Meditation is the healthy practice of recentering your mind and body by paying attention. As you probably know, meditation is one of my favorite things in the world! There are many different forms of meditation, most center around your breath, a clear mind, and positive energy. It can be an incredible experience many are drawn to time and time again.
If done obsessively, you can be addicted to meditation and the natural high that results from it. The risks for this are low and significantly outweighed by the incredible health benefits. Practicing meditation correctly, with good intention, improves the condition of many physical and emotional health issues.
If you struggle with mental health issues, chronic pain, or insomnia, meditation may prove a beneficial addition to your treatment plan. Meditation can boost both your mental state and your physical health.
Can You Be Addicted to Meditation?
Stress from being overworked, a lack of positive thinking, and an insufficient quality of sleep will wreak havoc on your well-being. To find peace from this stress many turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms. If you are seeking a natural approach to combat your health, meditation may be the answer.
Calming your mind and slowing down the nervous system can do wonders in many aspects of your life. Some people can become addicted to this feeling of euphoria. I certainly was for quite some time in the beginning. I remember walking around and telling everyone that it’s better than sex. Yeah and now I’m single. That’s an Oopsie. 🙂
Getting addicted may result in becoming less productive.
There is little research done on the subject of addiction to this practice. As with anything that makes the body feel good, this could lead to addictive habits.
Meditation significantly affects neurotransmitters and hormones including dopamine, cortisol, and serotonin. These make the brain happy. The body will feel pleasant during and after meditation practice. Natural highs such as this can be habit-forming. This brings up the inquiry of whether meditation is healthy.
The slim possibility of ‘addictive tendencies’, and the natural high resulting from meditation, do not make this an unhealthy practice. In fact, mediation is the healthiest route for many physical and emotional issues.
Many healthy activities produce this same type of natural high: running, weightlifting, music, dance, massage, and even performing community service. All of which are healthy activities and ways to promote the production of hormones to make your body happy.
How to Tell When You’ve Become Addicted to Mediation
Choosing the comfort of your meditative state, rather than performing your obligations is unhealthy. Avoiding your responsibilities is never a good thing. Rather than the positive experience intended, when done obsessively, meditation can prove harmful.
Some become so obsessed that they prefer their meditative state over their waking state. This kind of detachment may disrupt your daily life. Being less productive at work, school, or opting out of participating in your personal relationships would indicate your meditation has become an addiction.
Is Meditation Right for You?
Meditation is a healthy outlet to help us sleep and increase our positive energy throughout the day. The best thing that I love about it is that anyone can meditate and it’s FREE. The benefits of adding this practice to your routine are endless. They include:
- Decreased stress
- Decreased anxiety
- Relief from insomnia
- Increased attention span
- Lower blood pressure
- Coping with PTSD, OCD
- Aid in drug and alcohol recovery
- Increased metabolism, resulting in weight loss
- Better mood
If you suffer from insomnia, depression, or anxiety, adding meditation to your routine may be beneficial. At the beginning, don’t focus too much on how long you meditate for, but rather make sure that you practice regularly.
Here are some specific things people use meditation for:
- Before stressful situations and events (public speaking, flights, interviews)
- Sleep
- Chronic Pain
- Depression
- Focus
- Before a performance
- Studying
- Coping with drug/alcohol withdrawal
- Binge Eating
Meditation for Addiction Treatment
Ironically, despite the few that can become addicted to meditation, this practice is scientifically proven to help with serious addictions.
Depression, anxiety, and fear are often underlying causes in those struggling with substance abuse. Meditation can help alleviate these emotional health issues and calm the nervous system.
Meditation can also help alleviate the withdrawal symptoms associated with substance abuse. It’s a beneficial addition to drug and alcohol treatment programs. If you are suffering from drug or alcohol addiction here is a link with more information: using meditation to alleviate symptoms of withdrawal.
Meditation for Physical Ailments
Meditation can also offer relief with many physical ailments. It can aid in the relief of chronic pain, help lower and manage blood pressure, and decrease your risk of heart disease.
By calming the nervous system your heart will not have to work so hard and your body will thank you. Physical pain can also be caused by underlying emotional health issues. These are also improved by regular meditation.
Meditation for Sleep Health
Meditating before going to bed can improve sleep and offer relief from insomnia. It can also help with reducing sleep-related anxiety which can decrease nightmares and terrors in many individuals.
Binaural beats, delta waves, and guided meditations are ideal to gently guide you into a peaceful sleep. One of my favorite guided meditation APPs for sleep called “Calm.” Check it out, it’s awesome.
Choosing the Right Meditation Intention
Building self-confidence, improving self-awareness, learning self-acceptance, reconnecting with loved ones, and lucid dreaming are examples of common meditative intentions.
I think it’s valuable to know why you want to start meditating. And everyone’s got their own reasons. Those reasons will help you to adhere to practice and make sure it becomes a regular habit so you can reap all of those amazing benefits it has to offer. As with many things in life, consistency is the key to getting great results.
I know many people who don’t believe that meditation is good for you. I didn’t, at first.
When I first sat down to meditate over 3 years ago I was extremely skeptical about it. I didn’t have a positive attitude toward this strange practice.
However, at the time I was in a very dark place of my life; I desperately needed help. I’d take any help I could get. At one point, it was so bad, I was ready to give up. And meditation was like the last resort in all of my attempts to climb out of hell.
I read the instructions. “Sit down and focus on your breath.”
And then what? Am I to believe that I’ll get those amazing benefits from just doing just that? It just didn’t make any sense.
I was absolutely sure meditation would never work on me. But I didn’t have any other option. What was mind blowing for me is that it did work regardless of whether I believed in it or not. That was one of the only times in my life when I was happy when I was proven wrong. It was a life-saver.
There are many reasons why people start meditating. And depending on those reasons, you might want to pick the type of meditation that suits best your needs. Also, if you’re just starting out, I highly suggest picking Guided meditations. As the name implies, there is a person guiding you along the way, step-by-step, teaching you the fundamentals, as you discover further the nature of your own mind.
Different Types of Meditation
- Vipassana meditation: Also known as insight meditation. That’s my favorite one, I practice it daily. It’s a type of mental training where by using focused, controlled attention you discover the nature of your own mind.
- Loving-kindness– With this type of meditation you learn to cultivate love and kindness towards yourself and others. I love this one, too. I try to practice it weekly.
- Zen Meditation- Similar to Vipassana, however the awareness in Zen meditation is general and broad, not focused on a specific object.
- Sound Meditation- Listening to noise such as delta waves or binaural beats can aid and influence your meditative state.
- Chakra Meditation- This type of meditation focuses on clearing and maintaining your chakras. It is best to start with the seven core chakras. These are how you maintain a balance inside your body, resulting in good health. For a more in-depth description of chakra meditation, including descriptions of each of the seven core chakras, click here.
- Mantra Meditation – You pick a simple word, mantra, and recite it either out loud or to yourself. Focus your attention on the sound and feel of that mantra. If you attention shifts, notice that, and without judgement, return it to your mantra again.
When Should You Meditate?
There is a research that suggest that you can get extra benefits if you do it in the morning and before going to sleep; doing so will improve mood and concentration throughout your day.
A guided sleep talk down will also fight sleep-related anxiety and increase your quality of sleep. You can also choose to mediate before particularly stressful situations such as medical procedures, flights, and numerous other personal stressful events.
From my experience it doesn’t matter if you decide to meditate in the morning or before going to bed, as long as you do it at all.
As I mentioned earlier, consistency is the most important thing. Which brings us to a very important point.
How long should you meditate for?
The short answer is, meditate for any amount of time as long as you manage to do it daily. Your priority at start should be forming a regular habit.
I hear a lot people say 30 minutes is what you should aim for. Some say even 30 minutes in the morning, and then 30 minutes in the evening. All due respect, but they’re nuts. 🙂
Yes, you will there eventually, but not from the get go.
You are never gonna stick with that schedule. It’s too harsh. Well, may be some can, but most won’t.
That’s like for a person who has never run a race in their life (me), to say, on your first day of training just go run a marathon. Yeah, good luck with that 🙂
There is a secret that anybody who has meditated for years know, the difference between meditating for just one minute a day, and not meditating at all is astronomical.
And that is exactly why I suggest just start with one minute a day, every day. And build your way up, at your own pace.
The trick is, you’ll realize as you do it – one minute is not that hard; you’ll quickly notice you can do more. And so you will.
Always do the baby steps, don’t overwhelm yourself. Start small. And progress your way up.
In conclusion
Anything that makes you feel good, including meditation, can be addictive and start interfering with your daily life. Although, if done correctly with good intention, the emotional and physical health benefits of practicing meditation outweigh this possibility.
