It has been said many times that laughter is the best medicine. I couldn’t agree more. But as a sound healing practitioner, I would like to offer you a similar thought: meditation is good for the soul. Meditation is an integral part of sound healing. That’s why it tends to be fully integrated into all sorts of meditation, spiritual, and sound healing retreats.
Whether you are into meditation retreats or just want to learn to meditate at home, there are a lot of positive reasons for taking time to meditate. Some of them are discussed below. As you read, consider taking at least one weekend retreat before the year is out. If you can go on several retreats over the course of the next year, that is even better.
As promised, here are some of the many reasons meditation is good for the soul:
1. Meditation Reduces Stress and Anxiety
At the core of a lot of our cultural dysfunction is stress and anxiety. Americans are uptight people who seem to have a tough time letting go. On the other hand, letting go is at the core of meditation. During meditation retreats, participants are encouraged to let go of those things that cause stress and anxiety. As stress and anxiety wane, participants can focus their attentions on positive thoughts while letting go of the negative ones.
2. Meditation Improves Self-Awareness
Most of us can profit from a better understanding of ourselves as people. Though we know ourselves best, we still probably don’t know ourselves as well as we think we do. Meditation is a tool for changing that. By making a concerted effort to get in touch with our thoughts and feelings in an honest and open way, we can come to a better understanding of who we are. Better self-awareness is one of my favorite ‘rewards’ for attending meditation retreats.
3. Meditation Increases Focus
Learning to meditate at home can do wonders for increasing focus and awareness. When you meditate, you are training your mind to remain present in the moment. Remaining present means avoiding distractions. Guess what happens? After enough practice, you discover that your focus has increased; that you can concentrate more effectively when you need to.
4. Meditation Creates a More Positive Outlook
Many people who practice regular meditation report an increase in positive thoughts and emotions along with a commensurate decrease in the negative. This gradually leads to a more positive outlook. Ultimately, it means better moods from day to day.
To realize this particular benefit over the long term, you really need to meditate daily. A couple of weekend meditation retreats per year won’t be enough to consistently overcome the negative that constantly bombards you.
5. Meditation Leads to Better Sleep
Believe it or not, regular meditation can lead to better and more consistent sleep. That is something we could all use more of. Why? Because even though the experts recommend a solid eight hours of sleep per night, few of us get that much sleep on a regular basis. We are far too busy. We have too much going on.
Meditation achieves most of its benefits by way of inducing greater relaxation. The more relaxed a person is, the easier it is to fall asleep. A relaxed person is more likely to stay asleep longer as well.
Maloca Sound is firmly behind the idea of regular meditation. We incorporate it into our sound healing retreats for both men and women. Above and beyond weekend retreats, we encourage you to learn to meditate at home. Regular meditation is incredibly good for the soul.
