Mindfulness and Meditation: Lets Get Psychological

November 20, 2020

At Body Techniques, we know and embrace the power of mindfulness. When we engage in breathwork and focus on the present moment without judgment, science shows we can reap benefits in all aspects of our lives, which we call the “4 P’s”:

The 4 P's

In our last blog, we discussed the first of the “4 P’s”. We gave you our best Bill Nye impression and shared the scientifically proven benefits a regular meditation practice can physically have on a person and the incredible changes that can occur in the brain on a cellular level. Next up, let’s do our best Dr. Fauci impression and discuss the positive impact mediation can have on the Psychological Self, with the scientific evidence to back it up.

Mindfulness relieves workplace stress and anxiety

Oh, stress. We meet again. And, unfortunately our friend stress is not going anywhere. As long as humans exist, stress will live a long life on this planet. The goal is not to get rid of stress (let’s be real, that’s impossible), but to change our relationship with it. Mindfulness and meditation can help us do just that.

This systematic review of 23 studies on the “effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on employees’ mental health” found that meditation:

Meditation helps us stay in the present moment as well as increase our awareness of how we choose to respond to stressful situations. Through meditation, we can alleviate psychological stress, anxiety, and change our relationship overall with stress. As a result, we find ourselves better able to focus, be productive, and stay grounded during moments of uncertainty. So when meetings, deadlines, emails, and more meetings pile up, we can face those workplace (and non-workplace) challenges with a calmer and more open mind.

Mindfulness improves your mood

You know the feeling of those mornings where the coffee is brewed just right and nothing can get you down? Well, mindfulness can’t make every day a walk in sunshine but adding practice to your routine sure can help promote a positive mood.

According to this study performed on non-experienced meditators, short daily meditations decreased negative moods and increased emotional regulation responses. This means that meditating daily helps us regulate our emotions, so we can be less reactive, especially to negative experiences, and as a result, our mood becomes more positive overall.

Mindfulness improves memory function

Do you ever wonder why your brain can remember all the lyrics to your favorite song from ten years ago but can’t remember where your keys are every other day? Well, we don’t have an answer for that, but we can offer a tactic to make room to remember both things.

This study linked in the above paragraph, also found that 8 weeks of brief daily meditation enhanced:

Our working memory is a cognitive system with a limited capacity to hold information temporarily. Working memory is important for reasoning and it guides our decision-making and behavior, aka remembering where we put the keys. Recognition memory allows us to recall and identify something we previously encountered, and that’s where the song lyrics live in our brains. Improvement in both working and recognition memory translate to the workplace and all aspects of your life, keeping us sharp and concentrated so we can accomplish everything on our to-do list.

Start your practice today

Meditation gives us the tools to approach life’s challenges from a calm and centered place. When we feel better, we do better. This ripples through all areas of our life. We like to think of meditating as giving our minds and mood a spa day. Soak that big beautiful brain for a few minutes a day with even a short meditation practice, and you’ll reap the benefits.

We hope you enjoyed taking a look at the science that drives what we do. . We look forward to diving into even more of the incredible benefits meditation can yield in both your personal and professional life in our next two blogs. In the meantime, check out our easy “belly breath” tutorial, and stay tuned!

If this has increased your desire to practice mindfulness and meditation, click here to learn more about our programs and offerings.