We take care of nearly all parts of our body daily. When we get up in the morning, we brush our teeth, prepare breakfast for our stomach, wash our faces, take bath to keep our bodies clean and apply lotion, makeups and so on. Yet there is one important part of us we usually neglect. We rarely think that our minds need to be healthy too. The solution for that is meditation.

I have been taking time over my tight schedule to meditate for about a year now, and I can tell you with all assurance that it has positively changed my life. It has helped me to better understand my inner self and know how to observe and manage things that happen with my outer self.

Many people have started discovering the benefits of meditation. Meditation is not something you do just for a day. It is a habitual process that helps you train your mind to focus as well as helps redirect your thoughts. Doing it regularly will help you to know well about yourself and your surroundings.

For most people, meditation is used in order to reduce stress while developing a certain level of concentration. It helps you develop habits and feelings that will be beneficial to you like self-discipline, positive outlook and mood, healthy sleep and so on.

I have learned a lot about myself during this period and will share with you some of the benefits that have changed my life as I took this journey of keeping my mind healthy. Below are 6 benefits of meditation that you can achieve if you embark on it.

1. Helps Reduce Stress

I am starting with this because it is what I first realised when I went into regular meditation. Most people, like me, started meditation for stress reduction. Meditation helps to reduce stress from our bodies. We all know that most of the unpleasant and bad decisions we take are usually caused by stress. Liberating ourselves from the shackles of stress by practicing daily meditation can change our lives a lot.

Physical and mental stress can lead to increase levels of stress hormone cortisol that causes most of the harmful effects of stress. The negative effects of this include fatigue, cloudy thinking, sleep disruption, depression, anxiety and blood pressure increase.

Studies have shown that meditation can help reduce stress especially in people who have a stress-triggered medical condition.

2. Meditation Can Help You Learn A New Skill

Meditation helped me to be able to express myself like I am doing in sharing my thoughts, ideas and things that can be beneficial to our health. The idea of blogging came up when I was meditating. I could not write for public consumption but today, thanks to meditation, I have the confidence to do what I am doing now – writing.

You don’t meditate only to keep the mind healthy. It is a skill and just like any skill, you have to concentrate and practice frequently. It will help you build more skills like me.

3. The Good About You Shines

Stress brings out the bad habits and unpleasant characteristics in you. Once you take on daily meditation, you allow your best qualities to come out. Your inactive potentials start to shine once stress is released.

Meditating can help you do many positive and healthy things in your life. A friend of mine told me he quit smoking when he started meditating daily and also stopped taking his blood-pressure medications. Others said that meditation has helped them fight depression and take on good eating habits, and quit habitual drinking of alcohol.

4. Helps You Make Better Decisions in Life

Meditation helps you become more aware of your thoughts, emotions and actions. If you can control these three, then you can make better decisions in life. Rather than acting irrationally during adverse situations, you can become more conscious and have a better comprehension of what is taking place in your mind. This helps you to always think before you take any action or decisions.

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5. Meditation is Free, Can be Done Anytime and Anywhere

You don’t pay to meditate and you can do it anywhere and anytime. The only thing you need to do is get a place that is comfortable and quiet. It might be at home, in the office, on the beach or in the garden. In fact, anywhere that you can get inner peace and quietness. Churches are a good place for meditation because they are usually quiet and empty.

6. It Works Well

My writing about this is not to force you into meditating but to inform you that it works especially when you take it as a habit. As you meditate, with time, your thoughts start to be conditioned especially when it comes to taking decisions.

Meditation has physical benefits like in decreasing blood pressure and reducing anxiety levels. Those who improve their eating habits, excess alcohol, smokers who quit smoking because of meditation will become healthier.

Meditation also has mental benefits. It will help you to broaden your consciousness. This will give you the capability of understanding your thoughts and feelings more. As you meditate continually, you will realise you can control your emotions. This means you will more often than not choose to live a happy life.

This is not an exhaustive list, but the most prominent that I have felt. You can add more benefits of meditation that you have had to this list by sharing with us in the comment section.

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