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When met with any physical, mental, or emotional stressors, a common practice is to reach out to doctors and potentially consume some form of medication to alleviate the symptoms.

As humans, we are made up of three components; mental, physical, and spiritual. Meditation isn’t just a mindful practice – it can improve your entire well-being. The health benefits of meditating are many and are backed by science.

Meditation was once reserved for practitioners of Eastern religions as a path to finding inner peace, meditation is now a mainstream practice, with proponents including business leaders, celebrities, athletes, and many others.

The practice of meditation refers to a host of mental and breathing exercises that focus on mind and body integration to calm the mind and maintain a balance in overall well-being. There are various types of meditation practices including mental focus on a specific sensation, most typically breathing, a sound, visual image, or mantra; or the practice of mindfulness which requires maintaining full awareness or attention on the present moment without interfering with thoughts and judgments.

There are many health benefits of mindfulness meditation that are backed by science, but if you’ve resisted a meditation practice because you are sure if you aren’t sure if you’ll be able to be still for an extended period of time, or you’re skeptical it’s as great as proponents say it is (spoiler: it is), stop right here. To reap meditation's physical and mental benefits, you aren’t required to sit and breathe silently for hours. You just need to show up for yourself.

Meditation has been a part of my spiritual practice for the past ten years. I did take a course in Transcendental Meditation ten years ago which began my practice. I spend thirty minutes meditating every morning and additional time during the day if I feel stressed or need to quiet my brain. I sit still and simply breathe and the peace that I experience is amazing. I didn’t start with thirty minutes. I began with five minutes and slowly increased the time. Now I can’t imagine going through the day without quieting my mind and spirit, especially in stressful situations.

There are proven health benefits of meditation. Lindsey Schaefer, LMSW, a New York-based psychotherapist provides that “Meditation is a positive way to improve overall health and it absolutely has the ability to change the way we view ourselves and our world.”

1.      Meditation Eases Anxiety and Depression

Research suggests that mindfulness practices can be effective in easing anxiety and other mood disorders.

2.     Meditation Bolsters Self-Confidence

Mindfulness meditation has the power to allow people to connect with their true selves, raising self-awareness, confidence, and self-inquiry.

3.      Meditation Reduces Stress

Reviews of multiple studies have shown the power of meditation to reduce stress and lessen the effects of chronic stress on the entire body.

4.     Meditation Reduces Inflammation

Stress can also lead to neurogenic inflammation, which has been linked to physical diseases like arthritis, colitis, bladder inflammation, and asthma. Meditating people have a smaller inflammatory response than those who don’t.

5.     Meditation Improves Sleep

By quieting the mind, meditation can be relaxing and restorative practice, allowing for better sleep.

6.     Meditation Improves Brain Health

Meditation has been shown to be a potentially valuable tool in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as improving both memory loss and attention span in general.

Prayer is the best-known and most widely practiced example of meditation. Spoken and written prayers are found in most faith traditions.

You can pray using your own words or read prayers written by others. Check out the self-help section of your local bookstore for examples. Talk with your rabbi, priest, pastor or other spiritual leader about possible resources.

Meditation takes practice. Don’t judge your meditation skills, which will increase your stress. Experiment with meditation until you find the practice that works for you.

A Mayo Clinic staff reports that meditation might be useful if you have a medical condition, especially one that may be worsened by stress. Some research supports the health benefits of meditation. With that in mind, some research suggests that meditation may help people manage symptoms of conditions such as:

• Anxiety
• Asthma
• Cancer
• Chronic pain
• Depression
• Heart Disease
• High blood pressure
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Tension headaches

It is important to talk to your healthcare provider about the pros and cons of using meditation if you have any of these conditions or other health problems. Note that in some rare cases, meditation might worsen symptoms associated with some mental health conditions.

I am a big advocate for encouraging self-care for others. Meditation is a practice and benefit that should be incorporated under your self-care umbrella. A meditation practice can help us tune into our body and become aware of what it needs which is important today. While we may not be able to control the difficult things going on in the world, learning to train our focus inward gives us control over how we respond to them.