My Health Journey: The Art of Meditation
Recently I've been doing my best to read more with my free time. By doing so I've really began to become more and more interested in meditation and our power to heal ourselves through "mind-body healing." After each workout I sit in the steam room for about 10 minutes and I've taken this time to practice my meditation techniques. For my doctoral studies I'll be focusing on maternal and child health and the impact fathers have on health outcomes, but I want to do so much more.... What I hope to accomplish is to mix my love for working out and promoting healthy living and use what I learn to help expecting families to have the best health outcomes possible. It could be developing a workout plan for expecting families, writing books for motivation, orrr encouraging something like meditation to make sure that women of all colors are having healthier babies. This includes overall health for the expecting mother and the child with the support of the father. It is always important for pregnant women to stay away from risky behavior choices like drinking and smoking, but research is moving towards others culprits like high stress levels and paternal involvement during pregnancy.
Meditation originated from religious context within it was practiced long ago (I'm still learning more about the history). It was originally meant to help deepen understanding of the sacred or mystical forces of life, however, today it is used more so for relaxation and stress reduction. The benefits to training the body to meditate seem to be limitless. I wasn't aware the doctors say that mediation can help with medical conditions like; allergies, cancer, depression, fatigue, high blood pressure, and substance abuse... (Mayo Clinic, 2012). Could it also help with improving health outcomes for pregnant women?? African American babies are TWICE as likely to die before the age of 1 compared to white babies. I really want to explore this further and research these effects to see if this mind-body healing can prove to be beneficial. It just seems pretty logical to me. Reduce daily stress and increase your overall health outcomes. I encourage you all to try 10-15 of meditation to see if it is something interesting to you as well. As annoying as it probably is to my closest friends, they all understand how I feel about stress (it can break you down mentally and physically). Who knows, maybe one day we will all be doing it... here are some tips
1. Make time to meditate (people make time for things they care about, period.)
2. Sit on a cushion or in a comfortable position (obviously)
3. Focus on your breathing (it helps to take away the focus from everything else.)
4. Listen to music (just because... music is awesome!)
5. Don't force it (if you like it, do it. If not find something else you like to do to relax).
Believe in yourself and have faith in your abilities... think about it
- Zo
Meditation originated from religious context within it was practiced long ago (I'm still learning more about the history). It was originally meant to help deepen understanding of the sacred or mystical forces of life, however, today it is used more so for relaxation and stress reduction. The benefits to training the body to meditate seem to be limitless. I wasn't aware the doctors say that mediation can help with medical conditions like; allergies, cancer, depression, fatigue, high blood pressure, and substance abuse... (Mayo Clinic, 2012). Could it also help with improving health outcomes for pregnant women?? African American babies are TWICE as likely to die before the age of 1 compared to white babies. I really want to explore this further and research these effects to see if this mind-body healing can prove to be beneficial. It just seems pretty logical to me. Reduce daily stress and increase your overall health outcomes. I encourage you all to try 10-15 of meditation to see if it is something interesting to you as well. As annoying as it probably is to my closest friends, they all understand how I feel about stress (it can break you down mentally and physically). Who knows, maybe one day we will all be doing it... here are some tips
1. Make time to meditate (people make time for things they care about, period.)
2. Sit on a cushion or in a comfortable position (obviously)
3. Focus on your breathing (it helps to take away the focus from everything else.)
4. Listen to music (just because... music is awesome!)
5. Don't force it (if you like it, do it. If not find something else you like to do to relax).
Believe in yourself and have faith in your abilities... think about it
- Zo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u58LCcxAEaA
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