At Dynamic Health, we recognize that a lot goes into keeping a person healthy. That’s why we advocate natural healing. Many different components may contribute to a person’s overall health of mind and body, starting with an individual’s everyday environment.
Since we know that environment plays a role on individual health, we also know that stress and pressure can lead to problems as minor as aches and pains and as severe as disease. What if your environment was just a little more peaceful, even for just a few minutes a day?
Read on to learn about meditation and how it fosters a healthier mindset and body.
Meditation As Medicine: How Health and Peace Are Related
Meditation means taking control of one’s consciousness and eliminating all thoughts in order to allow the mind to relax. For those who believe in the advantages of meditation, it is often a daily practice occurring in the morning or at night.
Regular meditation can benefit the body as well as the mind. By reducing stress and promoting relaxation, you can give your body a chance to heal and take a break from the constant demand you put on it every day.
Meditation can have a positive impact on your body in the following ways:
Reduce Blood Pressure
The most obvious and well-known benefit of practicing meditation is reduced stress. Less stress in your day-to-day life can mean great things for your body. High stress is known to cause high blood pressure and constriction of the blood cells. Reducing stress through meditation can have the opposite effect, allowing for more blood flow and reduced blood pressure.
Improve Heart Health
The American Heart Association found that meditating for just a few minutes a day could reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease. Much like it’s impact on blood pressure, meditation reduces stress and adrenaline that cause your heart rate to rise. Over time, this excited state can negatively impact your health, particularly your the health of your heart.
Meditating for 20 to 30 minutes a day can help to reverse the damages your body and heart sustain from everyday stress and anxiety.
Ease Pain
Chronic pain can come from a variety of causes, but some of those may be relieved or reduced through meditation. Meditation may reduce pain, according to a study from the Journal of Neuroscience. In a study published in November 2015, the journal indicated a link between mindfulness meditation and a reduced severity of pain in participants. This study suggests it might be possible to develop a method of cognitive pain management.
Enhance Immunity
Particularly in the elderly, regular meditation and mindfulness techniques may boost an individual’s immune system. By reducing inflammation (and chronic inflammation), meditation may have the ability to reduce inflammatory gene expression, improving immunity and working against many diseases and psychological disorders.
Decrease Muscle Tension
Because stress is the main cause of muscle tension, it follows that meditation can help ease this condition. When practicing meditation, one intentionally draws attention to different areas of the body, calming and eliminating stress from other areas. Calming the mind and body helps your muscles relax, improving circulation throughout your body and easing muscle aches and cramps.
With all of these potential benefits from meditating just a few minutes a day, it may be a worthwhile practice for those who want to reduce stress and fatigue in their lives. If you want to learn more about the correlation between meditation and health, feel free to reach out to Dynamic Health online.