The Age-Old Practice of Mindfulness

Meditation, seen by teens as a waste of time that could be better-used texting or using whatever current social media is the talk of the town at the moment. Meditation, seen by adults as something they, unfortunately, don’t have time for with the busy schedules they keep. In all seriousness, what are you really missing out on when you don’t take a five-minute break from the hustle bustle of life to meditate?

A heatlhy living is something many of us strive for to increase our time here, and the practice of meditation truly helps with that. One benefit of meditation includes stress relief. Stress is a factor many adults and teens deal with in today’s society. Whether it is the upcoming history test or the in-laws coming into town, things bring stress. Sitting down and taking a moment to breathe, acknowledge your thoughts and let them drift away like gray clouds, is a big help.

As teens’ concentration becomes harder in school, it is easy to be in class and suddenly the bells rings and you can’t remember a single thing your teacher talked about as you drifted off in whatever thoughts lay in your mind. Meditation is a major help for concentration so you’ll be able to focus in class and not be so stressed about that big test.

Self awareness is an increasingly important skill in our day to day life, but how would one go about achieving self awareness? Well, meditation is a definite help. “When you take more time to dive inside yourself, you are more comfortable showing who you are,” according to Huffington Post. Being aware of your feelings, especially negative feelings like angry, sadness, and envy, allows you to come face to face with the reality of those emotions and that’s when you can begin to find the root of them and solve them, creating a more peaceful self.

“Happiness is not out there, it’s within you, and meditation puts you on the fast track to finding the happiness within. It seems fake, but meditation is proven to increase happiness.”

Studies have shown that brain signaling increases in the left side of the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for positive emotions, while activity decreases in the right side, responsible for negative emotions. Summoned up all those big words mean, the left side of your brain, which is responsible for positive emotions, becomes more active while the right side, which is responsible for negative emotions, becomes less.

One of the biggest most seemingly improbable things meditation does for you is, it slows aging. Meditation has been proven to slow aging. If you meditate every day from this point till the day you die you are granted a long, healthy, successful life.

“The thing about meditation is, you become more and more you.”