Some days can seem like a constant rush, between hurrying kids to school, hunkering down to finish work and family tasks and continuing right through dinner and on to bedtime. With so many demands competing for our time, it can be a real challenge to find time for deliberate, intentional relaxation.
But there’s a good bit of research that that’s exactly what our bodies – especially our hearts –
need from us. In honor of
American Heart Month, we wanted to share some thoughts on building “Me Time” into your daily or weekly routine.
WebMD has a helpful
rundown of the benefits of meditation, and on the ways that something as simple as repetition can calm a body down:
“Focusing on the breath, ignoring thoughts, and repeating a word or phrase - a mantra - creates the biological response of relaxation,” Stan Chapman, PhD, a psychologist in the Center for Pain Medicine at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, tells WebMD.
Want more specifics? The
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine at the National Institutes of Health has a
wealth of information on meditation/relaxation benefits and practices – they’ve even got videos for folks who need a visual demonstration.