Benefits Of Meditation For Stress Management

Meditation for Stress Management and Vitality

Both exercise and meditation have health benefits. Some take a structured exercise approach to wellness, while others grasp a more subtle meditative method. Many combine the two for strength, endurance, relaxation, and weight management. This article discusses the wellness benefits and an approach to beginning a meditation practice.

Both exercise and meditation promote wellness through physical health and vitality. Vitality is defined by the Encarta World English Dictionary as "abundant physical and mental energy, usually combined with a wholehearted and joyous approach to situations and activities." Meditation has physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual benefits. It's an opportunity to enrich the soul. Day-to-day you're confronted with a flood of potential stressful experiences. Some stress is good but overall it's how you handle change and responsibility that determines how stress impacts your life.

The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook by Martha Davis, Ph.D., Elizabeth Robbins

Your physiological stressors: menopause in women, lack of exercise, poor nutrition, inadequate sleep, illness, injuries, illness, muscle tension, headaches, and anxiety

4. Your thoughts: your brain turning on the "emergency response" when it interprets changes in your environment

Meditation is the practice of focusing your attention on one thing at a time. The true benefit is achieving this single focus. Naturally your mind doesn't want to stay concentrated on one thing as numerous thoughts appear. The art of meditation is quieting the mind and it takes time.

Meditation decreases your respiratory rate. As you calm your mind and concentrate on deep abdominal breathes, you lower your heart rate. This is excellent for people with high blood pressure. It also relaxes the other muscles in the body leading to a reduction in muscle tension and pain. Through guided and free-form meditation, the body and mind both become fluid and