Throughout this week we are going to be exploring the practice of meditation and how it can be a valuable way to foster mental resilience. We’ll be talking about what meditation actually is and how you can begin to practice it. We will also share with you a few types of meditation that you can use.

But to start with, why even bother with meditation?

Most of the world’s major religions incorporate meditation into their practice and today it has been taken on as a popular secular practice. Last week we shared about a conversation between Joe Wicks and Dr Rangan Chatterjeee in which Joe shares that after trying meditation and dismissing it as not for him, a subsequent conversation with Russell Brand helped him to find a style of meditation that he has now embraced and finds real value in. There must be something in the idea of meditation if so many people are taking it on as a life practice?

Various studies have been undertaken into the value of meditation and some of the benefits it has been found to have on our mental and physical health are:

Increased sense of calm
Reduced irritability
Greater mental resilience
A tendency towards more positive thoughts and emotions
Increased compassion
Improves concentration
Greater life satisfaction
Lowers blood pressure
A reduction in the psychological symptoms of depression and anxiety

In a culture where hurry and the constant sense of go, go, go are commonplace, this list seems to tick a lot of the boxes of what I want to experience in my life.

Whether you love meditation, have given it a go before and weren’t sure or you think it just isn’t for you, we’d love you to be part of the conversation this week. Perhaps try out something new as we share different meditation practices. Or commit to trialling meditation for the next month and see how you find it.

And if you’ve got any questions, leave them in the comments and we’ll try to answer them as we go through the week.

The research

For those of you who are interested in the research behind the benefits, here are some more details…

The Headspace app found through their research that their users saw an increase in focus and lack of mind wandering after engaging with the app for four weeks.
As we meditate our brain wave activity changes and researchers have found that the areas of the brain linked to emotional regulation are larger in in people who have meditated regularly for five years or more.
Psychological symptoms of depression and anxiety have also been found to be reduced through use of meditation programmes.
5 Health Benefits of Daily Meditation : Positive Psychology