Just thinking about everything we’ve been going through since the beginning of the year is enough to cause major stress and anxiety. What we need to do to “stay safe,” in addition to doing things like exercising daily, eat the right foods (YOU try eating rice cakes when you’re binge watching The Last Dance!), flossing our teeth, getting enough sleep AND attempting to simplify our lives can make us wackier than ever.

Creating and maintaining all of these new ways of being is exhausting. And often, we’re barraged with conflicting information from the medical community and media experts about what is safe, healthy, and currently recommended. I don’t want to stress you out further, but there’s one habit you should include in your day that provides a myriad of health and psychological benefits — not the least of which is reducing stress and anxiety. It’s the practice of meditation.

What Is Meditation?

There’s a bunch of types of meditation, and I’m certainly no expert (if you are, feel free to weigh in!) but for our purposes here I will tell you what I know and what I’ve learned from people I’ve studied with. Meditation is the lessening of the thought process through focused awareness, usually on breathing. The goal is to reach a state of “thoughtless awareness” that provides profound, deep peace. Now know that this is virtually impossible for most of us. Why? Because our mind wanders almost half the time we’re awake. Really! According to studies, 46.9% of the time our minds aren’t present. We’re off in la-la land thinking about other stuff. (Which is what stresses us out)

Basically, it works like this…

Sit on the floor or a chair with your spine straight and your pelvis tilted forward slightly (you can sit on the forward edge of a thick cushion to accomplish this). Your hands and arms can rest loosely. If you feel areas of tension in your body, breath into them to relax them before starting.

Once you are comfortable, notice your breathing. Feel your belly button go in and out as you breathe. If your mind begins to wander, and it will, gently redirect it to your breathing. It will take practice to learn to control the “monkey mind” — the chatter in your brain. Some people repeat a mantra or a word to help concentration. That didn’t work for me. I found I can keep saying the word and STILL think about other things. Talented, aren’t I?

Once you’ve trained your mind to focus on one thing, just keep it up and you’ll find it comes easier and easier to stay present. If you are new to meditation, you can start with 5 to 15 minutes a day. I do 20-30 minutes most days and I find it keeps me calmer and less prone to “reacting” to all the crap that unexpectedly comes up during the day. ie-I spin a lot less!

I’m not thinking as much as it is! Why should I start in the first place?!

Why not just grab a glass of wine and get in a meditative state in front of the TV? Because it is not the same thing. TV is fantastic and I’m a fan, but watching it puts the attention outside of yourself instead of on your inner self. Meditation provides so many physical, psychological, and emotional benefits, it’s hard to ignore it as an essential daily habit.

Here are six incredible benefits of meditation that have been scientifically tested and documented:

1. Stress and Anxiety Reduction
The practice of meditation positively impacts your level of stress both during and in-between meditation sessions. During meditation, you release the mental and emotional overload of thoughts and worries that are unsettling you. But even after the meditation is over, the benefits continue through the day as you learn to focus more on the present and release negative feelings.

If you are prone to anxiety or have an anxiety disorder, studies have shown that the regular practice of mindfulness meditation reduces feelings of panic, depression, and anxiety. Another study revealed a reduction in gray matter in the amygdala, and area of the brain connected to anxiety and stress.

2. Improved Learning and Memory
This same study also revealed an increase in gray matter in the hippocampus, the area of the brain important for learning and memory in those who meditated 30 minutes a day for eight weeks.

Meditation actually changes the physical structure of the brain, according to studies at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Regular meditation causes the cerebral cortex to thicken by increasing blood flow and the size of blood vessels to the region. The cerebral cortex is the area of the brain responsible for higher mental functions.

And surprisingly, meditation has been shown to actually reverse memory loss. A study in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease reveals a significant improvement in the memories of test subjects with just eight weeks of meditation.

3. Lower Blood Pressure and Reduced Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke
A 2009 study presented by the American Heart Association revealed that meditation has therapeutic benefits for people at high risk for heart attack and stroke. Researchers followed 200 patients for an average of five years, and the high-risk patients who meditated cut their risk of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from all causes roughly in half compared with the control group.

Another study published in the American Journal of Hypertension revealed that stressed-out (but otherwise healthy) college students improved their mood and reduced blood pressure through meditation practice.

4. Longer Attention Span
Meditation can actually shift how the brain manages attention. A University of Wisconsin study shows that the meditator’s ability to release thoughts that pop into the mind frees the brain to attend to other important stimuli and events in daily life.

According to psychotherapist and meditation teacher Daniel Rechtschaffen “Mindfulness helps us cultivate a better attention span through mindful attention practices. Each mindfulness practice focuses on a different present moment experience. One can focus on many things such as the breath, sound, somatic experiences, or even the entire experience of thought and sensations. The more one practices the greater the mind is trained to stay focused.”

5. Pain Relief
A study published in the Journal of Neuroscience shows that meditation can profoundly reduce a person’s sensitivity to pain. The reduction in pain ratings by the participants (who were mildly burned) was substantially greater than those seen in similar studies involving placebo pills, hypnosis, and even morphine and other painkilling drugs.

6. Enhanced Creativity
This one I can definitely attest to…meditation can improve creative thinking according to a recently published study in Frontiers in Cognition. The study looked at how meditation impacts two main elements of creative thinking: divergent and convergent thinking. Divergent thinking allows one to generate many new ideas or solutions. Convergent thinking focuses on one possible solution or idea. The study revealed that participants using Open Monitoring Meditation (where the individual is receptive to all the thoughts and sensations experienced without focusing attention on any particular concept or object) had a significant increase in divergent thinking, fostering creative ideas and solutions.

Isn’t it amazing all the cool benefits sitting and going “inward” can do for you? Plus, it feels kind of delicious to just sit and purposely do nothing. It’s harder than you think! We’re so used to being busy and ‘making things happen’ that this practice can seem counter-intuitive. Trust me. It’s surprisingly effective, changing moods, helping concentration and more. Give it a shot for a few weeks and see how it goes! Yes, I said weeks. Trying it for 3 days won’t get you anywhere. It’s like training a muscle group. It takes time and patience. Work it, baby!