Stress and Anxiety have many side-effects. One of the major side-effects often is lack of good sleep. Whatever you are worried about tends to stay in your mind and your mind keeps going into a loop and the worry persists when you go to bed. This does not let you sleep, which in turn increases your stress and anxiety and impacts your health. This becomes a vicious cycle which becomes very hard to break out of.
Some of the major issues resulting from lack of sleep are
– Serious Health Problems – heart diseases, blood pressure, diabetes and many more
– Forgetfulness
– Reduced Sex Drive
– Increased Weight Gain
– Impaired Judgment
– Life threatening
More and more people are spending their time and money on sleep therapists and counselors. One of the most effective ways to combat sleeplessness and associated stress related illnesses is to Meditate. Meditation is an ancient method that teaches one to be in the moment and has been a proven remedy for Stress and Anxiety. It tends to make the practitioner happy and increases the feeling of joy.
Let me tell you a little story about meditation and its effects on sleep. I had a colleague who was very driven and ambitious. He was the first in the office and last out of the office and you would always see him work and irrespective of the time at night he would respond to e-mails promptly. He was always held as a model employee and the senior management had him identified for higher roles. Over the course of the year we struck up a good friendship, I came to know him as someone who is a lot of fun to be around despite his workaholism. However, I noticed over time that he had started to have dark circles under his eyes, and he was missing things and making mistakes which was very unlike him. These were definite signs of stress and anxiety combined with sleeplessness. I spoke to him about it and he shrugged it off. It looked like he was getting increasingly tired and not getting any help. One fine day he didn’t show up at work and I called him up. No response from him left me a bit concerned. Next day I heard that he had been hospitalized for severe exhaustion and had been advised rest.
I met him the next week and he looked a little better, but it looked like he had not slept at all. His wife confirmed as much to me. I convinced him to meet my Guru (Master) who had taught me Meditation as I was confident that this would help him with his problems. Good sense prevailed and my friend came to meet my Master. My master spent some time with him and taught him meditation over a period and advised him to practice twice every day. My friend started practicing it and after a week when I met him, he was looking better. He told me that the meditation was helping him relax, making his less stressed and with reduced stress and anxiety, the quality of his sleep was better than ever.
He came back to work in a month’s time with the old vigour and good humour intact. Even after he came back to work, he continued with his meditation and this started having a positive effect on his work. He was more focused than ever, he still worked hard but the meditation (and not any medication) was making him more effective.
A year since the incident he was heading up a major division within our bank, when I met him last week for coffee, he credited his remarkable recovery and health to meditation which he continues to practice.
Dear Friends, meditation is an ancient science that continues to prove effective in the modern world. All one needs to do is to make time for it. It should be part of your daily. Meditation is holistic and complete in itself and it arms the body and mind to be better and can be an effective combatant to any illness.
If you look around you, you’ll see that meditation is trending of late. However, the powerful ancient practice is so much more than just a trend. Setting a few moments aside for stillness and mindfulness each day can have such an incredibly positive effect on so many aspects of your life. Specifically, if done right before bed, meditation can help you sleep soundly and deeply throughout the night. The best thing is that all you need to get started is your very own body and breath. What is important to note that Meditation needs to be learnt from a practitioner – look for one.
Doctors are increasingly using meditation as a complementary medical treatment in the fight against almost any type of ailment, including insomnia, cancer and many other diseases. Meditation when practiced correctly is successful at quieting your thought process and physically relaxing the body – two conditions one needs to have before you can be receptive to sleep.
As a meditation practitioner myself, I would urge you to do the following to see massive improvements in your life.
– Identify a master or a teacher who can teach you the right techniques of meditation. Please accept that closing your eyes and sitting down is not meditation. It needs to be learnt from someone who is qualified to teach it. You can make an appointment by writing to me at anurag@anuragsahai.com to learn meditation.
– Set aside a particular time in the morning and evening to do your practice. Ensure it is the same time slot daily. The best time in the morning is between 4:00 – 6:00 am and during dusk hours or before you go to sleep. These times are extremely calm and a wonderful time to practice your meditation.
– Meditate just before you go to sleep, it relaxes your mind and ensures you have a peaceful sleep, taking away your anxieties and stresses making you a better person for the next day.
REMEMBER!! With practice, your meditation experience will become better and better. Learn meditation and keep practicing this throughout your life to lead a stress free and a healthier life.
As you make Meditation a part of your regime…Enjoy Life, Stay Healthy and Stress-Free!!