Just 15 minutes of meditation a day can improve your quality of life. Scientific studies show that meditation improves mood and reduces anxiety, stress hormone levels and blood pressure [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. If practiced regularly, life expectancy can be increased and the risk of depression can be reduced [6, 7].
Meditation is not the same as intense relaxation. During practice, you need to learn to focus attention, in particular on your body and the changes that occur in it. During pregnancy, this can help you to better understand what is happening to your body and allow you to explain your condition to your doctor more clearly and to notice the signs of childbirth more quickly [8].
Another benefit of meditation is that it helps you learn to accept sensations, emotions and events. The practice of mediation teaches you not to get involved in everything that happens to you, but simply to observe the thoughts that come to mind and the feelings that you experience [9].
How to start meditating
You don't have to sit in the lotus position and chant to meditate. All you need is a chair and a quiet room. If you wish, you can even meditate on the bus or while walking.
Meditation can take many shapes. Sometimes you focus on the sounds in the world around you or on your own sensations, some exercises involve conscious movement of any part of the body, walking or dancing. There are also quite unusual ones: you might concentrate on a bar of chocolate as you slowly eat it [10].
The simplest meditation will take you only two or three minutes [10]:
Sit on a chair with your back straight. Close your eyes or lower your gaze.
Concentrate on inhaling and exhaling. Feel the movement of air in and out of your nostrils. Observe your breathing and the sensations you experience when you breathe in and out. There is no need to regulate or adjust breathing.
After a few seconds, you may be distracted by other thoughts. Don't berate yourself for this. Just return your focus on your breathing again. Praise yourself for what you notice. The ability to return the wandering mind over and over again to concentrate calmly on the breath is the most important thing in meditation.
At the end of the exercise, your mind may become as clear and calm as a lake. But this may not happen right away. Excited or anxious feelings may arise, instead. Whatever happens, accept your feelings and thank yourself for your meditation practice.
