Elevate Your Well-Being: The Impact of Meditation on Immune Health and Stress Management
From your inbox to the news and sitting in traffic, modern life offers ample opportunities for stress. While many recognize the toll stress takes on mental health, such as worry, insomnia, anxiety, depression, and panic, it's essential to understand its impact on physical well-being.
Did you know that stress can serve as both a risk factor and a trigger for the development and exacerbation of certain diseases? Chronic stress, in particular, lowers your immune response and makes you more susceptible to illness.
This is why after big projects, final exams, the conclusion of a business quarter, or the end of the semester, you find yourself in bed fighting off an illness.
As a naturopathic doctor, my focus is on preventing disease and dysfunction. Mindful activities like meditation can play a crucial role in buffering the impact of stress on the immune system!
Specific benefits of mindfulness activities such as meditation include:
Decreased inflammation
Increased activity of the enzymes that protect against cell aging
Fewer respiratory infections and subsequent missed days of work
Regulates and restores healthy cortisol (your stress hormone) balance
Meditation serves as a powerful antidote to stress, despite its common portrayal as boring or tedious. Establishing it as a routine in your life, even with just 5 minutes a day, can yield significant benefits.
Here are practical tips to incorporate meditation into your routine:
1. Start small: 5 minutes are better than no minutes
Just like you brush your teeth twice a day without thinking, add meditating to your routine.
Do whatever it takes; put it in your calendar, set an alarm or a notification to remind you, or have a text accountability buddy
2. Try different styles, teachers, and apps
There are many stellar types of teachers, styles, and various apps to help.
Some of my favorites are the loving-kindness meditation, guided body scan meditation, teachers Sarah Blondin and Elena Brower, and the Insight Timer App.
3. Too anxious to sit?
No worries! Consider lying down or doing a walking meditation. Breathe with your steps, taking a breath in to step forward, breathe out, and move your other foot forward to meet it. Continue focusing on just your breath; let the thoughts come and go.
While we may not always be able to eliminate all stressors, managing how we handle and move through them can significantly impact our mental health, immune health, and overall well-being.
Happy meditating!
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Ready to create a more mindful life, reduce stress impact, or boost your immune system?
Work with me.
I offer free 15-minute phone consults to discuss how naturopathic medicine and my approach can support you. Click here to book!
Sources:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26799456/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22778122/---