Category Archives: meditation

Health, meditation, mental health

It is Unbelievable how meditation will allow you to perform fewer mistakes!

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If you are forgetful or make mistakes whenever in a hurry, a new research from Michigan State University–the largest of its kind to-date–found meditation can help you become less error prone.

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The study, published in Brain Sciences, tested how open monitoring meditation–or, the meditation focuses awareness on emotions, thoughts or sensations as they unfold in one’s mind and body–altered brain activity in a way suggests increased error recognition. “People’s curiosity about meditation and mindfulness is outpacing what technology can prove with effects and benefits,” said Jeff Lin, MSU psychology candidate is doctoral study co-author. “But it is amazing to me  individuals had the ability to see how one session of a guided meditation can create changes to brain activity in non-meditators.”

The findings declare different meditation may have different neurocognitive effects and Lin explained there is research is little how available monitoring meditation impacts mistake recognition. “Some kinds of meditation have you give attention to an object is single your breath, but monitoring meditation is different,” Lin said. “It has you tune inward and pay attention to everything going on in your mind and human anatomy. The aim is to sit and spend attention close to where in actuality the mind travels without getting too caught up into the scenery.” Lin and his MSU co-authors–William Eckerle, Ling Peng and Jason Moser–recruited over 200 individuals to try how open monitoring meditation impacted how individuals detect and respond to mistakes. The participants, who had never ever meditated before, had been taken via a 20-minute check is open workout as the researchers calculated brain task through electroencephalography, or EEG. Then, they completed a computerized distraction test.

“The EEG can measure mind task during the millisecond level, so we got precise measures of neural activity after mistakes contrasted to correct responses,” Lin said. “A specific neural signal occurs about 50% a second after an error called the error positivity, which is associated with error recognition  is conscious. We unearthed  the potency of this signal is increased in the meditators under settings.” The researchers’ findings offer a promising window into the potential of sustained meditation while the meditators didn’t have immediate improvements to actual task performance. “These findings are a strong demonstration of just what just 20 minutes of meditation can perform to enhance the ability  is brains identify and focus on mistakes,” Moser said. “It makes us feel well informed in what mindfulness meditation might be capable of performance and daily functioning there at the moment.”

While meditation and mindfulness have gained mainstream desire for modern times, Lin is among a little group of researchers take an approach is neuroscientific testing their emotional and gratification effects. Searching ahead, Lin stated the next thing of research is to include a broader number of participants, test different meditation and discover whether alterations in mind task can convert to behavioral changes with increased practice that is long term. “It’s great to see the public’s enthusiasm for mindfulness, but there’s still plenty of work from the clinical perspective become done to comprehend the benefits it may have, and similarly importantly, exactly how it really works,” Lin said. “It’s time we look at it through a far more rigorous lens.”

Author’s resource box: https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2019/how-meditation-can-help-you-make-fewer-mistakes/

Health, meditation, mental health

Will you Meditate? Here’s Why You Might Wish to

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How can the essential act of sitting quietly and trying to keep a mind focused on the present be beneficial to all of your mental and physical health? The reply might be unknown, but it is true that for at least 5,000 years, individuals have practiced Meditation for spiritual, mind, and body well-being.


The spiritual practice of Meditation is closely associated with Buddhism, which has its roots in the countries of Asia. The ability eventually found its way to the United States and was popularized in the 1960’s with the practice of Zen, which happens to be seated Meditation, to create inner peace and mindfulness.

“Meditation changed my life completely,” Fischer says. “I turned into a Buddhist priest, lived in a monastery and temple, and my life turned into a life infused with Meditation. My experience is atypical, and never something recommended for everybody, but it means I’m able to talk to other individuals who wish to establish a meditation practice in their lives.”

What Is Meditation?
Meditation is sitting quietly and taking note of the experiences of being alive in the present moment. “There is so much of strength in the body, breath, and consciousness, and little by little, you find that.”
“We pay attention to three things in meditation: the human body, breathing, and consciousness,” Fischer says. “Those three life is always active and in-service throughout our lives. In Meditation, you stop to sit, breathe, and pay attention to the body. There’s such strength in the human body, breath, and consciousness, and steadily, you find that.”

The advantages of Meditation
The world of conventional medicine increasingly acknowledges the physical and psychological benefits of Meditation, including reducing stress and anxiety, “which slows the heartbeat,” Fischer says. “You settle down anxious and distracted and thus able to establish a range of motion, for instance, regular exercise. Meditation might be the cornerstone of establishing an ideal and disciplined lifestyle.” “And through meditation, there’s deeper self-knowledge, more acceptance, and ability to obtain empathy with other people,” he adds. “That helps you reach out and be interested in other people, which suggests you’re far less more likely to have depression, or maybe you need feelings of isolation.”

Particular Benefits for Seniors
Fischer notes that for older people, Meditation is particularly powerful and relevant. “When you’re younger, the tasks in everyday life are outward activities — establishing a family, your livelihood, your place in the world,” he says. “When you’re older, those tasks have already been completed, and in fact, now your task is discovering what kind of person you are as well as what your life has been, as you prepare for older age and death. I see a large number of older people who are quite motivated to find a sense of inner peace at this point in everyday life.” Tim Burkett, author and guiding teacher at the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis, has experienced the impact of Meditation on his life. “First of all, physically, meditation has improved my motion and balance,” Burkett says. “I don’t dwell just as much on things, and I spend less time worrying about the future and being upset about the past. I’m capable of being present in whatever activity I’m doing, wherever I’m, and also to unravel calmness that’s with the center of all being.”

Restoring the Brain’s Neuroplasticity
In his book, Zen in the Age of Anxiety: Wisdom for our Modern Lives, Burkett cites research showing the benefits of Meditation as a way to restore the brain’s neuroplasticity. “When we’re born, our minds have an incredible amount of plasticity — the opportunity to adapt,” Burkett says. “As we age and acquire into formal methods for doing things, our brains harden, kind of like Play-Doh becoming hard. And that they no longer have got that freshness or perspective. “With Meditation, our brain can capture the original resilience we had when we were young. We don’t need to lose our openness, joy, and freedom from being in ruts of habits and thinking.”

The best way to Meditate
Burkett teaches Meditation to people of all ages and stages of life. He describes the simplicity of the practice, starting with sitting quietly with an erect spine on any cushion or chair, taking some deep breaths, and then centering yourself.
“The simplest type of meditation would be just to follow your breathing,” he states. “Every time the mind wanders off — and it’s within the nature of the mind to wander — go back to your breathing.”
This is focused on Meditation, having a focus on breathing. Fischer says other techniques include absorbing the brain in something calm and pleasant — for example, a beautiful place you’ve been to — by imagining you might be there.
“That’s one kind of meditation that removes you from the facts you’ve ever had,” Fischer says. “There’s also mindfulness meditation, which instead of removing yourself from your life, you might be present and open to life’s difficulties and challenges.”
“I call that unfocused meditation or bare awareness,” Burkett says. “At our center, we’ll start with focused meditation, and do that well, before we can be open to bare awareness.”

How to Establish a Meditation Routine
Today you will find meditation centers throughout the U.S. as well as books, online talks, websites, and phone apps that teach or guide you through the practice of Meditation. “It’s pretty easy to get the guidance, however it may also be overwhelming with the number of resources,” Fischer says. “I persuade folks to go to the meditation center to learn the practice with others and also have some accountability. You’ll ramp up your chances of meditating versus being on your own. A lot of people result in doing a combination — by yourself and at a center. For example, coming once a day, once a week or once a month.” The most important thing with Meditation, Fischer says, is to do it. “People know of which meditation is supposed to feel like and after that give up,” he states. “Meditation is whatever happens when you’re sitting there. In case you sit down, and your thoughts are still racing, that’s okay.” He suggests setting a timer — fifteen to twenty minutes is realistic — and committing your self to try to meditate to do that amount of time.
“If you do this for a week, it’s almost guaranteed that when you’re not able to possess a tranquil mind, the mind will be a lot quieter than it was,” Fischer says. He also recommends meditating in the morning, when the thoughts are fresh. “But some people like to meditate at the end of the day, which could help with sleeping, and it also could be a good thing to do if you wake up during the nocturnal hours with insomnia,” he says.
While Meditation may help us as individuals, Fischer thinks it can also help society overall. “In today’s society, with countless social and environmental issues, not being so quick to react can be helpful,” he says. “The a greater number of people who meditate, the greater off we would be. Meditation helps calm the world.”

Author Resource Box:
https://www.nextavenue.org/meditation-benefits/

Health, meditation, mental health

Do you know how you can make mindfulness a habit?

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It’s estimated that 95%of our behavior utilizes autopilot. That’s because neural networks underlie our line of habits, reducing our many sensory inputs per second into easy shortcuts so we can function within this crazy world. These default brain signals can be so efficient that they will often trigger to relapse into old behaviors before we remember what it is that we meant to do instead.

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Mindfulness is the exact opposite of such default processes. It’s executive control rather than autopilot and enables intentional actions, willpower, and decisions. But that takes practice. The more we activate the intentional brain, the stronger it gets. Every time we perform something deliberate and new, we stimulate neuroplasticity, activating our grey matter, which is full of newly sprouted neurons that have not yet been groomed for the “autopilot” brain.

But here’s the issue. While our intentional brain knows what exactly is most beneficial us, our autopilot brain causes us to shortcut our way through life. So just how is it possible to trigger ourselves to be mindful when we require it most? It is here that the notion of “behavior design” is available. It’s a way to put your intentional brain within the driver’s seat. There are a couple of methods to do that—first, slowing down the autopilot brain by putting obstacles within its way, the number two, removing barriers in the path of the intentional mind, therefore it can gain control.
Shifting the balance to provide your intentional brain more power takes some work, though. Here are a few ways to get started.

Put meditation reminders near you. If you intend to perform yoga as well as to meditate, put your yoga mat or your meditation cushion amid your floor. Therefore, you can’t miss it as you walk. Refresh your reminders regularly. Say you choose to utilize sticky notes to remind yourself of a new intention. That may function for a couple of weeks, however, your autopilot brain and old habits take over again. Try writing new notes to yourself; add variety, or make her funny. That way, they’ll stick with you longer. Create unique patterns. You could try a series of “If this, then that” messages to develop easy reminders to shift into the intentional brain. For instance, you might come up with, “If office door, then a deep breath,” as a change in means into mindfulness as you deal with to begin your workday. Or, “If phone rings have a breath before answering.” Each intentional action to shift into mindfulness will strengthen your conscious brain.

Author Resource Box:
https://www.mindful.org/how-to-meditate/

Health, meditation, mental health

Beyond spirituality: the posture of meditation in mental well-being

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Meditation has traditionally been linked to Eastern mysticism but science its staring to indicate that cultivating a “heightened” state of consciousness could have a major affect on our brain, the way our system function and our levels of resilience.

Clinicians are increasingly looking for effective, preventative, non-pharmacological tools to treat mental illness. And meditation techniques – such as quietening our thought, understanding the self and exercising control – show promise in its place tool to regulate emotions, mood and stress.

Body
Meditation influences the body in unexpected ways. Experienced mediators, for one example, can speed or slow their metabolism by a little over 60% and lift their body temperature by as much as 8°C.

Even a little lessons in meditation tend to make people calmer, less stressed and a lot more relaxed. As cheap as twenty to thirty minutes each day results in physical changes, such as reduced blood flow, lower pulse rate, deeper and calmer breathing. Improvements in arterial pressure attributable to meditation really are connected to a reduced danger of an event involving the heart.

Meditation is additionally beginning to prove effective as a treatment for chronic and acute pain. One experiment showed that four days of mindfulness meditation substantially reduced the participant’s experiences unpleasantness and the intensity of their pain.

Mind, brain and beyond
Meditation increases left-sided, frontal activity in the brain, an area of the brain associated with positive mood. Interestingly, this growth in left-brain activity can also be related to improvements in level of immunity activity. The more you practice meditation, the greater your the immune system may very well be.

Studies have shown that long-term meditators are on the rise volumes of grey matter in the right orbito-frontal cortex and hippo campus regions of their brain which you ll find are responsible for regulating emotion. Similar changes have often been discovered non-meditators who completed an eight-week course in mindfulness training.

So even a limited stint of meditation provides the potential to refresh the structure of our brain.

Ageing
The cortex in the brain usually thins as we get older – a form of atrophy linked to dementia. Intriguingly, those who have meditated around an hour each day for six years display increased cortical thickness. Older meditators also show decreased age-related decline in cortical thickness when compared with non-meditators of a given same age.

Meditation may increase longevity by protecting our brain and heart from the damaging outcome of stress. One study reported that meditation and yoga help to prevent cellular damage attributable to chronic psychological stress. It needs to be even been suggested that meditation may slow cellular aging.

Emotional stability
The causes and results of emotional experience exist through the entire body as well as having the brain, and consequently they’re deeply linked to psychological and physical stress.

Meditation enhances positive emotions and mood, and appears to make people less vulnerable to the stresses and upsets of everyday life. Research suggests that meditators are better at regulating immediate responses to negative stimuli and have now reduced activity in the amygdala – a region implicated for a threat. These findings reflect greater emotional resilience among meditators and also less psychological distress and anxiety.

Mindfulness, that can be cultivated through meditation, is merely one technique which could increase social anxiety and well being. Several therapeutic techniques happen to based on these practices, which can include mindfulness-based stress-relief and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. These treatments have had success in curing anxiety and mood disorders.

Next steps in research
Studys and research have shown us that meditation improves our mood, reduces the body’s reaction to stress and, eventually, alters the structure of the brain.

Our crew along at the University of Sydney is attempting submit some of the gaps in traditional familiarity with how meditation acts toward the mind and body to calm emotional reactions. We’re currently investigating impact meditation on brain and body function during emotional provocation, such as viewing disturbing photographic images.
We want to better learn about the effects of short, intensive periods of meditation on brain and body functions associated with regulation of emotional responses. We happen to be also examining the genetic characteristics that may help determine what types of people benefit best out of meditation training.

If we can demonstrate the efficacy of intensive meditation on emotion regulation, and characterize individuals that would benefit most, we’ll obtain established a big role for meditation in improving mind and body health.

Author’s resource box:

http://theconversation.com/beyond-spirituality-the-role-of-meditation-in-mental-health-4326

Health, meditation, mental health

The Origins of Meditation

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The practice of meditation has been a media choice for various millennia. Although there are without any recorded texts which might
point exactly when this practice started, several ancient civilizations became the cradle of today’s meditation practices.

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India particularly is hailed as the proponent of meditation as an established practice. Over centuries, many Hindi scholars have written about meditation, due to the methods for its benefits. Many of the well-known Hindi texts include the Vedas and the Yoga Sutras which was it is written by Patanjali.

But no one has arguably been more influential when it comes to meditation than Siddharta Gautama, otherwise known as Buddha. In 500 BC, he achieved enlightenment in the practice of meditation. His influence spread throughout Asia and at some point the full world.
While the East has been practicing meditation for some centuries already, the Western world picked the procedure up far too late. As a matter of fact, it was only in the middle twentieth century when meditation turned out to be a widespread practice among the West. Today, more and more meditation centers and organizations crop up in the western world. While meditation was intertwined with religious practices, a good number of Western meditation centers are stripped off this spiritual aspect. They usually focus now located on the health advantages associated with this practice, primarily in the fast-paced realm of today.

But regardless of one’s lack of the spiritual side of meditation, it continues to be widely-recognized because of its benefits to people’s mental well-being. It was actually, and it remains together considering the central aspects of meditation.


Author’s Resource box:

The Origins of Meditation – Simply Mee Yoga Academy. https://simplymeeyoga.com/the-origins-of-meditation-2/

Top 5 Best Emoji Apps To Download for Samsung Galaxy S10 …. https://www.s7fanclub.com/best-emoji-apps-download-android-samsung-galaxy-phones.html

Everything You Need To Know About Meditation | About …. https://healthpick.in/care-health/all-you-need-to-know-about-meditation/

meditation, mental health, Religion

Buddhist Meditation

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Remember those Chinese style movies that feature monks from their heads shaved off? Well, those folks practice Buddhism, which is undoubtedly a spiritual movement invented to make the person choose the facts of life. In the center with this is meditation, which happens to be the way of making this possible.

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Yet to understand Buddhist Meditation, you have to know about Buddhism itself is centered upon the Four Noble Truths. First, we have to be aware that there is undoubtedly suffering on the earth which happens because of our ignorance and our desires. At times when we do understand ourselves, we could finally find a way to turn out this suffering. Individuals that obtain the answer took a state of Nirvana.

This then leads us into the core of Buddhist meditation that is the practice of the eightfold path. These virtues namely are the right action, right concentration, right effort, right livelihood, right mindfulness, right speech, right thought, and right view.

The proceedings of Buddhist Meditation are based upon two things. The very first is known as “Samatha,” which implies tranquility, and of course the second is named “Vipassana” this means mindfulness.

 Let’s explore this somewhat further. “Samatha” meditation involves a great deal of breathing, which happens to be invented to develop concentration, detachment, equanimity, and happiness. There are actually 40 Samatha meditations, and each teaches the brain to one single object to produce various states of tranquility.

Vipassana meditation, on the other hand, develops self-understanding by having in a position to comprehend the stuff that intends inside one’s head. By practicing this regularly, you certainly will soon develop wisdom that will make you with nonsuffering.

But must you become a follower of Buddhism so that you can practice this kind of meditation? The actual answer, no matter if this approach is based upon the doctrines of the religion and relates to concentration and mind control.

For those who wish to experience Buddhist meditation, the first thing you should do is find an inaccessible place where you are able to achieve this without being disturbed. Next, get that beautiful soft pillow or cushion to sit down on in the event the floor is certainly not that comfortable for you. 

Now, let your hands rest on their crib, considering the palms facing upward. It’s hard to lie in this position in just 5 minutes or maybe more so don’t hesitate to produce a few slight adjustments. The important thing may be that you happen to be comfortable in the manner you are.

Then it is almost time for them to close your eyes and focus on your breathing. We’ve made it simple to do this fact is that there are 4 proper methods. You could possibly inhale and exhale long, inhale and exhale short, inhale short and exhale long or inhale long and exhale short.

 It will take the necessary time prior to obtaining the hang of things. For fun’s sake, don’t forget to unwind all your muscles, so your mind and body are able to represent one.

Buddhist meditation is just among several other techniques around that could help relieve you from stress, actually make you think far better to have a better outlook in life and do many different items that will optimize your overall physical health

If you do, in fact, appreciate what Buddhist Meditation can do, you could possibly already spend money on cushions, prayer beads, incense, and a few other accessories. It is often optional, so don’t think that just because they are not around that your particular experience is not just a sizable one.

Author Resource Box:

Buddhist MEDITATION | Alternative Knowledge-Pool. https://knowledge-pool-eso.blogspot.com/2017/05/buddhist-meditation.html

Learn The Basics Of Vipassana Meditation Technique | prCvir. https://prcvir.com/blog/vipassana-meditation-technique/

Health, meditation, mental health

Mindful Meditation

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Many exhibit still comply with Kabat-Zinn’s official curriculum for MBSR, which has two options for components that outline an eight-week intervention program: in-class group instruction by a certified teacher for three plus a half to three plus a half hours, weekly, and at-home practice for about an hour, six or seven days 7 days, to use those learnings independently.

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The at-home practice includes both 40 minutes of formal mindfulness practices (including sitting meditations, body scan meditations, walking meditations, and hatha yoga) and five to fifteen minutes of informal mindfulness practices (for instance producing your thoughts, behaviors, emotions, reactions, and sensations during regular every day activities). There is also an all-day retreat during week six.


Other studies use regimens modeled after MBSR in principle and practice, which you ll find are grouped under the label mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs), Vago says. (The degree by which they conform to the main structure varies; they seem to be shorter, for example, or focus on certain practices but exclude others.) There is always one MBI designed specifically regarding the the curing of depression generally known as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)—a blend of MBSR and cbt (CBT)—that is currently considered scientifically valid as MBSR.
Mindfulness meditation looks totally unique other than the clinical world, and practices can vary from person to person—from like the ones of meditation they practice, to ways in which often they do it, as well as for how much time. Most of the people who meditate aren’t participating in a formal program having hour of practice daily plus weekly group classes with specially trained teachers personally coaching them and researchers keeping tabs.


However, the scientists conducting research need to be in a position to compare apples to apples when they are studying meditation, and these formalized programs are a means to control that variability and be certain that researchers are looking with the results of the same active ingredient within their studies.

Author Resource Box:
https://www.self.com/story/mindfulness-meditation-health-benefits

Behavioral Science, Culture, Health, meditation, mental health

Spiritual benefits of meditation

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Meditation is mainly for the searcher of real information. There is an entire science behind it, predicated on teachings from thousands of years ago. The spiritual benefits are way too numerous to list and rely on the sincerity, orientation, and persistence for the spiritual searcher.

If done correctly, meditation energizes your awareness, bringing peace and wisdom, expanding your ability to love unconditionally, and prepares the soul for deep spiritual communion with God, the main one without a Second.

Many siddhas (psychic or spiritual powers) are natural fringe advantages of meditation.

Dhyana may be the Sanskrit word for meditation. Nonetheless, it has a narrower meaning. Dhyana is when the concentration is concentrated about the same point.

Reference
Benefits of Meditation | Swami Kenananda. http://swamikena.org/benefits-of-meditation/

Behavioral Science, Culture, Health, meditation, mental health

Meditation replenishes the body

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For many thousands of years in ancient India, folks have been taking advantage of the practice of meditation. The main aim of meditation is spiritual awakening within and enlightenment. However, the consistent practice of meditation brings and have many benefits on many levels, such as the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels.

People who meditate realize that they usually have dramatic increases in awareness of one’s body, calm energy, and general well-being. Scientific technology has been used to validate and prove that the numerous advantages of meditation by measuring alterations in brain wave activity, as well as physical health benefits with time. Over 500 scientific tests conducted at 200 independent universities and institutions in 35 countries and published in over 100 leading scientific journals regarding the substantial great things about meditation.

Meditation replenishes mental and emotional energy, but additionally, there are some direct effects in the physical brain and nervous system. For instance, recent scientific studies have discovered that meditation escalates the pre-frontal cortex of your brain, that area of the brain responsible for positive feelings and emotions. People who meditate regularly also show improved and increase their capacity for learning and retaining information – a bonus for the college student!

Reference
Benefits of Meditation | Swami Kenananda. http://swamikena.org/benefits-of-meditation/

Health, meditation

How Does Meditation Help Relieve Stress?

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Meditation is an ancient technique that brings together the human body and mind to assist a person deal with stress in a balanced manner. It can so by cutting your blood pressure levels, anxiety, sleeping disorders, and depression that are all activators for stress.

Moreover, most of all, it brings inner peace with just a few moments of practice every day. Studies inform that meditating every day triggers the mind to improve its neural pathways while making them more resilient to stress.

Meditation takes one to a relaxing state of mind and calms a person deeply. It soothes your nerves and acts as a balm to your tensed and frenzied being.

Whenever a person meditates, a person focuses your attention on a word, a phrase, or your breathing. This induces relaxation and a sense of balance setsn. This feeling of balance increases our self-awareness and creates space in your head to organize your priorities.

The best part about meditation is the fact that the effect carries over if a person practices being mindful about it. The calmness obtained from meditation can help a person during the day in a stress-free manner.

Also, meditation can help a person gain a fresh perspective and develop skills to manage stress better. It imbibes qualities inside a person like increased self-awareness, centering on the current, decreasing negative inner thoughts, increased patience, and tolerance, which all help to reduce stress.


Reference
Meditation – A Perfect Solution For Stress Relief. https://yogatips.co/2019/01/03/meditation-a-perfect-solution-for-stress-relief/