6 Reasons To Meditate Every Morning
According to the National Institutes for Health there are many types of meditation but they all have 4 elements in common. To effectively meditate we require a quiet location, comfortable seated position, something to focus on and an open mind to the experience.
With these six elements you can easily begin a regular practice of meditation which can give you several important benefits. (https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/meditation-in-depth).
One of the best times to practice meditation is in the morning soon after you wake up. This will allow the benefits of meditation to influence your entire day. So as part of a pre-work regimen you might set aside 20-30 minutes for meditation.
- Helps You Relax
It may seem odd to need to relax after waking up in the morning considering you just slept for several hours. The truth is though that your brain was still very active as you slept and you likely woke up bombarded with thoughts of the day ahead. There can be anxieties about upcoming events that have you worried in the morning. This is where meditation can be useful because it helps you relax by clearing your mind and directing the thoughts elsewhere.
- Helps Us Concentrate
A chaotic mind can often find it difficult to focus on the most important things in life. We often miss what’s important because we have a flood of smaller annoyances taking up focus.
Meditation each morning can help us choose something we need to focus on and direct our strength toward that. When we clear out the noise, we find it much easier to concentrate.
When we start the day with meditation it fires up our ability to concentrate which can be greatly beneficial. We get to our workplace ready to focus on the job at hand which in turn makes us a better employee. The knock on effect of this could mean more success in the workplace leading to pay raises or promotions.
- Lowers Blood Pressure
The calm practice of meditation accompanied by the slow breathing has been shown to physically lower your blood pressure (BP) during a session. This is good, of course, if you happen to suffer from a higher than normal BP.
According to the Mayo Clinic blood pressure is lowest during sleep but begins to rise again a few hours before we wake up. This would mean that regular meditation in the morning will keep that level lower for longer. Additionally, the stress reducing aspect of meditation will help you maintain a lower BP. (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-pressure/expert-answers/blood-pressure/faq-20058115).
- Improves Social Connections
Health Journalist Linda Wasmer Andrews suggests that meditation can actually help you improve your social interactions. This may seem unusual considering the solitary nature of the practice but there is some logic to this belief.
When we direct positive wishes into the world for other people during our meditation, we build up our compassion. As a result, we feel more connected to other people and drawn to interact with others in positive ways. (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/minding-the-body/201007/6-other-reasons-meditate).
- Inspires Us
When we use mantras (chanted phrases) in our meditation we can help program our minds to work toward a goal. If we for example tell ourselves during meditation that we can succeed this will become part of our daily motivation. Speak it in meditation and we can be inspired to success.
- Can Help Manage Pain
According to Linda Wasmer Andrews there have been studies that show regular meditation practitioners can actually build up pain tolerance. Thickening in the cortex of the brain is thought to lower pain sensitivity. This could mean daily morning meditation may help deal with regular aches and pains.
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