top of your routine doctor visits to keep your physical body healthy. It’s a shame that in our society, it’s not as normal to ask “when was your last therapy session?” or “how is your mental health today?” because that is not where we focus our attention when it comes to health. There’s even an underlying sense of shame where we feel we must hide mental health issues, yet we don’t become shy about telling someone about the filling we just got at the dentist.

Mental health is important for every single person, not just those with diagnosed mental disorders. We all deal with some sort of stress, it’s what makes us human. How you deal with it is up to your brain chemistry, and how you decide to deal with it. There are more and more scientific studies proving the benefits of meditation. Yes, meditation is trending, and the Dalai Lama is super pumped about it.

Here’s a short description of meditation’s effect on the brain and body:

Stress stimulates the amygdala to send your body into fight or flight mode, where stress hormones like cortisol are released into your body, and your blood pressure spikes. The benefit of this mechanism is that you are able to make fast decisions in high stress situations, but in turn it shuts down the digestive, immune, growth, and reproductive systems. This was great for cavemen, because it enabled humans to survive in high stress situations. The difference now is that we don’t typically have that type of intense stress, but more chronic stress. We worry about the bills we have to pay, getting to work on time, and traffic, where as cavemen were more concerned with finding food, killing mammoths, and making fire. Constant stress can lead to a more reactive amygdala, increasing cortisol levels in your body, causing inflammation, anxiety, and all sorts of physical and mental health issues. Meditation brings your brain back into rest and relaxation mode. Ahhhh it’s like hitting the reset button, allowing those thoughts and stressors to slip away from the forefront of your thoughts for a moment. Meditation will allow you to pause, and re-approach your stressors with a clear mind and a body that is ready to deal with them in a healthier way.

What to expect when starting a meditation practice?

The Webster’s Dictionary definition of meditate is ‘to focus one’s thoughts on’ or ‘to engage in mental exercise (as concentration on one’s breathing or repetition of a mantra) for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness.’

A meditation practice is just that….a practice. You must realize that meditation is like yoga and bench pressing for your brain. It takes practice to build the ‘muscles’ in your brain to keep you in a deep meditative state. But, you have to start somewhere. When you close your eyes, the first thing you’ll notice is what many people call monkey brain. Your thoughts are everywhere! Daydreaming, making lists, worrying about who’s around you, and way more. And that’s ok! Allow these thoughts to drift through your mind, like clouds in a sky, and then try to focus your attention on the gaps between each thought. Eventually you’ll be able to extend these gaps and find a peaceful state- like a clear blue sky. 

Now Go…. Relax…. Meditate!

by Courtney Avery, MPH, eRYTT