Begin to Breathe in and Stop Spacing Out
Breathe in vs. Spacing Out
I recently came across on old article from the New York Time “ Breathe in vs. Spacing Out” as a strong believer in the healing powers of breath and meditation it shed a lot of scientific light on a lot of what I have experienced to be true and effective in my personal life.
The article begins with a brief retelling of how Prince Siddhartha Gautama became Buddha after 49 days of mediation. The story highlights the long standing tradition of meditation that has only recently become popular in the Western world. It brings the relevance of meditation today by focusing on a study by Dr. Amishi Jha in which he trained U.S. Marines to practice brief meditation sessions to assist with mental resilience in war zones.
“We found that getting as little as 12 minutes of meditation practice a day helped the Marines to keep their attention and working memory — that is, the added ability to pay attention over time — stable,” said Jha, director of the University of Miami’s Contemplative Neuroscience, Mindfulness Research and Practice Initiative. “If they practiced less than 12 minutes or not at all, they degraded in their functioning.” This is the Science of Mindfulness.
Although, most of us may be civilians we still experience daily stress and the same principles of brief meditation can help improve our memory, improve our attention, and reduce levels of stress. One may even say it could be beneficial for companies to encourage their employees to take brief meditation breaks as the practice of meditation seems to improve overall productivity and keeps the mind sharper.
“The journal Psychological Science published the results of a randomized trial showing that undergraduates instructed to spend a mere 10 minutes a day for two weeks practicing mindfulness made significant improvement on the verbal portion of the Graduate Record Exam — a gain of 16 percentile points. They also significantly increased their working memory capacity, the ability to maintain and manipulate multiple items of attention.”
The full article can be found here it concisely sheds light on the history of mindfulness in the Western world and explains what it is and how/why it can benefit us.
Using your breath is key to mindfulness and meditation and helps relax the parasympathetic nervous system and aids in allowing us to clear out thoughts. Though you don’t need anything but your body to meditate I sometimes like to use my Expand-A-Lung.
For me it is difficult to quiet my thoughts the resistance from the Expand-A-Lung elongates my inhales and exhales and makes me bring focus to my breathing and not the thoughts cluttering my head. In this way I’m able to achieve mindfulness easier and get into a meditative zone. I also find that aromatherapy helps me clear my mind and relax as well.
Depending on what time of day I’m meditating I’ll sometimes spritz a little peppermint (rejuvenating) or lavender (relaxing) in the area where I plan to meditate. Creating peaceful environment can be helpful for mediation as well. The more studies that are done on meditation the more benefits scientists and doctors have found. For the sake of our health it should not be much of a burden to take 10 minutes of time to devote to yourself and your mediation practice.
