Why You Should Include Meditation in Your Daily Routine

In a lifestyle where our brains are constantly stimulated, it is essential to add an exercise to unload all the stress it has accumulated — meditating.

Funnily enough, one of the keys to easing the 21st-century lifestyle stress is an ancient technique our ancestors came up with. The earliest found proof of meditation dates back to wall drawings found in caves of the Indian subcontinent, theorized to be 5,000 – 3,500 BCE. During that time, meditation is a practice performed by both travelling ascetics and religious people to either connect to higher beings or achieve transcendence to a divine consciousness. Today, modern meditation focuses on improving the mental health of its practitioners.

It has become common that a part of our population has been accustomed to feeling tired despite having enough sleep. This could be indicative of a myriad of underlying causes, but one of the most popular suspects is mental fatigue, mostly brought about by constant attack from various stimuli we surround ourselves with.

Most would start with using their phone right after they wake up, commonly using social media, resulting in a dopamine rush with minimum effort. This would result in stress. Unfortunately, it would accumulate more as the day progresses — being stuck in traffic on your way to commute, the general fatigue from work, which most would spend in front of a screen, that annoying co-worker who won’t leave you alone, and realizing that your apartment is a mess and must be cleaned as soon as you get home. Then, some would have their own unwinding rituals, which are actually just adding to their stress: playing competitive video games, scrolling through social media, or watching dramatic Netflix series.

This accumulation of stress is scientifically named as the allostatic load. In order to un-load, the brain from this burden, one of the most recommended habits to build is meditation, preferably in the morning.
The rationalization of performing meditation is the idea that it helps the meditator to focus on one thing. It could either be your breathing, the feeling of your thumb, or the sound of the fan in your room. The goal is to mainly focus on that one stimulation alone, allowing your mind to let go of any other distracting thoughts and shutting out extra stimuli that tire your brain. Having a train of thought during meditation, especially as a beginner, is completely normal. Slowly letting go of said train of thoughts is encouraged, instead of shutting it down harshly. This type of complementary medical practice helps build the mind-body connection, which can help you visibly relax and provide peace.

The beauty of meditation is its versatility. One could practice it while waiting in line at the bank or sitting cross-legged in a quiet room with relaxing music playing in the background. In a way, there is no one “right” thing to meditate, as all types of meditation aims for the same goal, which is to achieve inner peace.

For beginners who wishes to start, deep breathing exercises is highly recommended. The movement of air in and out of the nose and mouth, which is oftentimes neglected as it is a part of automatic functions of the body, is a good way to rear focus. Not only that, this could also help in returning the physical body close to basal state, the state in which the body is in its most rested state, only achieved while sleeping. Additionally, for beginners who are having a hard time focusing for long periods of time, starting at five-minute sessions and progressing to increasing duration is recommended. This would help in building meditating as a habit, as a long session immediately is perceive as discouraging due to its difficulty. Over time, as you continuously practice, meditating would eventually be easier and more natural.

In a lifestyle where stress is the norm, it is important to have a series of habits which would help relieve it. Although our physical bodies and mental health benefit with consistent exercise, healthy diet, and good sleep, it would not be enough without the support of a mindful activity such as meditation. Stress, despite it being mainly a biochemical imbalance in the body, is still capable of affecting our minds. This is why meditation is still a recommendation, despite it being a thousand-years-old practice, as way to relive it. Who knows? Maybe the reason our ancestors described it as a way to transcend to a higher level of consciousness is because it indeed brings us there.