Be Healthier With Meditation (Even shed a few pounds too)

Just 10 Minutes A Day Of Meditation Will Help You Be Healthier

Become healthier through mediation? Lose weight through meditation? How is this possible? I am not talking about just thinking about losing weight and hoping it will drop off. So what am I talking about. Well, we deal with various stresses on a daily basis, and with high levels of stress, comes the bad moods, the tiredness, the feeling of a lack of control, the weight gain, the eating, etc etc. In fact stress has been associated with weight gain for a long time now. But what can we do about it?

Meditation is just one proven technique to helping reduce your stress levels and get all the right hormones doing the right things to balance out the body.

Stress is everywhere in our lives, like literally everywhere, at work, at home, in our pockets – yes your phone causes you stress. Every time it pings, beeps, rings, vibrates it’s causing small amounts of stress in the body. It’s even on our TVs. Watch the news for 10 minutes and you get so much negative stress blasted at you it’s crazy. Even in your favourite soaps and TV shows, the drama that goes on – our body does not know that it’s not real and you feel the stress that the characters feel.

I know what you are probably thinking…. “Erm, Chris….. How is sitting still, not moving going to help me lose weight?” or even “Erm, Chris…. Meditation…. Are you crazy? Isn’t that something that weird people do, where they sit down and hum, yeh that’s weird, I am not doing that”.  If by weird people you include, Hugh Jackman, Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz, Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey, and by weird you really mean hugely successful, then sure. It always makes me laugh, as I so often get some weird looks when I recommend this. Yet when people realise the power of it, they get hooked.

Here are just a couple of the stats:

• Research from 163 studies showed that mindfulness-meditation had a positive effect on improving anxiety and stress.
• Research in people with clinical levels of anxiety has found 90% experienced significant reductions in anxiety.
• It has also been proven to positively effect relationships, your focus, your creativity, self control and so much more.
• Neuroscientists have found that by doing meditation, there are actual structural changes in the part of the brain that is involved in focus and self control.

There are not many exercises that can be done in 10 minutes a day, that would reduce stress, reduce anxiety, improve your relationships, improve your focus, creativity and self control. Meditation will not only make you healthier, but make you a better business owner, leader, father or mother, husband or wife.

To me this is a no brainer. In 10 minutes a day, you could transform your life.

When should you meditate?

Whenever. It doesn’t matter. Just factor in 10 minutes a day.

It can replace TV time, or Facebook time, or you can get up 10 minutes earlier and do it.

How do I do it?

That’s a great question and honestly, I would recommend that you begin with guided meditation (basically someone telling you what to do), and there are 2 apps that I love for this…

 Headspace – www.headspace.com

 Calm – www.calm.com

Go and download one, or both (like me) now, they are both on the iPhone and android phones. And take just 10 minutes a day.

I actually often have Calm open on my computer just for the background noise.

When will I notice the effects?

It totally depends. Often people feel more relaxed and calm after their first 10 minutes. But the real power comes in being consistent with it. 10 minutes everyday to focus on you.

The power of it is truly incredible.

In fact let me set you a challenge….

1. Download the app
2. Take 10 minutes everyday for the next 30 days
3. Report back to me how you feel. If after 30 days you don’t like it don’t get any value from it, then stop. However I think that you might just really appreciate those 10 minutes, which if this is case you continue doing it.

Hey it’s only 30 days! Go make it happen!

Leave a comment below and let me know if you accept the challenge, and keep us updated with how you are doing.