MEDITATION: ESSENTIAL FOR REBALANCING YOUR MIND AND BODY ON A DAILY BASIS

What you need to do:

Practice meditation daily, whether for a few minutes or for longer periods, to strengthen mental health, reduce stress and improve brain function.

Why is this important?

Meditation is a scientifically proven practice for reducing cortisol levels (the stress hormone, especially by regulating the HPA axis), improving memory, increasing emotional resilience and regulating blood pressure. It also contributes to more restful sleep, strengthens immune function and encourages a positive response from the body to challenging situations.

*It is important to note that meditation reduces excess cortisol, but does not negatively interfere with normal levels of this hormone, which is essential for various functions in the body.

How to do the basics:

• Choose a quiet spot and sit down comfortably.
• Concentrate on your breathing and observe your thoughts without judging them.
• Start with 5 to 10 minutes a day and gradually increase.
• Use apps or guided audios if you're just starting out.
• Practice meditation before bed to improve the quality of your sleep.

More advanced aspects:

• EVERYONE CAN MEDITATE! If you don't succeed in the first few days or weeks, don't give up - like anything worthwhile, meditation requires “training” and persistence.

• Meditation does NOT necessarily mean sitting in the lotus position, wrapped in incense and reciting mantras over and over again - meditation is basically about focusing on your breathing while quieting your thoughts.

• Try different techniques, such as mindfulness, repeating words or phrases, prayers and visualizations, until you find the one that “works” for you.
• Combine meditation with deep breathing practices to maximize its effects.

• Meditation is an ancient practice with wide-ranging health benefits for the body, mind, spirit and even social relationships. Below is a summary of the main benefits of meditation, in addition to reducing stress and cortisol, based on scientific evidence and clinical experience in integrative medicine:

• Benefits for the body

• Strengthening the immune system: improves immune function, making the body more resistant to infections and autoimmune diseases.

• Cardiovascular health: lowers blood pressure, improves blood circulation and reduces the risk of heart disease.

• Sleep regulation: promotes deeper, more restful sleep, reduces insomnia and improves the circadian cycle.

• Chronic pain relief: helps control pain and is effective in conditions such as fibromyalgia, arthritis and muscle pain.

• Hormonal balance: helps regulate hormones such as melatonin, serotonin and endorphins, promoting well-being and longevity.

• Increased longevity: positively influences telomeres and reduces oxidative stress, slowing down cellular aging.

• Benefits for the Mind

• Improved focus, concentration, memory, learning and mental clarity.

• Reduces anxiety and depression by stimulating neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine and GABA, which alleviates symptoms of these conditions.

• Improving emotional intelligence, promoting emotional self-regulation and reducing impulsive reactions.

• Increased creativity and problem-solving capacity, facilitating new perspectives and innovative solutions.

• Reducing burnout: reduces emotional exhaustion and improves productivity, even helping to treat burnout when it has already set in.

• Benefits for the Spirit

• Greater connection with oneself by encouraging introspection and self-awareness, promoting self-knowledge and personal growth.

• Increased sense of purpose and meaning in life by helping to understand existence from a broader and deeper perspective
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    • Balance and inner harmony, providing states of peace and serenity, reducing internal conflicts.

• Expansion of consciousness, enabling a clearer vision of life, promoting compassion and gratitude.

• Benefits for Social Relations

• Greater empathy and compassion by strengthening the ability to put yourself in the other person's shoes, improving the quality of relationships.

• Improved communication and patience by reducing impulsive reactions, making interactions more balanced and healthy.

• Reducing emotional reactivity by helping to deal with conflicts in a calmer and more rational way.

• Strengthening interpersonal bonds by encouraging the creation of potentially more empathetic, deep and genuine connections with family, friends and work colleagues.

• When practiced regularly, meditation becomes an essential tool for promoting a more balanced, healthy and happy life. For the best results, it's essential to always combine it with a healthy lifestyle, which has already been covered at length in this book.

How I do it (or advise my patients):

I explain that learning to meditate and doing it at least once a day, every day, for at least five minutes, is essential for good mental health and also contributes to the other dimensions of health (spiritual, social and bodily) - in addition, meditation is part of the treatment and prevention of symptoms and illnesses.

Three out of four patients have problems with stress, depression and/or anxiety (if not other psychological issues...): I make it clear to them that meditation helps, along with psychological counseling, GABA, lifestyle and medication (when necessary), etc., being the most effective tool that each person can apply on their own, whenever necessary, easily and anywhere.

A brief report of a REAL CASE:

A 40-year-old doctor with severe anxiety, which led to difficulty concentrating, paying attention and focusing (but no diagnosis of ADHD), as well as some somatization symptoms (bodily symptoms resulting from emotional distress). Good lifestyle habits and regular use of GABA always helped, but the issue was never fully resolved, and discreet episodes of panic attacks began to occur. She didn't want to use “black label tranquillizers” due to the fear of addiction and the various possible side effects (especially on memory and energy levels) and reported that psychological support had always helped, but had never solved the problem.

She began meditating daily, but found it very difficult in the first few weeks, as she spent more time trying to calm her mind than actually meditating every 10 minutes, but with patience, perseverance and continuous practice, her generalized anxiety disorder improved greatly, with no new panic attacks or significant somatization, as well as a much greater sense of health, well-being and happiness.