It seems most of us are overworked, overwhelmed and stressed out. In today’s hustle culture of trying to do more, be more, and have it all, we find ourselves sacrificing the most important things in our lives: time with our children, family and friends, and often our calm, health, peace, and wellbeing.
For adults and kids alike, free time is often spent doing things that don’t leave us feeling good afterwards, like mindlessly scrolling through social media. Habits like these can make creating time to meditate and fully be present seem like a lot of work and not realistic.
This is where World Meditation Day comes into play, a day to remind us of the power meditation can have in our daily lives.
World Meditation Day was created by a meditation teacher named Will Williams to give people an opportunity to take a much-needed break from daily living and find calm and well-being through the practice of meditation.
Very simply, World Meditation Day is a day dedicated to honoring and promoting the many benefits of meditation. It’s a day to inspire people to incorporate meditation into daily life and prioritize mindfulness in the increasingly busy world.
Celebrated every May 21st, World Meditation Day honors the ancient practice of meditation, and invites us to find ways to bring this gentle practice into our lives to enhance our well-being and connect with the calm deep inside us.
Meditation is a practice that uses physical or mental techniques to calm the mind and help you find stillness. It’s been a component of many world religions and dates back to around 5,000 BCE.
It is important to note that meditation is not about erasing thoughts. Rather meditation is about focusing your mind, through meditative practice, and then noticing when thoughts distract you (which they will do) and then bringing your focus back to meditation.
While meditation has its roots in religious practices, you don’t need to be religious to practice meditation. It is both a religious and a secular practice that has recently become quite studied in the scientific community for its many benefits on health and well-being.
Meditation also plays an important role in helping people with anxiety disorders, depression, sleep disorders, and addiction.
Researchers in major medical institutions worldwide are proving in study after study what ancient practitioners have always known: meditation boosts brain health and a person’s overall wellbeing.
By using modern diagnostics like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencephalography (EEG), scientists can prove that meditation reduces cortisol and boosts the production of feel-good hormones like serotonin, dopamine, and GABA proteins.
This means that by positively impacting neurohormones and neurotransmitters, meditation has numerous benefits for mental and physical health. Meditation is simple, but it is a complex mind and body process that changes brain circuitry and chemistry, cognition, emotions, perception and activity in the autonomic nervous system.
When you meditate it may look like you are doing nothing, but your brain and body are busy doing a lot of things that are quite good for you. Meditation both reduces and increases activity in different parts of the brain, and this is very good for you.
According to Matt Dixon, a research scholar in the psychology department at Stanford University in Stanford California, meditation affects two main pathway changes in the brain. One of these pathways is involved in ruminating thoughts about the past and the future. This area of the brain is called the Default Mode Network (DMN) and includes the mesial prefrontal cortex, the PCC, the hippocampus, the precuneus, the inferior parietal lobe and the temporal lobe.
Research shows that people who practice meditation reduce activity in this network in the brain. This is important because people with high activity in the DMN may be more prone to mental disorders like schizophrenia and depression.
Another part of the brain, the insula, becomes enhanced and more active in people who meditate. The insula controls the body’s autonomic functions by regulating the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system and the immune system. An enhanced insula means you are more in tune to your body and its sensations, which results in meeting its needs. Scientists are finding that the insula plays an important role in brain functioning and neurological and psychiatric diseases.
With worldwide levels of stress and anxiety skyrocketing, meditation offers a low-cost, easily accessible tool that can help people feel better, inside and out. World Meditation Day helps make people aware that meditation is an option for them and their families.
In addition to the above-mentioned mental and physical benefits, meditation takes us out of ourselves and into the present moment. Bringing attention to the present moment helps us manage big emotions, like stress and anxiety. World Meditation Day celebrates the present by allowing us the time and space to be enjoy the here and now. This leads to many benefits for us, like less anxiety increased immunity and better sleep. These positive changes in us improve the collective, too. Those who practice mediation have more compassion, empathy and patience, which leads to a better world for all of us.
You know best what is age-appropriate and developmentally safe for your child’s meditation space. Involving your child in the creation of their meditation space is a great way to get them involved and excited about meditation. Remember that meditation truly can be practiced wherever you go and the addition of a meditation space will only enhance this transformational practice.
World Meditation Day is a wonderful way to bring meditation into your life and your child’s life. If you are already meditating, World Meditation Day can inspire you to deepen your commitment to the practice. Wee Meditate has guided meditations, mini meditations, bedtime stories, music, and more created just for kids. Start your plan to enhance your child’s meditation journey with Dragon and his friends.
