15 reasons why you should start mind fitness now
You know the drill. You're exercising but your head is on work. You're in a meeting but can't concentrate. Did you know that you do 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts in a day? Focusing your thoughts on what you are doing sometimes feels impossible. Mind fitness can help you with this.
I'm going to tell you why you should start today mind fitness. Think more peace of mind, less stress and more focus. By the way, did you know that there are also controversial varieties of meditation? For the scientifically interested among us, I share some more figures.
But first: order out of chaos.
Content
1. The different terms-> Mindfulness-> Meditation-> Mind fitness 2. Neuroplasticity: a boost for your brain 3. Sit still or jump and scream-> Mindfulness meditation-> Mantra meditation-> Loving kindness meditation-> Movement meditation-> Contemplation meditation-> Visualizations-> Controversial forms of meditation 4. 15 reasons to start training your brain today 5. Mind fitness at #Recharge
Vipassana, kundalini, mantras - do you still get it?
You're bombarded with all sorts of different terms these days. But what exactly is the difference? And how do mindfulness, meditation and mind fitness relate to each other?
Best known: mindfulness
Mindfulness has become increasingly popular in recent years. It helps you with awareness. Awareness of the thoughts you have, awareness of what thought processes are getting in your way, awareness of how you feel.
Mindfulness teaches you to do things with your full attention. And that's pretty hard with our busy lives! How long can you keep your full attention in a meeting? Without tuning out and thinking about something else?
Many people think mindfulness always goes hand in hand with meditation. It doesn't. By doing something with your full attention (attending the meeting), you are already being mindful. Mindfulness in itself is nothing but having your full attention on something.
So mindfulness and meditation are not necessarily the same thing?
No, that's right. You can practice mindfulness by meditating, but also in other ways. And you can do other types of meditations besides mindfulness meditations.
And what exactly does meditation entail? A few years ago when I thought of meditating, I pictured a monk sitting in a cross-legged chair for 10 hours a day. Do you recognize that image? I've since learned that meditating doesn't have to be so extreme.
With meditation, you simply practice distancing yourself from your (70,000) thoughts. These thoughts follow one another at lightning speed, like cars on the highway.
While meditating, you try to sit on the side of the highway, so to speak, and observe what is thundering by. Instead of wanting to hitch a ride with every car.
In the most familiar form of meditation, you do this by sitting or lying down quietly with your eyes closed. You bring your attention to a particular thing (often this is your breath), and try to keep your attention there.
Every time your mind wanders, try to realize that and bring your attention back to your breath. This is all it takes!
So you can't actually get it wrong either!
At the beginning, you may be lost in thought for most of your meditation. That's okay, as long as you are aware of it and can let go of the thoughts again.
By the way, there are numerous other types of meditations. Some a lot more common than others. I will mention a few of them in a moment, some are even quite controversial! But first: what exactly is mind fitness?
Train your brain
Mind fitness is the umbrella term we use at Recharge. For us, it is the most practical name for what we are actually trying to achieve: making our brain as fit as possible. After all, just as you can train your body, you can also train your brain. And by training, your brain changes (just as your body changes through fitness). This is called neuroplasticity (about which more later).
Moreover, mind fitness is nice and down to earth. After all, it doesn't have to be all that floaty. This is evident from all the scientific research on mindfulness and meditation. Mind fitness calms you down. And later you will discover 14 other positive effects!
But first I will explain to you exactly how it works in your brain.
Neuroplasticity: a boost for your brain
I mentioned it briefly: neuroplasticity. In your brain there are all kinds of connections that light up when you think or feel something. Because of certain habits you have, the connections in your brain that are related to them become stronger. This, in turn, makes it easier to activate that connection.
So when you worry a lot, it becomes easier and easier to worry. You probably know it. You get into a kind of downward spiral where you start worrying about more and more things.
When you want to teach yourself a new habit, or start thinking about something in a different way, a new connection is created in your brain. This connection gets stronger and stronger, while the previous connection weakens because it is used less.
By making mind fitness a habit, the connections in your brain in terms of attention, focus and awareness become stronger and stronger. As a result, you are less susceptible to outside circumstances, and have better control over your thoughts and emotions.
An additional change in your brain is that the part in your brain that regulates emotions (the amygdala) diminished through mind fitness. This causes you to experience less stress and more feelings of happiness.
Besides changing your brain over time, the immediate effect of mind fitness is also readily apparent. Take a look at this image where you can see the difference in brain activity before and after a 10-minute meditation:
Sit still or jump and scream?
As you read, one of the ways you can do mind fitness is by meditating. But for that, you don't necessarily have to sit or lie still. Which form of meditation appeals most to you?
Mindfulness meditation
Another term for mindfulness meditation is Vipassana. This form of meditation stems from Buddhism. It involves accepting your thoughts and the here and now. The goal of this form of meditation is to observe your thoughts.
Mindfulness meditation is the most common form of meditation in Western society.
Mantra meditation
In a mantra meditation, certain sounds or phrases are recited over and over again. A well-known mantra meditation is the sound "ohm. The purpose of this meditation is to quiet your mind. First because you focus on the sound, and second because the vibration of this sound can be soothing.
Not convinced? Then check out this short video:
Loving kindness meditation
Yes, this sounds a bit floaty. But even this is actually incredibly concrete. The goal of this form of meditation is to develop more compassion for everything around you and for yourself. By regularly practicing this form of meditation, you make new connections in your brain that make it increasingly easy to compassion and empathy feel.
Bodyscan
During a body scan you slowly move your attention throughout your body. The goal is to notice physical sensations such as tension or pain, as well as emotions. Then you try to relax these places in your body. This form of meditation can be very helpful for people who are busy, and live a lot in their heads.
Curious about how such a body scan goes? Try the #Recharge body scan (it only takes you 3 minutes)!
Movement Meditation
There are different forms of movement meditation. For example, there are meditation techniques where a certain trance is achieved through jumping or dancing. Yoga is also a form of movement meditation, where the flow of the movements can help you get into a meditative state. Other forms of movement meditation include (the martial arts) Tai Chi and Chi Kung.
This is another fun movement meditation to try: go for a walk and keep your full attention on the movement of your feet and body. Without thinking about anything else!
Contemplation meditation (or: deep contemplation)
Huh, it's precisely not allowed to think while meditating, right? I understand your confusion.
As you know by now, during meditation you bring your attention to a particular thing. Often this is your breath, but it doesn't have to be. In fact, you can also use meditation to contemplate a particular subject very deeply.
Instead of bringing your attention back to your breath each time, bring your attention back to this topic each time. This way of meditating is good for coming to new insights, unleashing your creativity, or making decisions.
Visualizations
Visualizing meditation also has everything to do with mind fitness. Did you know that mentally learning a particular skill works almost as well as teaching it physically? In top sports, then, they now make extensive use of this technique:
Contested forms of meditation
There are also forms of meditation that are more controversial. Here are a few examples.
Kundalini
The goal of Kundalini is to release stuck energy through physical exercises. Because this not without risk is, it is recommended to do this with guidance. Very curious about what it looks like? Russell Brand explains it to you in this video:
ASMR
ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response - this is a sensation in your body that you feel along your entire spine. People who are sensitive to this find ASMR very soothing.
The sensation can be worked up by certain stimuli, as much in images as in sounds. Examples include whispers, crackling or sweeping. Curious? Check out this video with ears
15 reasons to start training your brain today
Okay, now you know a lot about the background of mind fitness, and about the different ways you can shape it. Is the threshold to start it still a bit too high for you? Or do you still find the whole concept vague and floaty?
Then let these (scientifically proven) positive effects convince you!
1. Less stress
People who meditate daily for 8 weeks experience less stress, and have lower amounts of cortisol in their blood. Also, mind fitness seems to be the protein that causes chronic stress (cytokine) abort. How more stress you experience, the better mindfulness meditation helps reduce it.
2. Better focus and concentration
Al after 4 days daily meditation you can notice the effect on your focus in daily life. This is partly because during meditation the Alpha waves in your brain increase. In this state, you can learn better and process more information.
3. More emotional balance
Meditating gives you more control over your emotions. And this is not only the case during meditation, but also after that. Wonderful not to have spontaneous crying fits or tantrums anymore, isn't it?
4. A positive mindset
Regular meditation makes you more positive emotions experience. And of course, being positive in life has all sorts of additional benefits. Think better relationships, feeling more comfortable in your own skin and...
5. Less chance of depression
Meditating prevents depressive feelings. One reason for this is that you are better able to deal with negative thoughts let go. Also, meditating helps a possible relapse post-depression prevention.
6. Less suffering from anxiety
Meditation can significantly reduce symptoms of anxiety and panic reduce. This is also related to being better able to identify errant and negative thoughts letting go.
7. Slower aging of your brain
Your brain contains gray matter. This gray matter begins to decline around age 20, which causes your brain to be more susceptible to diseases of aging later in life. The brains of people who meditate regularly show a relatively small decrease of this gray fabric.
8. A stronger immune system
By doing mindfulness meditations regularly, you can improve your immune system strengthening. These results appear even when you meditate daily for 8 weeks.
9. Experience less pain
How you experience pain has everything to do with how you feel mentally. By meditating regularly, the experience and intensity of pain can be significantly reduce. This appears to be the case after only 4 days (20 minutes per day).
10. Less inflammation
There are lots of inflammations you can get from stress. Daily meditation can reduce these help reduce inflammation.
11. More compassion and less loneliness
A short loving-kindness meditation can already increase your compassion with 25% enlarge. An added benefit of this form of meditation is that it reduces social isolation and feelings of reduces loneliness.
12. More self-knowledge
Some forms of meditation, including contemplation meditations, help you increase your self-knowledge by diving deep into certain issues about yourself. Other forms of meditation contribute to this goal by teaching you to observe your own thoughts and emotions without judgment.
13. Better sleep
Meditating before bedtime helps to faster to sleep fall and sleep longer. This is particularly the case with people who usually have problems with this. One reason is that you are better able to slow down your thought flow. It also helps your body relax which helps you fall asleep faster.
14. Lower blood pressure
High blood pressure can result in a variety of physical symptoms. At older people who suffer from high blood pressure, meditating can result in lower blood pressure.
15. Reduced craving for alcohol, nicotine and drugs
Many people use alcohol, nicotine or drugs to experience less stress. Since meditation can also accomplish this, the need for these resources less and less.
Mind fitness at #Recharge
One of the pillars of the #Recharge program is mindset. Doing mind fitness is one of the best ways to work on your mindset.
We are therefore constantly developing new programs in which we incorporate as many proven concepts as possible. This way you experience the positive effects of mind fitness, without having to listen to a woolly story!
In the various #Recharge programs you will find many concrete exercises and videos: individual meditations, a three-week series of guided meditations, a body scan, a STOP exercise, breathing exercises and yoga videos.
Do you know of any other forms of mind fitness that work well for you? Let us know via the comments section at the bottom of this page!
