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Did you know that meditation can reduce heart disease and just 5 to 15 minutes every morning can potentially change your life — and health.  This mindful practice has many physical and mental health benefits yet many people just don’t do it.  We are all super busy doing life and keeping everything afloat so many times it is hard to find that 5 to 15 minutes extra during the day to mediate, however, taking a moment every morning to unplug and sit down to improve your mental and physical health is essential.  Here are four reasons you should make meditation a part of your morning routine.

Making Time in the Morning for Meditation

“We each have the responsibility to create positive change and positive outcomes for ourselves.  Sherman Counseling, a therapist in Green Bay, WI says, “It is within our power to make our lives better. Numerous studies have shown a deep correlation between meditation and our mental and emotional outlook in daily life.”  A common misconception about free time is that there is simply no such thing.  Days are busy, regardless of what you do or who you are.  The goal is to redefine the term “free time.” You need to simply say, “Yes, it’s time to meditate.”  You have to just make the decision to make it happen and implement it into your morning routine.

Decrease Memory Loss Associated with Aging

The risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are real as nearly six million people have been diagnosed with this disease. Taking steps to mitigate those risks is vital to decreasing age-related memory loss shows Research published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (2014) finding that “Meditation interventions for older adults are feasible, and preliminary evidence suggests that meditation can offset age-related cognitive decline.”

Decreases Anxiety Symptoms and Stress

A study on stress published in JAMA (2014) shows that meditation can help decrease stress, as well as depression and anxiety.  Whenever you reduce stress, you’ll ultimately reduce anxiety and this is what meditation is really good at.  For instance, research has shown a decrease in signs and symptoms for phobias, social anxiety, panic attacks, OCD, and paranoia through meditation.

Increase Self-Awareness

In some cases, you can develop a stronger understanding of who you are and how you want to grow as a person through meditation.  Many people are seeking to increase their self-awareness as a reason to start meditation.  For example, one “dysfunctional self” study published in Advances in Mind Body Medicine (2014) found that, “The practices common to most forms of yoga and meditation are (1) focusing of attention; (2) creating a state of relaxation; and (3) developing mindfulness through efferent attenuation, sensory attenuation, and non-analytic attention.

Decrease Addictive Tendencies

We all have our addictions whether it’s ice cream, cigarettes or work.  How we break those addictive cycles is challenging, but if you meditate, you may have a better chance at winning over your addiction.  “Utilizing meditation as a intervention for emotional eating and weight loss has been found to be effective,” says Dr. Richard Honaker, Chief Medical Adviser at Your Doctors Online.  Research published in Eating Behaviors (2014) reported that nearly 50 scholarly studies on meditation and binge eating found that people who meditate do in fact have more control over eating behavior.

In Conclusion . . .

Meditation has a variety of benefits.  Making meditation part of your morning routine is the only way to get those mental and physical health benefits.  It is worth it to just take five minutes of your morning and try to work your way to 20 minutes within a month or two.