Daily meditation has been shown to decrease anxiety and improve cognitive functioning.
Photo: Chelsea Gates | Unsplash
This Sunday (21 May) marks World Meditation Day. To celebrate and encourage, soul coach Gaia Chinniah of Soul33 shares her thoughts on the importance of meditation.
Meditation practice is on the rise, with good reason, as it has clear links to improved mental wellbeing. Meditation is a powerful tool that we can all benefit from. It can strengthen areas of the brain responsible for memory, learning, attention, and self-awareness. The practice can also help calm the sympathetic nervous system, and over time, practising meditation can even increase cognition, memory, and attention span.
The reason meditation is so powerful is that it causes shifts in both our awareness and our responses. Many people over-identify with their thoughts and emotions, particularly negative and stressful ones, which can prolong them and make them feel bigger than they are.
According to neuroscience research, mindfulness practices such as meditation dampen activity in our amygdala and increase the connections between the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. Both of these parts of the brain help us to be less reactive to stressors and to recover better from stress when we experience it.
Daily meditation has been shown to decrease anxiety and improve cognitive functioning in new meditators after eight weeks. It was also shown to decrease negative moods, lower the risk of depression, improve attention, working memory, and recognition memory in new meditators. In a published study conducted at Google and Roche, in which employees used the Headspace app for eight weeks, participants reported a 46% reduction in depression and a 31% reduction in anxiety.
Daily meditation can even help us perform better at work. Research found that meditation helps increase focus and attention and improves our ability to multitask. Meditation also helps clear our minds and focus on the present moment rather than reliving painful past experiences or living in fear about future events.
Benefits of meditation include:
- Reduces stress
- Lowers risk of depression
- Promotes productivity and increased cognitive ability
- Helps with focus and mental clarity
- Improves relationships
- Regulates mood
- Calms the sympathetic nervous system
- Increases sleep quality and can improve sleep disorders such as insomnia
The rise of those practising meditation is fuelled by the increase in access to helpful apps on our smartphones and the availability and ease of access to online courses.
Popular meditation apps include Calm, Buddhify, Happify, Headspace, Smiling Mind, and the New Zealand-owned and operated app The Beacon by Soul 33.
The Beacon by Soul33 launched in March 2020. Founder Gaia Chinniah knew she needed a solution that empowered and inspired people daily, that was accessible from all around the world, and that didn’t depend on her limited one-on-one consultation hours. Since its launch, members of The Beacon have listened to thousands of hours of meditations from her ever-growing meditation library and users average 1.5 hours of guided meditations per week.
The Beacon now has thousands of users from all around the world too. The app also contains an extensive library of meditations listed under categories such as Anxiety, Fear, Affirmations, Calm &
Rest, Just Before You Sleep, Balance, and many more, providing app users with a toolkit at their fingertips to help them investigate, uncover, relax, and navigate both their daily challenges and life’s big questions.
In honour of World Meditation Day, Gaia is releasing a special ‘World Meditation Day’ section on the free version of her app The Beacon by Soul33. This section will give app users access to her 10 most popular meditations for the week to enjoy at no charge.
Listed under the title ‘World Meditation Day’, all those who download the free version of the app will be able to listen to her Peace Transfusion, Soul Belonging, and Brave Soul guided meditations among others. One of her personal favourites, ‘Chakra Blast’, will also be included to give everyone a chance to experience the transformative powers of some of the world’s best guided meditations for themselves.
Gaia recommends finding a meditation app that feels right for you.
“Having support through a guided meditation app helps take the guesswork out about what you should do or where you should go. It’s important that users find an app that feels right for and resonates for them. I suggest trialling two or three and finding the best fit for you,” says Gaia.
The Beacon by Soul 33 is available for download on both Apple and Android devices. Search ‘Soul33’ in the app store.
Gaia is an internationally known healer, medium and spiritual coach. She founded Soul 33 a healing company and the modality of Soul Progression Therapy ® when she had an awakening at the age of 33. She channels messages from spirit guides, uses energy healing, and is able to speak to your soul and see your past lives. She sees your soul blueprint. She reminds you who you are in a very practical way. Gaia has a Masters in Management Studies, is a Reiki Master, and has a qualification from Omega Institute New York in Past Life Regression Therapy. She has a product distribution company in Asia to fulfil her business desires and she lives her life wanting to be the best that she can be. She has created a spiritual guidance app and is the founder of Spiritual Health Magazine to help others understand the journey. Each month Gaia will provide a monthly forecast of how you can use the energy to plan, manifest and heal your life.
www.soul33.com Spiritual guidance app search ‘Soul33’ on your app stores.
Website: www.soul33.com | Facebook: @soulthirtythree | Instagram: @soulthirtythree
Gaia Chinniah of Soul 33. Photo Rachel Lochhead