Happy August everyone! This month’s Joyful Reminder focuses on Meditation. Meditation? Who’s got time for that? –  I’m sure we’re all thinking the same thing. However, here are the benefits and some tips I’d like to share with you…

Benefits:

• According to the National Center for Complementary Integrative Health, Meditation will help decrease your anxiety.

• It is proven that holding your hands with your finger touching your thumb can help with balancing the body. This hand gesture is known as a Mudra. It helps your breathing and focuses the mind (healthandyoga.com).

• According to the Mayo Clinic, the benefits of Meditation last throughout the entire day, “Meditation can help carry you more calmly through your day and may improve certain medical conditions.”

• The Mayo Clinic also says that Meditation may help with the onset of these illnesses:

Ø   Anxiety disorders

Ø  Asthma

Ø  Cancer

Ø  Depression

Ø  Heart disease

Ø  High blood pressure

Ø  Pain

Ø  Sleep problems

My Tips:

• I like to look at Yoga or Meditating like this… We pray to God, talk to Him and maybe even ask Him for His help with certain things. But, when do we ever sit still and let God talk back? This is how I view Meditation. I think of it as a time for God to reach out to me, and for me to be as open as possible and as still as possible.

• The struggle is trying to clear your mind of all thoughts. Oprah Winfrey often talks about Meditating with her coworkers and says, “[That] way of being ‘still’ with ourselves—coming back to the center—and recognizing that something is more important than you, it’s more important than the work you are doing, brings a kind of energy and an intensity of energy, an intention that we have never had before.”

• For one month let’s all bring a better intention into our lives. I encourage you to set your alarm clock and sit, not lay in bed because then you might fall back asleep haha – I know I would! In this time try to clear your mind of all thoughts and listen to what God is trying to tell you.

• OHMMM 🙂

“Be Still and Know that I Am God…” Psalms 46:10

**Featured Image by Mitchell Joyce on Flickr