It has proven that meditation has major physical and mental health benefits. There are meditation types that will allow you to focus on releasing daily stress, finding peace and bliss for a night of better sleep.
The following meditation will target different areas that may stop you from instantly hitting the pillow and snoozing.
Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness meditation involves training your mind to focus on your experiences, thoughts, emotions, and sensations by controlling your breathing, mental imagery, and self-awareness.
Let’s say you’ve had a scuffle with one of your work colleagues over a work deadline and you exercised control over your emotions. Mindfulness meditation before bed can help you visualise the encounter and process the negative emotions you restricted so you can let that negative energy go.
Similarly, this can help to fully re-experience and acknowledge positive emotions you’ve felt during the day, this can help you appreciate the positive aspects of your life long term. Research has shown that mindfulness meditation can help improve impulsiveness, emotion reactions, reduce fixation on negative emotions and overall relationship satisfaction.
Mindfulness requires self-observation, and despite being exhausting, it can lead to a more relaxed state of mind aiding sleep.
It’s important to know that there isn’t a right answer when meditating, but following these steps may help to dive in.
Choose your seat — Find a spot that makes you comfortable. Whatever you’re sitting on — a chair, a cushion or sofa — the spot must provide you stability.
Notice your legs — You can choose the standard crossing legs (if you already do seated yoga posture, go ahead). If on a chair, it’s good if your feet are on the ground to prevent you swinging them.
Straighten — Do not stiffen your upper body, that may put too much pressure and you won’t be able to relax. The spine has a natural curvature, let it be there.
Upper arms parallel — Having the arms parallel to your upper body will help you into a comfortable position. If your arms are too far forward, you’ll slouch. It’s fine if you take a while to find the perfect position, you’re tuning the strings of your body and that takes time.