Most people live their lives in a really energy efficient manner. They are constantly burning off more energy than they need for whatever task they are engaged in. They worry when they should be care-free, they tense their whole body when they should be totally relaxed. All of these things add up to a lot of wasted energy, which makes us feel drained and depleted throughout our day. Furthermore, all of this tension that we accumulate during the day makes sleep and rest that much harder, and we don’t end up recovering and replenishing our reserves fully at night. Meditation can help with all of these problems.
Meditation is a great way to reduce mental tension. It’s about letting go, and about learning to slip past all of those competing thoughts. It’s about letting go of stress, and about learning to focus on one thing at a time. Not only does that reduce worry, but it also makes it easier to get through our mental daily obstacles. Meditation teaches you to think with your foot off your mental brakes.
The same holds true for our physical bodies. If you pay attention to your body right now, you’ll probably notice that you are tensing all sorts of body parts for no reason. Why do you need to have a tensed jaw, neck and shoulders when you are sitting and reading an article on meditation? Why do you need to clench your whole body when you are simply walking down the street? It takes a lot of energy to hold all that tension, and learning to let go of it through meditation will make sure you only expend the energy that any given moment requires.
Finally, meditation helps you sleep, which helps you restore your energy stores and makes you fresh and ready for the coming day. Williams & Wilkins found that over an 8 week course of beginners practice, meditation was able to produce more restful sleep among their patients. The better you sleep, the better you’ll be able to replenish those stores of energy that you ultimately have to dip in to during your day to day life.
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