Osteoporosis damages the bone tissues by making them become brittle and thinner. Luckily, you can prevent and manage osteoporosis in various ways. In particular, good nutrition and regular weight-bearing and muscle-strengthening exercises can help you maintain and build bone mass.
Mindfulness meditation is exercise for your mind, a mental practice that can help you learn to focus more on the present. And just like physical exercise, it has benefits for both your mind and your body that can leave you feeling great. Pair that with yoga, a physical practice that naturally promotes mindfulness, and you have an unbeatable combination for better whole-self health.
What is Mindfulness Meditation?
Mindfulness meditation is a technique for teaching your mind to slow down. While the frantic pace of life teaches people to function at top mental speed, mindfulness – being fully focused on the present moment – offers the opposite. When you practice mindfulness meditation, you learn to shift the brain into a lower gear and ease into a more relaxing frame of mind.
You don’t need the ability to clear your mind in seconds or keep it free of thoughts. All you need is 20 minutes, a comfortable seat, and the ability to breathe.
Tips for Practicing Mindfulness in Your Daily Life
Mindfulness is a simple way to improve your physical, mental, and emotional health. While it works best if you can eventually dedicate about 20 minutes a day, five minutes is a good place to begin your journey.
Choose a regular time and place for your practice. Select a place that will encourage both comfort and good posture, such as the floor in front of the sofa or an upright chair.
Close your eyes, take normal breaths, and focus your attention on the sensation of breathing. How does the air feel as it passes through your nose? How do your lungs feel when they expand? What is the sensation of the air exhaling through your nose or mouth?
Accept and deal with distractions. It’s normal for your mind to wander into other thoughts! The point isn’t to stop thinking. It’s to notice when a thought pops up and nudge your mind back to the sensation of your breathing.
Don’t judge yourself. Some practices will be tougher than others. There is no “right” or “wrong” in mindfulness. There’s just practicing a focus on your breathing for as long as you can.
You’ll want to work up to 20 minutes per day on most days of the week, and once you arrive, you’ll want to stick with it for 30 days to truly see the benefits.
The Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation
The ability to quiet your mind has a variety of benefits that can improve surprising facets of your life. You might find mindfulness helps with:
Better sleep. Mindfulness can teach you how to slip into a more relaxed state, allowing you to fall asleep faster and sleep more deeply when you get there.
Lower anxiety and less stress. Mindfulness teaches you how to steer your thoughts away from those negative, in-the-moment worries that ambush you throughout the day.
Increased focus. Intrusive or distracting thoughts can kill your concentration. When you practice mindfulness, you learn to control the thoughts that pull your focus away.
Better communication. As mindfulness increases focus, it can also improve communication. Staying present in a conversation allows for deeper listening and increased understanding.
Goal follow-through. It can be easy to lose sight of your goals when temptation stands in your way. Mindfulness techniques can help you brush aside the urges and cravings that sabotage your progress towards your goal.
The benefits of mindfulness meditation aren’t only mental and emotional. Studies suggest that it may offer physical benefits as well, such as:
Lessened cognitive decline
Improved immune response
Increased heart health
Reduction in cellular aging
Mindfulness and Yoga: The Peaceful Power Couple of Good Health
Yoga offers a unique combination of physical movements and postures, a focus on controlling the breath, and meditation. This makes it a natural partner to mindfulness. It’s especially good for people with osteoporosis or other chronic conditions because yoga can help:
Encourage better posture
Strengthen muscles associated with flexibility and balance, decreasing the chance of falls
Improve range of motion and coordination
Increase bone density
Combining yoga and mindfulness offers you the benefits of both. Best of all, yoga promotes balance and coordination needed to avoid falls – a huge concern for those with osteoporosis.
Mindfulness Meditation: A 20-Minute Investment with Lasting Benefits
Exercise for the mind is just as important as exercise for the body. With mindfulness meditation and yoga, there’s no reason not to have both! Explore the health benefits of this made-for-each-other duo and discover what they can do for you.