Additionally, concentrating on your breath can help to lower your heart rate and blood pressure.
Meditation can also help with brain function and cognitive growth.
There are so many good things that come from meditation that it is a wonder that more people don’t take up the practice.
big changes , not any you could see or feel. There will be subtle changes in your perception of daily life, you would feel more calm, more at ease
It also provides me with a way of stepping away from frequently reoccuring thoughts and makes me more focused during the workday.
Meditation dispels this. Think of it as a reboot on your system. If you leave your computer or phone on constantly, ever so often, you’ll need to restart it because it begins to lag or some bug or another appears that can be fixed with a simple restart. Meditating every morning or evening is like this. Start small. Meditate for ten minutes, and don’t try to do anything like stopping your thoughts or reaching a new state of consciousness. Simply sit, breathe fully (this feels great after two or three breaths and your body and mind will begin to crave it), and observe your thoughts. Nothing may happen for week one. Nothing may happen for week two. But soon, you will see something small happen, like beginning to get angry about something that irks you but having the awareness to *decide* whether you want to get angry or not about it. This is a hugely freeing experience. You will be able to step outside of your normal river of thought and decide whether or not you want to be swept away in it. Mental freedom is a priceless gift to yourself, and by extension, to those around you. As you begin to scrub away at the deep grooves, you will find yourself appreciating the present moment more and more, and feeling as though you simply have more time each day. You will feel more relaxed and it may be easier to go to sleep once you get into bed. It does not happen quickly, and it can be hard to get the ball rolling for the first few weeks, but the excitement of seeing results is incalculable. Think of it like this: if you want a six pack, you’re not going to get it by going to the gym once. You’re not going to get it by going to the gym for a week or a month. You need to stick with it. And you’ll probably have to stop drinking all those beers and eating all those potato chips too. But as you continue down the path, you’ll find what you need to do and what works for you to continue advancing the results. The hardest part is getting the snowball rolling. Start with *baby* steps (5 minutes of meditation each morning? 3?) but *stick with them* and move up when you’re ready. Don’t be tough on yourself, don’t try to go too hard. Treat it like teaching a child to ride a bicycle. It takes time, and patience, and empathy. But it will come, and you will be so glad you did it.