How to Incorporate Meditation Into Your Busy Daily Life

Meditation is one of the powerful ways to calm your mind, relax your body, and connect with your inner self. In fact, some studies say that meditation can help with blood pressure, irritable bowel syndrome symptoms, anxiety and sadness, and insomnia. Plus, despite its wonderful benefits, It's easy to do and doesn't cost a lot as it doesn't require any special equipment. You can also meditate anywhere you are: on a walk, on the bus, in line at the doctor's office, or even in the middle of a tense work meeting. All you need is yourself.

What is Meditation?

Before we take a deeper dive into the benefits of meditation and how to practise it daily, let’s understand what meditation is first.

Many people have been practising meditation for thousands of years. However, it was originally practised to help in the comprehension of life's sacred and mystical powers. Now, meditation is widely practised for relaxation, stress reduction, and processing emotions.

Meditation is a sort of supplementary treatment for the mind and body. It can help you achieve a deep state of relaxation as well as a calm mind. During meditation, you concentrate your attention and clear your mind of the muddled thoughts that may be bothering you and producing stress. Physical and emotional well-being may be improved as a result of this process.

There are many different definitions and even types of meditation, but they all have four things in common:

• a quiet environment with as few distractions as possible
• a focus of attention to your breath, other sensations in your body, and even affirming thoughts an open attitude that allows distractions to come and go naturally without judging them.
• comfortable posture whether you’re sitting, lying down, or walking,

Why incorporate meditation into your daily life?

As mentioned earlier, meditation has a lot of health benefits including a calm mind and body but that’s not all. Here are some reasons why meditation is worth doing even during your busiest days.

Meditation promotes emotional well-being and stress management. When you meditate, you help your mind get rid of unpleasant feelings and information overload that accumulates throughout the day and contributes to stress. It also helps you have a fresh perspective about several stressful situations and increases your awareness of your triggers, responses and underlying issues that need to be dealt with.

Meditation has several benefits to your physical body. Meditation is especially beneficial if you have a medical problem that is exacerbated by stress. A growing body of studies suggest that meditation may aid in the management of symptoms associated with diseases such as anxiety, asthma, chronic pain, and high blood pressure.

Meditation helps improve your relational skills. Meditation provides you an avenue for processing stressful events, including relational issues. Through meditation, you gain a different perspective and even allows you to feel the joy of others, so you can rejoice with them instead of being envious.

How to incorporate meditation into your daily life?

Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, meditation requires constant practice to reap its benefits. As a beginner, you may find yourself constantly distracted and can’t focus on your breath or sensation. Your mind may wander a few times in just a few minutes, and that’s okay. To help you out in starting your meditation journey, consider these steps.

Breathe deeply before you respond

You can enter a meditative state at any time during the day by taking two easy, attentive breaths. Before you make a phone call, respond to an email, or start your car, take two deep breaths. This is a terrific method to include meditation into your day thousands of times, especially when you're having a particularly hectic or stressful day. You can also utter a word of prayer or affirmation as you take a deep breath.

Take a walk in silence

The beauty of meditation is that it can be done anytime and anywhere, even while walking. Taking a step with each breath is a classic walking meditation practice. Take some time out in the sun or nature and focus on your sensations as you walk. If you don't have time or a convenient location for slow walking, take a breath every two or three steps as you walk down the hall, across a parking lot, or through a store.

Meditate while doing repetitive tasks

Got no time for meditation? No worries, you can enter into a meditative state even while working or doing repetitive chores. For instance, you can count your breaths while cleaning your house or folding your laundry as these tasks do not demand decision-making. You can also make the most of your time while waiting for a friend, in the doctor's office, in the grocery store line, and other similar situations. Rather than reaching for your phone, choose to meditate to achieve serenity and mindfulness. You can concentrate on your breathing, your senses, or just on the current moment.

Eat mindfully

Practising mindfulness before and during meals is an excellent way to sneak meditation into your busy day. It’s a great practise that can help with digestion, strengthening your relationship with food, and increasing your awareness of how your food makes you feel.

To practise mindful eating, pause for a moment when you sit down to eat and express gratitude for the food you're about to consume. Then take time to smell your food, pay attention to the colours and textures, and how your food makes you feel.

Reflect on your day before going to bed

Meditating before bed has a lot of benefits for your sleeping habits and patterns. It helps you unwind and fight insomnia, and get rid of negative things that might have accumulated throughout the day. Meditation also prepares your body for deep sleep and allows you to relax fully. In fact, just listening to peaceful, meditative music for half an hour to an hour before bedtime helps unwind the thinking brain while also relaxing the body. While listening to music, you can also recount some things you’re grateful for to put you in a better mood.

Pray

DId you know that the most well-known and widely performed form of meditation is prayer? You don’t need to belong in a religion to pray. Prayer is a communication with a Higher Being than yourself. To start off, you can pray in your own words or read other people's prayers. Examples can also be found in self-help books and you can discuss available resources with your priest, pastor, or other spiritual leader.

A word of advice

Keep in mind that meditation is not a quick fix that will solve all of your problems. You'll see its benefits if you practise often, so focus on consistency rather than perfection. If you’re really struggling incorporating it into your daily routine, reduce the time but don't forget to do it. Be kind with yourself and make your meditation practise more enjoyable.