How Meditation Can Help You Through The Holidays
It’s almost a cliche to say the holidays can be stressful. Instead of peace and joy, the reality is we are often just trying to stay sane and smile while doing a million and one things. The days seem shorter than they were yesterday and there never seems to be enough time to get everything done. If you’re feeling extra unproductive, inefficient or overwhelmed these days, you’re not alone. With 88% of companies asking their employees to work from home, parents navigating an unprecedented school season and the general chaos that has become the motto for 2020, we’re all out of sorts.
“So, how can I possibly focus on anything but getting through my day to day while society is spinning in circles around me?” you may ask.
The easiest answer is mindful meditation. Studies show that a few minutes of meditation per day can dramatically improve concentration, assist with memory retention and eliminate stress. Sounds possible, right? So let’s dive a little deeper into the benefits of mindful meditation.
🗯️ Eliminate Stress
Whether at work, school or home, we all have stressors that can throw us off for the entire day, but it shouldn’t. Focusing inward on your breath during a meditation session can help reduce that stress, allowing you to refocus. Even a minute of breathing every hour or so can help you concentrate and bring you back to a calm state.“But how does that work?” you may ask. Meditation is all about noise-canceling. The deep, cleansing breaths help clear your head and cut through the static of everyday life chaos. After a few minutes of contemplation and breathing, you’ll typically feel more present, self-aware, and able to take on even the most stressful situations in any given moment. Doesn’t that sound awesome, we think so too!?
🧠 Enhance Memory
Meditation can help improve your ability to retain information, both short and long-term. Frequent meditation increases blood flow to the brain’s cerebral cortex, supporting things like learning, concentration and memory. By flexing your brain’s memory muscles, your information storage mechanisms increase so that your brain can retain and store new memories now, and as you age. So, if you want to keep your mind and memory sharp, daily meditation is a great starting point.
💡 Increase Executive Function
Executive functions are a set of cognitive processes that are necessary for the cognitive control of behavior (selecting and successfully monitoring behaviors that facilitate the attainment of chosen goals). Executive functions, when sharpened, can enhance your high-level productivity. Focus, organization, planning and multi-tasking are just a few examples of executive functions.
Meditation can help sharpen your executive functions. Regularly practicing mindfulness and breathing can help enhance your intellectual performance, overcome impulsiveness and regulate emotions. So, save a spot on your calendar for a few minutes of daily meditation, and you’ll be powering through your day in no time.
How to Meditate?
Get comfortable and prepare to sit in silence for a few minutes. Set up a pillow to sit on in a quiet room where you can listen to yourself inhale and exhale.
Concentrate on your breath. Keep your focus on each inhale and exhale. On your deep inhale, expand your stomach and then exhale slowly, elongating the out-breath as your belly contracts. Repeat this process for 5 to 10 minutes, but if you don’t have 5-10 minutes, work on it for a minute or two.
Block out distractions. Your attention may try to wander to other places, but don’t let it. When you notice your thoughts attempting to go elsewhere, stop and refocus on your breath and continue.
Open your eyes. Ease yourself back into awareness and take a moment to notice how your mind and body feel. Take note of your thoughts and emotions, then write them down to track your progress.
Allow the holidays to happen. Do whatever keeps you grounded, happy, and most importantly, healthy! If that means to take a nap; then do it (the turkey will roast itself and delegate some responsibility to give yourself a little time to enjoy the day). Feeling like you need to clear your head by going for a jog? Then do it, breathe in the fresh air, listen to the birds or your most exhilarating music to get your blood flowing! Whatever you choose to do for yourself, enjoy it, plan what needs planning, and let go of the rest. Focus on whatever you value and find most sustaining this time of year and enjoy the holiday!
With love, Andrea
