Meditation not only clears your mind and provides psychological benefits, but also can help improve your physical health. Chronic states of stress are a cause of many cardiovascular conditions as well as disrupted sleep and diet. Building your stress resilience through meditation will help improve your heart health and overall lifestyle. Instead of taking medications for stress or cardiovascular conditions, consider a holistic approach to heart health, such as meditation.

The Effects Of Stress

You may typically only consider the mental consequences of a stressful lifestyle, but stress also has psychosomatic effects on the body. It may cause:

  • Hormonal Imbalances
  • Weight Gain
  • Insomnia
  • High blood pressure
  • Heartburn
  • Weakened immune system
  • Tense muscles
  • Risk of heart attack
  • High blood sugar
  • Migraines

Weight gain also puts stress on the body, so proper nutrition is important in order to avoid developing some of the above conditions.

How Does Meditation Work?

You may be thinking, “how could meditation prevent all of those serious conditions?”. Well, meditating helps block out incoming stimuli to the parts of the brain that process information and reasoning; therefore giving the nervous system a chance to rest. When the brain slows down, it triggers a physical relaxation response as well. Meditation can:

  • Lower blood pressure
  • Reduce tension that causes headaches or muscle and joint pain
  • Improve mood and energy level
  • Improve immune system
  • Increase peace of mind

Dr. Druz at Integrative Cardiology Center of Long Island can help you build stress resilience through a variety of holistic medicine approaches. Mediation is a great tool to supplement and reinforce these practices.

When And How Do I Meditate?

Meditation will give you the best results the longer you practice it. Start by dedicating a small amount of time in your day to meditate. Once you make it part of your daily routine, you will be able to keep up with it and therefore see the long-term effects it has on your health.  

Meditation may seem intimidating or hard to understand how it will work: Here are some tips that can help:

Getting rid of technological distractions is a great first step to help keep you focused on clearing your mind! It is difficult to immediately try and wind down after being busy or coming home from work, so doing light yoga or stretching will help alleviate any feelings of restlessness. As far as positioning, you will get the best results from sitting straight and not moving, breathing steadily, and keeping your eyes closed.

Meditating can be done alone or in a group with an instructor. Yoga is also a great way to channel your energy, clear your mind, and improve your physical health. Stress can not always be avoided, but the goal of Integrative Cardiology Center of Long Island is to help you manage your stress better and prevent the negative physical side effects related to it. Contact us today!