Have you ever meditated before? If not, it’s worth considering. Meditation has been shown to improve many different measures of health. It can relieve anxiety, reduce the risk of heart disease, and lower your chances of developing chronic diseases like diabetes and cancer. The benefits of meditation are profound and undeniable.
However, not everyone who meditates will see these results. There’s no way to know for certain if meditation is working or not; we’re all different and we react differently to what we do in our lives.
Meditation is literally just spending time in meditation. It may sound like a small thing, but being in the present moment and being attentive to your thoughts and feelings is incredibly difficult and something that so many people struggle with on a daily basis.
Doing one small thing like meditating regularly can help you get out of your head and focus your attention on your breathing and your body, giving you the opportunity to reduce stress, and increase your sense of control over your life.
Here, are some signs that may indicate that your meditation is working for you.
Signs that your meditation may be working
- You feel more peaceful in your everyday life
- You enjoy it and are more likely to do it
- You’ve become more aware and more mindful
- You’re usually calm
- You rarely get interrupted by daily life
- You spend less time thinking
- Your focus is more intense
- You feel more positive and have less stress
- You are likely to practice daily
- You’re sleeping better
If you can’t figure out why your meditation routine seems to be working, you might need to step it up a notch. You might even want to try different techniques to see what works best for you.
Even if you can’t pinpoint your specific reason, there are a number of practices that may work for you. We’ve broken down some of the most popular ways to meditate below.
How to meditate effectively
There are many different meditation methods, including meditation, qigong, and mindfulness, but many people choose to sit still and pay attention to their breathing for a full 10-20 minutes.
That’s usually a safe and effective approach to starting your meditation, but there are many different ways to integrate meditation into your daily life.
One way is through “calm down meditation,” which is when you sit quietly and count to 10 before inhaling and exhaling. On the inhale, you exhale, and on the exhale you inhale and exhale again.
This is a slower way to meditate than most people do, but it can give you a deeper sense of control and calm that can be very beneficial to your well-being.
How can you know if your meditation is working for you?
The simple answer: meditation isn’t the end-all-be-all when it comes to our health. You’re not going to see amazing health improvements if you only do it once a week and expect to see results.
In other words, if you’re already seeing benefits to your health, then keep doing what you’re doing. If you’re not seeing benefits, you should evaluate your strategy.
If your meditation is not having any of the positive effects you hoped for, you may want to reevaluate how you’re using it.
Whether your meditation is working or not, you can still reap many benefits from the practice. Before you try something new like meditation, there’s one tip that may help you reap even more benefits: avoid drastic changes.
How meditation has been shown to improve health1
For the majority of people, meditation can help improve how well you’re sleeping, how well you’re managing your emotions, and how well you manage stress.
Meditation has also been proven to improve how well you’re managing chronic pain, increase your lifespan, and lower your chances of developing diabetes, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s.
Meditation has been found to improve your brain function, the chemistry of your brain, and even how well you’re able to concentrate. For people who are trying to quit smoking, meditation has been found to reduce stress and nicotine cravings.
Common mistakes people make during meditation
Trying to control your thoughts is a common mistake that a lot of beginners make, but you can do better by practicing mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness meditation is a gentler practice that helps you learn to be mindful of your thoughts as they come and go, instead of trying to push them away. You’ll be able to take charge of your mind, rather than allowing your thoughts to take over.
If you want to reap the benefits of meditation, you need to find a quiet space where you won’t be disturbed. Meditation can be done anywhere — on a plane, in the car, at the office, or wherever you happen to be. You can even use earbuds or a small speaker to play some relaxing music during your meditation session.
When we meditate, we spend most of our time focusing on our breathing and getting rid of distracting thoughts. We want our attention to be fully on our breath, and we want our minds to be at peace.
But sometimes our minds wander. Some of us get lost in thought, and others get easily distracted by the physical sensations in our bodies. When this happens, our meditation isn’t effective. We need to stay focused on the task at hand to see lasting benefits.
You can’t escape your thoughts. They’re going to happen. If they happen frequently, though, your meditation isn’t working as well as it could be.
Conclusion
it is difficult to know if meditation is working. At first, it may seem like there’s no difference at all. This is because meditation works gradually and produces long-term results. You may find that you feel calmer and more centered than you did before starting a meditation practice.
Overall, the key to meditation is to consistently practice. The earlier you begin, the better you’ll be able to experience and understand the effects of meditation. But even if you haven’t begun meditation yet, there are many things you can do today that will benefit your body and mind. Consider the simple lifestyle changes you can make to reduce stress and increase your productivity.
