Meditation is without a doubt one of the most underrated exercises out there.

You know, you might think that sitting down and literally doing nothing can’t be useful, right? But you’d be surprised, let’s go over 5 awesome benefits of meditation!

5 Awesome Benefits of Meditation

1. Drastically Reduced Stress

Meditation does reduce stress. Studies, including one by none other than the Harvard Medical School, have repeatedly shown a strong, statistically significant correlation between meditation practice and reduced stress. Among the numerous benefits of meditation, this is one of the most useful!

Mindfulness meditation (and other mindfulness practices) often lead to reduced symptoms of conditions like anxiety or depression and stress related to these.

Think about it, mindfulness helps you acknowledge your thoughts, right? Anxiety in particular is caused when a confusion occurs between thoughts and reality… Well, mindfulness is all about clarity between thoughts and reality!

Meditation drastically relieves stress, it’s an amazing benefit from a simple exercise!

2. Improved Focus

Meditation improves focus just as it reduces stress. As a matter of fact, it’s more than that, meditation replaces stress with heightened focus! It’s ridiculous how much of an impact mindfulness has on our focus levels.

You almost wouldn’t believe it…

But it makes perfect sense! Being mindful means being aware of your self. In other words, being in a state of mindfulness is being in a state of order and at peace with the universe. It might sound mystical, but that’s what’s going on when you’re mindful. The greater consciousness, the universe is, equally, at peace with you!

Meditation improves focus by increasing mindfulness. In turn, mindfulness positively impacts your ability to flow, like water, along the riverbanks of the universe. However, that doesn’t mean you don’t control where you flow, it just makes sure that you do.

3. Increased Patience

If meditation is good for anything, it’s patience. There’s nothing more iconic about meditating than that, right?

It’s true, meditation cultivates patience like nothing else. Well, that’s not entirely true. The big picture is that meditation increases mindfulness, that’s where all the benefits of meditation come in!

Cultivated patience comes in when you understand that you’re not bound by time. Your soul transcends that. As a matter of fact, there’s a great article about the impact meditation has on patience over at Headspace’s Q&A, definitely worth a read.

If you find yourself in a situation where you seem to be running out of patience, seriously dedicate yourself to meditation. You won’t regret it!

4. Empowered Manifestation

Manifestation is the key to achieving the life of our dreams, and mindfulness is the secret to successfully manifesting… Naturally, meditation is an incredible tool for manifestation, too.

It’s only natural since meditation directly impacts your level of mindfulness. However, there’s more to it when it comes to manifestation. It’s much, much deeper than just “thought”.

Everything leads to manifestation, and you’re always manifesting. The truth is that manifestation works at an energy and quantum level. On the smallest of scales, manifestation is a direct result of our innermost vibrational frequencies.

You might have heard of the law of attraction, well, this is that! We attract events, people and things of a similar vibrational frequency to what we’re emitting.

WAIT! I know, it sounds convoluted, but among the many benefits of meditation is an increased vibration. In other words, the more (and better) you meditate, the more you’ll attract positive events, people and things! It’s as simple as that.

5. Improved Natural Rhythm and Sleep Cycles

Yes! Meditation can help you improve your sleep cycles and circadian rhythm, it’s unbelievable! Just when you thought meditation couldn’t get any better…

According to a paper by the Department of Neurophysiology at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore, India, meditation has a considerable impact on regulating human sleep cycles and natural rhythms. In the study, it is said that “Meditation, with its global effects on body and brain functions helps to establish a body and mind harmony.” Incredible! Nothing shouts “mindfulness!” louder than inner and outer harmony.

In addition, meditation also has an impact on our bodies that’s comparable to the changes we undergo throughout our regular sleep periods.

By now, you’re probably sold on the idea that meditation provides loads of physical and psychological health benefits.

Thankfully, meditation doesn’t require any difficult or complicated set up. Simply sit down, focus on your breathing and suddenly… You’re meditating!

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