Derek Bye | B.S. Exercise Science, ACSM-CPT
Most fitness enthusiasts dedicate a significant amount of energy and time in keeping themselves as physically fit as possible, but they’re often overlooking an aspect of fitness that’s essential in developing yourself into a complete well-rounded individual both physically and mentally. The most important exercise that you are not doing is meditation. When most people think of mediation, they picture some monk sitting down doing absolutely nothing for hours. The truth is, this Eastern philosophy is actually backed through scientific evidence and it can be done in as little as 10 minutes. The benefits are life changing.
Meditation has been around for centuries and it includes a wide range of benefits from treating anxiety/depression to strengthening the immune system and could possibly even have anti-aging affects at a cellular genetic level. Yet, such a small portion of the population understands or believes in the science of meditation. Why is this so? The answer is simple. You cannot package and sell meditation to someone the same way that a pharmaceutical company can sell drugs for treating many of the issues that can be cured through meditating. Since this is the case, many people fall victim to “treating” themselves through pharmaceutical drugs that are marketed on the television or online. The problem is that these drugs do not really fix any of these symptoms, and they can actually have a negative affect on your overall health and longevity.
How does meditation work? The science that they can’t sell to you.
While there is still much to learn about the effects of meditation, scientific studies have made tremendous progress in understanding how it affects the mind-body connection. During meditation, you are changing your brain wave frequency and allowing yourself to become calm and relaxed. Your brainwave frequency refers to how fast your brain is creating thoughts in your head. Someone with high anxiety is rapidly creating thoughts in their head when the anxiety is triggered (which can be all the time for some people). This means that they are in a very high state of brainwave frequency. Someone in a lower brainwave frequency is more grounded, and can control their thoughts because it is easier to organize them in their mind. They don’t have random thoughts popping up in their mind every second, like somebody with anxiety would have. Brainwaves are organized into five categories:
1. Gamma
2. Beta
3. Alpha
4. Theta
5. Delta
http://www.brainworksneurotherapy.com/what-are-brainwaves
In case you are interested in learning more about these brainwaves, I have provided a link that talks in-depth about how they work in your brain throughout the day.
On top of influencing brain frequency, scientific studies have also found that meditation influences neuroplasticity in the brain. Neuroplasticity is the ability for the brain to create new synapses, or connections in the brain and can result in a reshaping of certain structures. Multiple studies have found an association between increased grey matter in the prefrontal lobe due to meditation. This area of the brain is associated with personality development, planning, decision-making, and many functions that allow us to focus on what we are doing. Through meditation, we are training the prefrontal cortex which allows us to return our focus and prevent us from losing it to unnecessary thoughts.
How do I perform Meditation?
Meditation essentially teaches us how to be present in the moment. If switches the focus from the thoughts consuming our minds to what is actually happening around us. Have you ever taken a drive somewhere and completely forgot what you saw on the way? This is because you’re focusing on what’s going on in your head rather than what’s happening right in front of you. Meditating allows us to reteach our mind to recognize what our body is sensing around us. For example, as you walk in the park you may sense the feeling of light hitting your skin, wind traveling across your body, your feet touching the ground, and the sound of birds chirping off in the distance all at the same time. Someone with a high brain frequency is less likely to be able to recognize and appreciate all these senses at once because they are trapped inside of all the thoughts racing through their head. Instead, their mind may be putting far less attention on sensing and living through the body and instead focusing that attention on what’s going on in their head. Below are my two favorite methods that I use daily to retrain my mind and body to live in the present moment and prevent myself from overthinking.
Deep breathing meditation:
During this form of meditation, you are simply going to close your eyes and keep your mind focused on deep breathing. Many of us carry holding patterns within our muscular system that prevent us from taking a full deep breath. As you breath, you want the air to travel into your stomach and pelvic region. For many people, they will find that they’re expanding just their chest to breath. Focus on releasing any muscular tension in your throat and chest. As you release this tension and begin breathing deeper, release any other form of muscular tension within your body. Perhaps you realize your fist is clinched or some muscles in your legs are holding tension. Continue to do this for about 10-20 mins as you continue looking for areas of tension within the body while keeping your focus at taking deep breaths.
Sensory Meditation
This is one of my favorite forms of meditation. During this exercise, pick two things that you can feel and focus your attention on them. These two things could be light hitting your skin & the feeling of your back pressing against your bed/chair. You could also focus on the temperature that you can feel in the room & the subtle sound of trees or wind that you can hear outside. Just like the last exercise, you want to breath deeply and release muscular tension within your body. Try this for about 10-20 mins.
Just like how the nervous system takes time to adapt to the bench press you’ve been working on in the gym, it also has to take time to adapt to the meditation process. Within a few weeks of consistent meditation, you will begin to feel benefits such as having a clearer mind and the ability to learn and remember things faster. Take 10 minutes out of your day to include this exercise and I promise your life will never be the same again. Be prepared to take control of your mind and life like you have never done before!
D-BYE Lifts 