How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work?

Mindfulness meditation uses an anchor point such as your breath.

When you focus on the sensation of the breath and follow each inhalation and exhalation, you can become less distracted by thoughts, relax your mind, and be in the present moment.

It’s a great way to develop self-awareness by learning to remain calm and peaceful – even when your mind is racing with thoughts about what you have to do tomorrow or something stressful that happened yesterday.

Practising meditation:

1. Brings the body back into a state of homeostasis, so it can rest, recover and pertorm optimally.
2. Gives a busy or distracted mind something else to do, reducing anxiety and depression and increasing focus and clarity.
3. Weakens the stress signal in the brain, enabling a more thoughtful response to challenging or stressful situations.
4. Makes it easier to pay attention, which literally lights up the brain and improves cognitive functions such as memory and learning.
5. Creates a mental spade bi pause between impulse and action, so we can replace unconscious, rushed habits or reactions with more conscious, thoughtful ones.
6. Can preserve our telomeres, the protective caps on the end of our chromosomes. These usually shorten with age and diseases like heart disease and Alzheimer’s.