Meditation Challenge

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Let’s meditate together this month! December is usually a busy and hectic month and 2020 has already had enough surprises of its own so let’s try to make this December as peaceful as we can by encouraging one another to participate in the December Meditation Challenge.

Meditation Challenge December 2020 Printable Scroll to the bottom to grab it!

It was two years ago that I first went through my Mind-Body training with the Center for Mind-Body Medicine at the Institute of Spirituality and Health here in Houston.

Y’all I was the last one in the door because someone else dropped out the day before and I was at the top of the waitlist. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. All I knew was that they were going to teach me how to help people work through trauma and especially the trauma from Hurricane Harvey that had hit us so badly here in Houston.

I was hesitant about what I might be getting myself into, but what they taught us was so amazing and wonderful and most importantly it worked! I promise you I learned so much and have been better able to control my stress, emotions, and reactions since I now have a toolbox of ideas on how to handle stressors in my life.

Most of you probably don’t have the time right now to sit through the classes with me, especially in the month of December, but I want you to at least have something in your toolbox this month to help you process stress and difficult situations that may happen.

I used the mind-body tools within two weeks of my training due to a stressful family situation.

Enough about me, let’s get this started for you!

What is Meditation

Mediation is defined as a relaxed moment-to-moment awareness. Meditation is central to mind-body medicine and to healing. Meditation and medicine come from the same Sanskrit root word, meaning to “take the measure of” and “to care for”.

There are 3 kinds of mediation: concentrative, mindfulness, and expressive.

Concentrative meditation is a single-mindedness directing your attention at some item: an image, a breath, a candle flame, or a word, phrase, or Bible verse. Continually returning one’s attention to this item develops one’s ability to remain calm, focused, and grounded.

Mindfulness is the practice of being present in the moment, without any judgment of who we are and what we’re doing. It helps us to not overreact and not to be overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. Whenever you practice mindfulness you are bringing awareness to what you’re directly experiencing via your senses or via your thoughts and emotions.

Expressive mediation includes shaking and moving. Expressive meditations help us move through and
beyond trauma. They help us reduce stress through physical activity by breaking up tension in our body and mental stuckness. The act of moving actually energizes our “stuck” bodies and encourages emotional
awareness and expression.

Why Meditation

First let’s agree that the mind and body are connected. Your mind tells your body what you want it to do. Thus you can tell your body how you want it to respond through your thoughts while meditating.

Meditation creates many changes that include:

Changes in brain wave activity
Increased parasympathetic activity & increase in heart rate variability
Reduces stress and cortisol levels
Increases immunity and reduces pain
Decreases depression and anxiety
Increases emotional regulation
Decreases loneliness and increases compassion
Increases in control and execution of voluntary motor functions
Decreased stress, lowered blood pressure and blood sugar, improved mood, enhanced immunity, etc
Increased egocentric processing of one’s own body’s in a spatial context
Meditation enlarges our perspective, allows us to see the world and ourselves more clearly, less judgmentally, and more compassionatelyIncreased cognitive functions such as improved attention span
Shown effective in the treatment of ADHD, pain, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, chronic insomnia, symptoms of cancer, Psoriasis

How to get started

When choosing the right meditation for you remember:

We are all unique and are always changing
Pick a practice that calls to you
Meditate daily for a period of time, which will vary from person to person and practice to practice
Ideally, have a particular place and hour where and when you meditate
Use a timer
What’s right for you may not be right for someone else
You might begin with one quiet and one active technique
At a certain point, it may well be right to change meditations

Some Apps I recommend for mediation:

Abide

I have had the Abide app since it first came out and I use it nearly every day unless I get busy and forget. (I’m human. No perfection here.)

I love that Abide in Biblically based and relevant to our day to day lives and experiences. It has meditations for sleep, anxiety, addictions, and lots of emotions.

I honestly use the free version, but if you pay the for the year you unlock a lot more features.

Headspace

I found Headspace after attending my mind-body training and I used it for a year and then upgraded to the full version. I use it every day, mainly for sleep sounds, but sometimes for daily meditation too. LOL, I’m being honest here!

But I love Headspace for the very easy-to-understand guidance on how to meditate basics and I love the series that it offers for stress, loneliness, cravings, grief, eating, and so much more! The videos are kid-friendly too!

I also like that Headspace has added movement to their mediation apps this year too.