Train your brain with meditation

Benefits of meditation

Meditation is one of the most powerful activities that you can do.

Everyone knows about it but not everyone does it. Only some people practice meditation regularly. 

The current population is roughly around 7.8 billion. Only 200 to 500 million people meditate. This means that only 2-6% of people in the world practice meditation.

There are a lot of benefits of doing meditation.

Through meditation, a person can control the world’s powerful tool. That is nothing but their brain.

You are not controlling your brain. Your brain is controlling you.

You can do anything with your belief system.

Mental benefits of meditation

1. Slows down the aging process

2. Relieves stress and chronic anxiety

3. Builds self-esteem

4. Treats and prevents depression

5. Increases attention span

Mediation is good for your brain.

1. Mediation slows the aging process 

As you age, your body gets slower and you start to lose your edge.

Meditation can actually slow down the aging process in your brain.

This comes from a 2015 study from UCLA that found that people who meditate have healthier and younger brains than people who don't.

Even the researchers were shocked by their findings!

They expected a small difference, if any, in the size of their brains.

Instead, they found significant changes in brain volume.

By meditating regularly, these people developed more gray matter. Their brain volume stayed far more consistent.

In other words, meditation held back many of the most detrimental effects of aging in the brain.

This awarded them a healthier and more productive mind for years to come.

Meditation keeps your brain young.

2. Meditation relieves stress and chronic anxiety

By learning how to meditate, you significantly reduce your stress without having to make any other major changes to your lifestyle.

The more positive lifestyle changes that you make, the better. The point is that meditation on its own is a very powerful tool.

 

Sitting in silence for 10 or 15 minutes has such a huge impact on your life.

When we're stressed about repaying student loans or giving a big presentation, our bodies produce a hormone called cortisol.

Cortisol is responsible for most of the common negative side effects associated with stress.

Cortisol can impair your memory and increase your blood pressure. It can disrupt your sleep. These things make you feel fatigued and unmotivated.

Cortisol can also lead to depression and chronic anxiety. This can bring your productive lifestyle to a crashing halt.

Luckily, a 2013 study found that meditation (specifically mindfulness meditation) effectively deals with stress by decreasing the negative side effects of cortisol production.

Another study that examined over 1,200 participants found that regular meditation lowered stress more than any medical treatment on the market.

In both of these studies the results were consistent for people of all ages and experience levels. 

No matter whom you are or how much you know about meditation, it can be an incredibly effective way to reduce your stress.

Mediation reduces stress and anxiety.

3. Meditation builds self-esteem

Self-confidence is something that almost everyone struggles with on a daily basis. 

In a world filled with critics and bullies, it can be really difficult to develop and maintain a lasting positive self-image.

Without a strong self-image, you may be struggling every day just to avoid another period of depression.

If this sounds like you, mindfulness meditation can help you build a kind of self-esteem that won't fall apart the next time that something doesn't go your way.

Mindfulness meditation is actually a pretty simple concept. To practice mindfulness all you need to do is bring your complete attention to the present moment.

By focusing exclusively on where you are and who you are; mindfulness can help you stay calm, relaxed and aware.

It can also reduce your anxiety while allowing you to think clearly and rationally.

The ultimate goal of mindfulness meditation is to get you in touch with your senses and emotions. This gives you a deeper understanding of yourself.

A 2005 study showed that this deeper understanding results in the development of positive self-esteem.

In this study researchers had a group of individuals diagnosed with breast cancer practice mindfulness meditation exercises for 12 weeks.

At the start of the study, each participant was tested and showed very low levels of self-esteem but after 12 weeks of meditation, the entire group showed dramatic improvements despite their chronic illness.

While mindfulness meditation does help build self-esteem it's even more effective at stopping your self-esteem from decreasing.

When you experience failure or social rejection you might start having cyclical negative thoughts which can quickly destroy all of the self-esteem that you built up.

These harmful thoughts discourage you from doing the things that make you happy so it's incredibly important to address them before they get out of control.

Mindfulness meditation is a great way to do just that because it offers you the opportunity to bring your attention to the negative thoughts or habits and find ways to correct them.

Improve your self-image.

4. Meditation helps you to avoid depression

Mindfulness meditation has been used as a form of therapy for individuals struggling with depression. 

Not only does it reduce the production of chemicals in our brains associated with depression, but meditation also fosters a more stable emotional mindset by decreasing the presence of unhealthy behaviors.

Brooding, for example, is common among individuals with depression allowing for negative emotions like sadness, anger and self-criticism.

A study by the University of Exeter looked for this kind of behavior in two groups of people who were recovering from depression. 

The first group used only depression medication while the second group practiced mindfulness meditation at least once every day.

The researchers found that about half of the medication group ended up relapsing because of unhealthy behaviors like brooding which prevented the medication from doing its job.

On the other hand, those who practiced meditation were significantly less likely to relapse because they were less likely to engage in any of these depressive behaviors.

If you're hoping to improve your emotional health, mindfulness meditation can be a safe and effective way to cut depression off at the source.

Meditation helps with depression.

5. Meditation increases your attention span

Most people are not able to concentrate on their work for a long amount of time without drifting off. 

Mindfulness meditation can help you to build your attention span.

At first, you will find it harder to concentrate while meditating.

As soon as you have learnt this important skill, you’ll find it so much easier to concentrate on any type of mental work.

The hardest thing about meditation is keeping your mind from wandering.

You're so used to constantly thinking about your work and all of your responsibilities that it can be hard to focus on something simple like your breath or the present moment.

But by practicing this kind of concentration, you're actually increasing your attention span so that you'll be more clear-headed and productive. 

Meditation improves mental output.

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Yoga is good for you.

The word yoga is derived from the Sanskrit word for ‘Yuji’. It means yoke (so connect to the head). Yoga is an ancient practice that was designed to bring the mind and body together. Practicing yoga can improve both mental and physical health in multiple ways. Waking up early in the morning to do yoga is the best. This is because it gives you a sense of calm positivity that will last for the rest of your day. Regular yoga practice will help you to live a calm and peaceful life. 

Health benefits of yoga

1. Improves flexibility
2. Corrects posture
3. Lowers blood sugar
4. Burns fat
5. Increases metabolism
6. Stimulates muscles
7. Protects joints, ligaments and bones
8. Improves breathing
9. Gives a sense of relaxation
10. Better blood circulation
11. Higher energy levels
12. Reduces pain
13. Improves cardiovascular health
14. Better brain function
15. Greater sense of happiness

Yoga is great for the body and mind.

1. Yoga improves your flexibility and posture

It only takes a few minutes a day to benefit from the health-promoting effects of yoga. You will notice that your body becomes more strong, supple and flexible. Regular yoga will stretch and tone the muscles, joints, ligaments and bones. This will make them stronger. Yoga helps to improve your bodily posture when you stand, sit, sleep or walk. This will help to relieve body pain due from bad posture (which is one of the biggest contributors to muscle aches and pains).

Work on your posture.

2. Yoga lowers blood sugar

Yoga lowers blood glucose (blood sugar). It also lowers LDL or 'bad cholesterol'. The form of exercise boosts HDL or 'good cholesterol'. For people with diabetes, yoga has been found to lower blood sugar in several ways. One of the ways that it does this is by lowering cortisone adrenaline levels. This encourages healthy weight loss while improving your sensitivity to the effects of insulin. Yoga will get your blood sugar levels down and decrease your risk of diabetic complications such as heart attack, kidney failure and blindness (often caused by too much sugar in the blood of people who are diabetic).

A calm heart is a happy heart.

3. Weight loss

Yoga is an effective way to lose weight because it will boost your metabolism. It also stimulates your muscles and strengthens them. This causes your muscles to burn up more calories.

If you're going to do yoga for weight loss, I'd recommend that you also focus on eating whole, organic, natural food in place of processed food. This will help you to lose more weight. The less processed your food, the better.

 4. Better breathing 

Pranayama refers to the conscious control of your breath during yoga. Breathing control is incorporated into your movements during yoga. This is very good at reducing your internal (biological) stress levels. Cortisol (stress hormone) drops sharply during yoga for this reason.

Improved lung function and enhanced relaxation

The breathing practices in yoga focuses on the slowing down, and deepening, of your breath. This puts your body into a state of rest and recovery. Deep breaths help the lungs to work better.

5. Circulation

Yoga improves blood circulation through the combination of stretching, movement and breathing. Nutrients and oxygen moves easier throughout your body during yoga - and constantly if done regularly. This leads to healthier organs like the skin and the brain.

6. Energy

You will feel strangely calm yet energized at the same time after a yoga workout. Overall energy levels will increase and stressful situations won't drain you of the same amount of energy that it did before. A good yoga workout will energize you immediately.

Relaxation brings energy.

7. Yoga naturally reduces pain

This is one of the most attractive benefits of yoga. Yoga is, surprisingly, extremely effective at reducing the sensation of pain. People with arthritis, Fibromyalgia, migraines and other forms of chronic pain rely on yoga to make their conditions more bearable. Many people notice that back pain disappears completely because of yoga. 

This happens for a variety of reasons. Improved posture deals with some bodily aches at their root cause. Stress is known to aggravate the sensation of pain, while relaxation dulls its effects. You interrupt the messages that communicate pain to the brain when you focus on deep breathing. A calmer state is more conducive to rest and recovery.

8. Cardiovascular conditioning

Just a few minutes of gentle yoga will improve your cardio-vascular health. Your heart rate will decrease while physical endurance increases. Oxygen uptake improves as nutrients are shuttled throughout the body more easily.

It only takes a few minutes.

9. Mental sharpness 

Regular yoga will improve your memory and concentration. Some studies suggest that it can help to prevent (and even treat) mental illnesses like Alzheimer's disease. That's amazing! Simply doing yoga regularly will help to heal your brain and fortify it against future damage.

Look after your brain.

10. Yoga will make you happier and healthier

A few minutes of yoga, at least three times a week, will boost your emotional health as much as it improves your physical and mental health. Your brain will be sharper, you will feel happier and your body will be healthier.

Invest in yourself.

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Use your subconscious mind to change your life

Your brain is a powerful tool.

We humans have a gifted organ called the brain. The brain is about 15 cm long. It weighs around 1400 grams. 

Some people aren't too sure about the difference between the subconscious and the conscious mind, so I will clarify the difference between the two.

The difference between the conscious mind and the subconscious mind

The physical brain

The physical brain is an organ with no actual muscle tissue (except for the muscle tissue in the middle layer of the arteries that carry blood to the brain).

A new perspective on mental rest

Current research reveals that the brain never stops working. It is active for all 24 hours of the day. 

You might have heard people say, “Let me give my brain some rest” or "take a mental break".

That doesn’t mean that you are asking your brain to sleep or stop working. It simply switches from prioritizing some functions over others. There are many parts of the brain and regular 'mental breaks' help us to keep all of them in good shape.

One part of your brain is active when you look at a beautiful sunset. Another is active when you hold a conversation. Another part of your brain works harder when you think about making a decision or calculate numbers.

We are actually giving certain parts of the brain a period of rest (less activity), instead of complete silence, so that it functions properly in the long term.

Our brain can be divided into two parts: the conscious and the subconscious mind. The brain is only one but the mind is two.

There can often be contradictions.

The subconscious mind has the power to heal your body

There is a strange phenomenon called the placebo effect. This is when people feel better after taking a certain medication, regardless of whether the medication actually helped or not. In these cases, it was actually the subconscious mind that improved the person's health - not the medication itself.

What is the subconscious mind?

Whenever you sleep, walk, talk, eat, drink, laugh, write or breathe; your subconscious mind controls the actions that need to be taken without needing much thought or effort. 

Have you ever wondered whether you could die of suffocation because you forget to breathe? Thankfully, your subconscious mind does all of these repetitive tasks for you. 

Your conscious mind isn't in control of these actions (unless you focus on your breathing like during meditation). These things happen without your need to focus on them because your subconscious is in control of it.

There are some important bodily functions that the subconscious mind handles exclusively (you can't take conscious control of them). Think of your heart beat and what you dream about as good examples.

The subconscious is unseen, but powerful.

What is the conscious mind?

Conscious mind is responsible for deliberate thoughts and actions. It's the little voice that you hear inside your head whenever you think of something.

If I decide to go to the bathroom, my conscious mind decides to initiate the action. My subconscious mind then takes over because I don't need to focus on putting one foot in front of the other in order to get there.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t control your subconscious brain. You can control it. The subconscious mind is, in fact, a powerful tool that you can use to improve your life drastically.

You can use your brain like a tool.

How to control your subconscious mind

1. Meditation
2. Affirmations
3. Believe in yourself
4. Eliminate negative thoughts
5. Avoid words like don’t, no or never

1. Meditation

Meditation is calming, relaxing, peaceful and strangely energizing. Almost everybody has heard about how good mediation is for your mental and physical health, but very few have actually given it a good try. 

You can meditate at almost any place, any time of the day. It has amazing health benefits as well.

2. Listen to positive affirmations (or create some of your own)

Affirmations are designed to train your brain to think along certain pathways. Listening to positive affirmations is a very powerful and easy way to take control of your subconscious mind. It brings positivity and a sense of accomplishment to your mind and helps you to think along the lines of whatever you want to achieve.

3. Believe in yourself

After reading the power of your subconscious mind, what I’ve realized is that unless you believe in yourself; you won’t be good at something. To achieve anything you should have blind faith in yourself - and in your subconscious brain's ability to complete the task.

4. Eliminate negative thoughts

You might have seen people saying that they don’t like do this or that they don’t like that. Have you ever noticed that people who don't like something seem to struggle with that very same thing?

If you don't like people who raise their voice, you will notice more people doing it. If we focus on the negative, we open our mental eyes up that that negativity and will start to see it everywhere. If you tell yourself that you are tired, you will become even more tired because things get bigger when you focus on them.

5. Try to avoid negative words like don’t, no or never

Don't think of ice cream!

Did you think of ice cream? If you wanted to avoid thinking of ice cream, try thinking about your favorite fruit instead.

As soon as you try to avoid something mentally, your brain will fixate on it because it perceives that as a danger. If you say an affirmation like 'I am not tired. I am not tired. I am not tired', you will feel more tired. 'Tired' is the keyword that goes into your subconscious. Try a positive variation like 'energized' instead.

Invest in your brain.

Closing comments

I'd like to thank SA Spotters readers and Saguren Redyrs for reading my words. I hope that this information has helped you. Wishing for your good health:

Utkarsh Sharma:

Director of Sparkle Purpose

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Three 5-minute hacks to improve your health right now

You can become healthier in 5 minutes.

Health refers to how well your body functions. Every decision that you make will impact your health. This includes every food choice, every emotional response to a situation and everything that you do in your spare time.

Many people are intimidated by the idea of health. It often feels like you need to make big sacrifices or get really uncomfortable if you want to improve your health. While the big decisions really are great for health, the small decisions are, too. Here are simple ways to get better in 5 minutes or less.

How to improve your health in 5 minutes

1. Write in a gratitude journal
2. Do jumping jacks for as long as what feels comfortable
3. Take some time to relax before falling asleep

Small things make a big difference.

1. Write in a gratitude journal

Keep a journal wherever you go. Find 5 minutes every day to jot down a list of things that you are grateful for. 

You can do this any time, but I like to do it when I am stressed at work because it counters the negative effects of stress that we encounter at work.

Our brains are wired to look for negative, stressful things. If we didn't pay attention to these things, we would never deal with them and our safety would be compromised. Cortisol, the stress hormone, actual gives you the energy to finish a stressful situation.

The problem comes in when we stress too often. Cortisol stays elevated and we feel stressed out the whole time. This leads to an increase in anxiety, muscle tension, inability to sleep and lack of motivation because of burnout.

Gratitude, on the other hand, trains our brains to focus on the positive things that we have in our life. This puts us into a state of peace. Your body needs to alternate between stages of stress and peace. Too much stress will burn you out.

Gratitude will help you to feel better and remind yourself that your life isn't going as bad as what you think it is.

Mental health plays a large role in physical health.

Gratitude is good for you.

2. Do jumping jacks for as long as what feels comfortable

The idea of exercise can be quite intimidating. A few minutes a day is much better than nothing at all.

Jumping jacks are quick, easy to do, don't require much space and don't take much time to get your heart rate up. 

You can do them any time of the day, but I recommend that you do them during the times that you feel the most tired. This is because you can use exercise to tell your body when to produce more energy and when to relax.

There are so many benefits of exercise like disease prevention, improved motivation, reduces anxiety, an improved immune system and increased energy levels. 5 Minutes a day is a really good start.

See how easy it is to start exercising when you break it down into smaller goals. 

Try doing jumping jacks for as long as what feels comfortable and you will feel your mood improve instantly. Do it for a few days in a row and you will start feeling motivated to do even more.

Start small to win big.

3. Take some time to relax before falling asleep

Many people struggle to get a good night's rest. There are many ways that you can fall asleep faster and improve your sleep quality.

All of them help you to get away from a stressful state and fall into a peaceful state of relaxation. The more relaxed you are before falling asleep, the better you will sleep.

Relaxation has many benefits like lowered blood pressure, improved digestion, maintenance of blood sugar, improved blood flow to muscles and other tissues, reduced muscle tension, reduced chronic or prolonged pain, better sleep quality, higher energy levels and less fatigue, less stress hormone activity, lower heart rate and a slower breathing rate.

Give yourself 5 minutes to relax and feel at peace with yourself when you first climb into bed. This will help you to enter into a state of relaxation much quicker. The more often you do it, the easier it will become.

Relaxation improves your health.

Try to do all three of the 5-minute health hacks every day. That will total 15 minutes daily. Let me know how you get on with these ideas in the comments below. Stay Strong!

11 Physical health benefits of mental relaxation

Mental relaxation is healthy.

Mental relaxation like yoga, aroma therapy and meditation is extremely good for your mental health.

It also has impressive benefits for your physical health. Today we examine how mental relaxation can improve your physical body.

Relax. It's good for you.

Physical health benefits of mental relaxation

There are many benefits of relaxation. They include:

1. Lowered blood pressure
2. Improved digestion
3. Maintenance of blood sugar
4. Improved blood flow to muscles and other tissues
5. Reduced muscle tension
6. Reduced chronic or prolonged pain
7. Better sleep quality
8. Higher energy levels and less fatigue
9. Less stress hormone activity
10. Lower heart rate
11. Slower breathing rate

Relaxation benefits almost everything.

1. Relaxation lowers blood pressure

Relaxing activities like yoga, tai chi, music, sitting in the sun, meditation, and relaxing social activities can dilate your blood vessels lower your blood pressure almost instantly.

Blood vessels dilate (expand) which helps blood to flow through them easier when you relax. This improves your body's ability to nourish itself all over.

The more often you relax, the easier it will be for your body to enter into a healthy state of relaxation. This is why doing relaxing activities or learning how to relax frequently can lower your overall blood pressure over time.

Blood pressure drops when you relax.

2. Relaxation improves digestion

Stress causes digestive issues like stomach discomfort, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, frequent toilet visits, ulcers, and an unhealthy change in appetite. It can worsen irritable bowel syndrome as well.

These issues may be acute (once off) in times of short-term stress, or chronic (doesn't go away) as a result of prolonged stress.

Mental relaxation helps to counteract the negative effects of stress on the digestive system.

This is why dome people need to go to the toilet or let out gas during relaxing activities like exercise - their digestive systems begin to return to a state normalcy as a result of the mental relaxation.

Share this image.

3. Relaxation helps to lower blood sugar levels

Stress triggers a chain of biological responses in your body. This is okay if it is balanced out with periods of rest and relaxation. When you stress too much, certain processes are left to run rampant while other processes never get the biological attention that they deserve.

Your body is not going to focus on healing itself, for example, if it thinks that it needs to gear up for impending danger.

Blood pressure and heart rate increase. Your breathing rate increases and you are more likely to breathe through your mouth. Muscles tense up in preparation for a burst of physical activity.

Digestion is put on hold until the body detects a time of rest and recovery.

Blood sugar levels can get real high during the stressful state because your body reacts to the stressful situation by pouring energy into the blood stream. When this energy isn't used, it is out of place and then damages your health.

Relaxation signals to the body that it can shut off these processes and go into a state of rest and recovery. Blood sugar is taken out of the blood stream and shuttled back into storage to be used at a later stage.

Relax more to heal more.

4. Relaxation improves blood flow to muscles and other tissues

When relaxation dilates blood vessels; blood circulation improves and blood flow increases. This helps with two very important things. 

Firstly, important nutrients like oxygen, energy and proteins can reach muscles and other tissues. This gives them the building blocks that they need to rebuild and function properly.

Secondly, by-products and toxins like carbon dioxide and old cells can exit muscles and tissues to be recycled or disposed of.

This is why stress reduces muscle growth and recovery.

You need rest to succeed.

5. Relaxation reduces muscle tension

Stress indicates a danger that we need to escape from or a prey that we need to catch. Our minds and bodies work together in order to ensure our maximum chances of survival in these situations.

Stress tenses muscle fibers in preparation for a burst of physical activity. When we stay in the stressful state for longer periods of time, tension gradually increases. Tension gets greater over time because every fresh moment of stress adds to existing tension.

Periods of relaxation signal to our brains (and therefore our bodies) that the dangerous situation has passed and that we can go back to normal.

When the signal to relax does not come after an extended period of time (or if it comes too infrequently to balance out stressful situations), tension build-up leads to things like muscle knots, aches and pains, restricted blood flow and bad postural development.

This is why exercise is so good for things like mental stress. It is clear to the mind and body that the period of danger has passed at the end of the workout. People who stress and don't exercise live in a constant biological state of danger anticipation.

The bodies of people who exercise live as though the dangerous situation is gone. Every stressful situation then starts with a relaxed and healed body instead of adding to existing tension.

Relaxation also tells the body that the dangerous situation is gone and that they can therefore start internal healing processes.

Relaxation is essential to health.

6. Relaxation for pain

Studies show that relaxation reduces both chronic (persistent) and acute (once-off) pain.

Web MD explains that chronic stress is one of the factors that contribute to pain, and that relaxation exercises can help with natural pain relief as part of your pain management plan.

The pain response is very similar to the stress response. Heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate and muscle tension all increase. Both pain and stress hit your nervous system hard. It is hard for the body to relax or to heal in this kind of state.

Web MD mentions studies that reveal that just thinking about a stressful event (or talking about it) causes a dramatic increase in back tension for patients with back pain.

Stress can increase the harshness of pain, while relaxation dulls its effects.

An elevated sense of well-being from relaxation helps people to cope with pain as well. It helps to mitigate the frustration that chronic pain tends to cause - the frustration that makes the pain worse to begin with.

Use relaxation for pain relief.

7. Relaxation increases sleep quality

Sleep is absolutely essential for your health.

Most techniques that help you to sleep are techniques that help you to relax.

Our bodies go through periods of high energetic activity and restfulness. Hormones tell us when to be active and when to relax. We are supposed to relax before bed time in order to get the best amount of high quality sleep.

It is almost impossible to get good natural sleep without being in a state of relaxation. Regular relaxation activities will help you to fall into a state of relaxation that is conducive to good sleep much quicker.

Imagine being able to sleep as soon as you want to.

Relaxation will also improve the quality of your sleep. This means that every hour of sleep is much more valuable in terms of its restorative effect on physical and mental health.

The more relaxed you are when you fall asleep, the better you will feel when you wake up.

Relax to sleep better.

8. Relaxation for higher energy levels

Relaxation can improve your energy levels.

The fact that relaxation improves blood pressure, digestion, blood sugar, blood circulation, muscle tension, pain, sleep, stress and breathing means that your body can heal itself.

You will be healthier and your body can finally heal from issues that it has been putting off because it was in a constant state of stress. Freedom from stress frees up precious energy that your body can use for other functions like healing and recovery.

There's only so much healing that you can do. Once you have received the healing that your body needs, energy levels will improve as you have more physical energy at your disposal.

Relax for energy.

 9. Less stress hormone activity

The stress hormone cortisol isn't a bad hormone. It has very important functions. It helps to turn nutrients into energy and gives you the motivation to get up and do different activities.

Cortisol becomes unhealthy when we have too much of it. This happens when we stress at a higher intensity than what we should. It also becomes unhealthy when it is elevated for extended periods of time.

Cortisol should rise sharply in the morning when we wake up to give us energy for the day. It should slowly taper off to reach its lowest point when we sleep.

Stress throughout the day triggers an up-regulation of cortisol so that it doesn't slowly taper off. This is why so many people struggle to fall asleep at night.

Exercise can modulate sleep patterns through many different mechanisms. One of them is the ability to push cortisol back into healthy levels.

Relaxation is a great countermeasure against stress. It can reduce cortisol by the same degree that stress increases it.

This will help you to keep your stress hormone (cortisol) levels in balance so that it serves you but doesn't burn you.

Use relaxation to reduce stress.

10. Relaxation to lower heart rate

High blood pressure, high blood sugar, rapid breathing and a faster heart rate are all cardiovascular responses to stress that aren't bad for you if they come and go in the way that they are supposed to.

Stress triggers these conditions while relaxation does the opposite. These conditions become chronic when the presence of stress, in the absence of relaxation, causes an elevation without the opposing reduction.

This puts a lot of pressure on your cardiovascular system. Your heart shouldn't have to labor at a stressed rate all of the time. It needs periods of relaxation. The risk of various heart diseases (and other cardiovascular disease) increase without vital periods of relaxation and recovery.

Give yourself some much-needed relaxation time to balance out the physical effects of mental stress.

Give your heart a break.

11. Slower breathing rate

A high-paced, stressed-out state of mind increases your heart rate and your breathing rate.

Some physical bodily processes speed up (like heart rate and breathing) while others slow down (like digestion and healing) to help you survive in periods of stress.

Our bodies need to slow down in order for other bodily processes to become a priority. When you slow down mentally, your breathing rate and heart rate will slow down as well.

Blood pressure will drop and your body will experience a shift in energy.

Mood changes include a change in attitude, similar to enlightenment.

Digestion works better and the immune system can work in the way that it is supposed to.

Healing processes that have been put off can come back online to restore your body.

Many people use techniques to slow their breathing so that their bodies can enter into this healing, restorative state. Your breathing rate will slow down automatically when you relax.

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