From Parent Camp Newsletter 5-22-24
I’m working with a nutritional therapy practitioner (Shout out to Jennifer in Parent Camp!) and I had to fill out a million-page questionnaire for her this week (well, almost a million).
When I got to the question, “Do you meditate daily?” I was so excited that I could answer “Yes, I do!”
I’m not sure anything else that I’ve learned over the past 5 years compares with mindfulness meditation, for what it’s done for my emotional awareness and regulation.
It’s not a quick fix for sure, but it’s something, that once you’ve experienced it, you’ll have a hard time doing without.
I want you to experience the calmness and the clarity you can gain through meditation. We all live such busy, rushed, anxiety-filled lives that we have to really work at being present in the moment at any given time…we’re just too scattered.
Mindfulness meditation has been around for over 2,500 years in various forms in both the East and the West.
Some people begin practicing mindfulness meditation for spiritual reasons but others practice for a variety of reasons including to improve stress levels, emotional health and overall wellbeing.
There are decades of neuroscientific research that show the many benefits of mindfulness meditation. fMRI’s show the areas in the brain related to attention, compassion, and calmness light up during meditation.
The autonomic nervous system is impacted by meditating. This is the system that helps calm us down and reduces stress. It’s also been shown that meditating can help release endorphins, also leading to a sense of calm and well-being.
Isn’t that what we all want? A sense of calm and well-being (no matter what’s going on in the world around us)?
If you need more convincing and want to see some of the benefits of mindfulness meditation, head over to the Ten Percent Happier blog to read a long list. They also have a “meditation for fidgety skeptics” and an introductory page about meditation (you might even want to try out their app.
If you’re not familiar with Ten Percent Happier, it’s a great story. Dan Harris (retired co-anchor for ABC News’ Nightline and the weekend edition of Good Morning America) had a panic attack on air in 2004 and shortly thereafter took up meditation, wrote the book 10% Happier and launched the podcast of the same name.
Just give meditation a try this week – what do you have to lose?!