Challenge (Week 14): This week, meditate for 15 minutes each day and write down 3 things that you’re grateful for. Baseline Goal: 7 of 7 Days.
This week, we’re inviting you to try meditation and being a bit more grateful. The primary purpose of our mind is to ensure our survival, and is not naturally geared toward happiness and relaxation. Meditation can help calm your constantly thinking “monkey mind.” Focusing on recognizing some things in our lives that we may overlook can help frame our issues from a different perspective and, therefore, allow us to reduce stress and improve happiness.
Benefits of Meditation and Being Grateful
The benefits of meditation vary, and many are backed up by scientific studies. Listed, are some potential benefits.
- Reduced stress and anxiety – Meditation has been shown to reduce the body’s production of cortisol, the stress hormone.
- Lengthens attention span – We live in a world full of distractions and constant stimuli. Meditation asks you to focus on one thing (often your breath) and trains your ability to bring yourself to a focused state when you get distracted.
- Improve sleep – Meditating at night can help you release tension in your mind and body and put you in a relaxed state that is optimal for sleeping.
- Decreased blood pressure – Meditation can help relax your nerves that control blood vessel tension.
Tips for Completing This Challenge
- Intimidated by 15 minutes of meditation? Split it up into three 5-minute meditation sessions.
- There are many ways to meditate including breath focus, body-scan, gratefulness meditation, mandala meditation, and others. Try them out and see which method works best for you.
- You can meditate by yourself by setting a timer, or there are many YouTube videos and phone apps with guided meditations teaching you how to meditate. A free meditation app we will recommend is Medito.
- Meditate at regular times every day. Meditating right after waking up, during your lunch break, or before bed are all excellent times.
- Find a comfortable place to meditate. Meditation can be done sitting, lying down, standing up, or even walking (for certain types of meditations).
This is the final week of the A and H Insurance Wellness Challenge. We hope you’ve enjoyed trying out some new healthy habits and found some that you wish to continue pursuing.
