Week #3: Meditation and Yoga (Part 1)

Hello blog! Yesterday was the beginning of my meditation and yoga week! I will be meditating using an app called Headspace three times a day! Headspace has three main categories you can choose from; sleep, focus, move, and meditate. Each category provides a wide variety of mindfulness activities that you can use at any point in the day! As you complete meditation sessions, more options become available! I will also be meditating for thirty minutes each day. On Sunday, I used a thirty minute Youtube video for my guided yoga. Today however I used an app called Daily Yoga. This app provides many targeted yoga practices that you can choose from depending on what you wish to improve. I plan to do three meditation session on Headspace and one thirty minute yoga session on Daily Yoga each day.

While researching the effects of meditation and yoga, I found that it can have a very positive impact on mental wellness. Yoga has been proven to relieve stress by increasing body awareness. Yoga is known to have many mental benefits such as improve mood and mindfulness, but it also has various physical benefits. Yoga helps relax our muscles and decreases inflammation in the body. It also helps relax our bodies at both a mental and cellular level. Practicing yoga has been shown to release GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid). GABA is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate our nervous system. Meditation has been proven to improve focus, concentration, and self-esteem. Meditation has also been prove to relieve stress. These are few of the many reasons I decided to give this healthy-habit a shot!

Today I meditated three times using Headspace! Since I am just beginning, I am under the "Basics" of meditation catoregory. Each session has been between three to ten minutes! I have found that I really enjoy doing these meditation sessions! It has been very relaxing to take a couple minutes out of my day to clear my mind. It has also been a good break from school work because it gives a me couple minutes to relax my eyes from staring at a screen all day. I have found that they are something I look forward to doing because they help calm me when I get stressed. So far, I have enjoyed yoga as well, but I prefer to meditate instead. Today my meditation session was a total body nourishing session based on energy boosting! I really enjoyed it and I found it very relaxing. I still felt a little anxious during the yoga because thirty minutes is a lot of time that I could have spent doing work, but I was very relaxed at the end. I have not noticed any major differences since it has only been two days, but I am looking forward to seeing how these habits will impact me in the future.

Sources:

Khoshaba, Deborah. “Take a Stand for Yoga Today.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 23 May 2013, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/get-hardy/201305/take-stand-yoga-today.

Heger, Erin. “7 Benefits of Meditation, and How It Can Affect Your Brain.” Insider, Insider, 22 June 2020, www.insider.com/benefits-of-meditation.