In this episode on the 5 Interesting Facts About Meditation, I will help you understand meditation. This can assist you at initiating your own powerful health and wellness routine. For health professionals, stress is inevitable. While this is especially true for those doing shift work, having a solid stress-management routine can help.
Every day, you face adversity and challenge that affect the way you care for your clients. If unable to self-regulate your emotions and address the stress in a productive way, these challenges can affect how you manage your personal life too.
033 – Top 5 Interesting Facts About Meditation
By entering into a meditative state, you allow yourself the opportunity to take a step-back from your daily stressors, be more mindful, and let the ego fade into the background for a 20-minute period. Episode 14 was all about the top 5 Myths About Meditation, this podcast episode is all about the 5 most interesting facts about meditation.
Episode 14 was all about the top 5 Myths About Meditation. This podcast episode is all about the 5 most interesting facts about why mantra-style meditation (AKA Vedic meditation) is the #1 best kept secret for managing your stress.
What Can We Do For You & Your Team?
At Satori, we specialize in helping Busy Health Professionals lead healthy & soulful lives through our online program, The Pro-Mind Experience and mantra meditation.
I do this because I know the benefits that Meditation provides to creating a Super-Mind, one that is needed by today’s clinician. And I faced those benefits as a busy nurse myself.
Meditation allows you to truly be in a moment.
Not all meditations give the same results. The style of meditation I’m talking about in this post is Vedic Meditation or Mantra-Style meditation where you’re provided with a mantra unique to you, and you use it as a tool to get into a meditative ‘state’.
I’ve heard plenty of arguments against using this style of meditation. I think these arguments come from people who resist the lengthy training involved, and less about religion.
The truth is, in today’s world, you need to train your mind to connect with your body and be present. Learn more about how you can do this for FREE by download my 5-Day Peak Performance Training Series here.
While internet guided meditations can help you do this, none compare to the extensive cognitive and physiological benefits.
Fact # 1 – You Gain Momentum
One reason people don’t stop when they’re working is they feel they’ll lose momentum. One key fact about vedic meditation is the Prefrontal Cortex gets turned-on in meditation.
Instead of losing productivity, and slowing down from stopping for 20 minutes, you gain more mental clarity. This is a direct result of having a rest and getting an energy boost.
Bottom line, if you feel you can’t find the time to meditate, it’s actually because you’ve not prioritized your time enough. Changing things in your life takes effort. Meditation will offer you the extended benefit of added momentum regardless of how busy you are.
Artist Mindy Weisel credits her meditation practice “for transforming her from a state of exhaustion and hopelessness into a happy, fulfilled woman” (Rosenthal, 2016,, p.33)
Fact #2 – You Feel Happier
The second most interesting fact about meditation is that it makes you feel happier. We all have a happiness set-point, I think. You know what makes you unhappy, and you know generally what is going to make you happy. From that position, I’ve noticed that people often live in the future – in order to escape their moments of unhappiness. They plan a trip so they will have moments of happiness in the future.
But….daily meditation is proven to allow you to transcend stress, be in the moment and allow you to cherish greater moments of happiness.
In Norman Rosenthal’s interviews for his book, Super Mind, he asked the question: “Have you been happier since starting to practice TM?” The answers to the question often came in a louder voice, and higher in pitch, stating “Absolutely!” as well as “100 percent!”.
Katie Finneran, Actress, said “oh, a hundred percent, yes. So much happier. My number one priority is living a happy, positive life. And I consider TM part of my education at becoming a happier person”(Rosenthal, N, 2016, p.199).
Fact #3 – You Detach From Your Thoughts
I bet you’ve been wondering how people truly learn how to sit still and meditate. I bet you also have the preconceived notion that you’ll never be able to learn to meditate because you just ‘can’t stop thinking’. I have some good news. Fact #3 of the 5 Interesting Facts About Meditation is that the mantra is your vehicle to go within. This is whelynn
re you detach from thoughts. Yes!
Meditation promotes a balance between the mantra and the thoughts. This is because you learn to become an observer. Twice daily, for 20 minutes at a time, you actually learn to allow the mind to wander without judging it.
The mantra and the thoughts travel together in unison. Suddenly you are in a place in your mind that is just mantra. Then, you arrive at transcendence where it’s quiet. For a brief moment, you become aware that you’ve had no thoughts!!!! It is still and peaceful. You’re in a state of “pure consciousness” at that point.
Not possible? I’m living proof that it is, being a meditator for 20 years and having a very active mind. I’ve learned this fine art, and I’ve had to teach my body to sit still when it’s counterintuitive to do it. And you can too.
Fact #4 – You Enter Different Streams Of Consciousness
Provided is a diagram out of the book Super-Mind by Normal E. Rosenthal (2016), which reveals the brain waves of people in different states of consciousness, from a very focused state, to waking state, dreaming and Transcendental Meditation. (Rosenthal, NE, 2016).
What happens to the mind during Transcendence? Well, as i just described above, you get to a place of stillness. People share different experiences when they’re meditating – and in the transcendent state.
Ultimately, there is a sense of peace and the body and breath slows down dramatically, as well as our metabolism. You might notice you get cold during meditation and need a shawl or blanket, and that’s because your body is enter a transcendental state.
You may also have exotic and esoteric experiences, but there are ordinary thoughts that come and go too, in the same way that you just close your eyes and have thoughts. However, with the use of the mantra, after being taught how to access it, your meditations and stream of consciousness will be different with each meditation.
It’s important that you not judge your thoughts, or your experiences either. The mind likes to wander into magical places…and this is your opportunity to allow it to do so, with the use of your mantra.
You don’t need to ‘focus’ or ‘force’ a thought in the middle of your forehead. Nor do you need to focus on a sound to ‘block out your thoughts’. Nothing of the sort!!
By using a mantra, given to you by a teacher, you allow yourself (and your mind) to go a little deeper in thought, accessing the more abstract and intuitive levels of the mind that are rarely available in your waking state.
# 5 – Meditation Influences The Sympathetic Nervous System
You might notice physical changes immediately like sinuses unblocking or headache/aches and pains going away.
The Sympathetic Nervous System is what regulates the body’s internal processes in response to our environment. Sympathetic nerves are located primarily in the spinal cord, and interact with a primal part of the brain called the ganglia. If you’re being chased by a lion, it’s the Sympathetic’s fight or flight response that takes over.
As you know, the sympathetic nervous system is the part of the body that increases our heart and respiration rates during times of stress. As well, it dilates our pupils, and tells the arteries to constrict in preparation for the fight or flight response.
You’ll find that this all calms down in a mantra-meditation practice. So, instead of running on empty and pushing your body, you can relax your body for 20 minutes. This time-out relaxes your muscles. And all of this great stuff further enhances the quality of your sleep! We all know that getting deep rest is important for recovery.
Cardiac stress is reduced. Meditation can also lower your blood pressure as well as your heart rate. This gives your organs a much-needed break. Pretty cool huh?
I hope that you enjoyed my 5 Interesting Facts About Meditation and learned a little bit more about how meditation can boost your performance, emotional health and help you live a more balanced life. If you’d like to join our monthly meditation program, head on over to our meditation page where you can sign-up for our next meditation group, starting the 1st Saturday of each month.
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