How sitting in a dark room for 27 minutes a day can change your life

About 10 years ago, living in New York City, a good friend of mine told me she felt I should really start meditating. Just like that. Kind of out of nowhere. 

If I told you I was livid, gave her every excuse in the book as to why this was absolutely NOT a possibility in my life, AND was not just a little bit irritated, maybe even angry with her for even suggesting this might help with MY problems. Hmmfff... ridiculous. 

After insisting  this friend of mine just did not understand my problems and, I don't remember for sure, but probably not speaking with her for several weeks, the idea kind of stuck around in my head; so when another friend of mine, fatefully, invited me to try an open meditation with her, I felt God might be sending me a sign, so I went.

45 minutes later I had a massive headache from trying to keep my eyes from flickering open during the mediation, lest the instructor would know I was a novice. On the other hand that evening I went to sleep and slept for 8 hours without budging. This, until that point, had not been a normal occurrence in my life.

I decided I'd give it another shot, the following week, I went back with my friend, armed with having tried to sit on my own for 10 minutes each day that week, in hopes my eyelids would no longer flicker, I sat down on my bolster, and closed my eyes.

This time, not only did my eyes not flicker, but I had this wonderful calm, cool feeling come over me, and my recent indigestion, kind of petered away, by the time I left the yoga studio, I was full of energy and hungry, oh AND I slept for 8 hours without budging. 

The following week, I sat on my own, everyday for 20 minutes. A practice which grew and continued.

Things began to shift in my life. Not long after, I went from unemployed actress come fitness professional, to fully unionized employed actress and program designing fitness professional. 

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

Now, I'm gonna lay down some pretty amazing facts about meditation, in hopes that, by the end of this read, I will have made a bullet proof case for why EVERYONE should be meditating.

1. Meditation preserves gray matter in your brain. That's the stuff that keeps it working, and keeps it from aging. The Washington Post printed an article where Harvard researchers explained the frontal cortex of 50 year old meditator had the same amount of gray matter as a 25 year old. Uhm, do you need another reason? To achieve this, 27  minutes per day is recommended. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/05/26/harvard-neuroscientist-meditation-not-only-reduces-stress-it-literally-changes-your-brain/)

No, but since I have a whole article to write, I'm gonna give you a few more. 

2. The same Harvard Study ( mentioned above) showed all regions of brain left and right contained larger amounts of gray matter, they did not shrink, except the amygdala region, responsible for stress, which got smaller.

So, more brain power, less stress, this just gets better and better.  I got more. 

3. The Huffington Post recently printed an article explaining that people who meditate have longer telomeres on their chromosomes. Telomeres are protective caps on your chromosomes to keep them healthy, we want those suckers to be really long.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-kirchner/another-reason-to-meditat_b_8376926.html

People who did not meditate had much shorter telomeres indicating accelerated aging. Those are not two words I ever want to see together in a description of myself, accelerated and aging, NO NO NO. 

Furthermore, women who were able to focus on the "here" moment rather than worrying about the past or future had less typical signs of aging than those who did not. Ladies, no lines or wrinkles.

4. According to Deepak Chopra ( I don't know about you, but I believe every word that comes out of that man's mouth), you can actually rewire your brain from past traumas, depression, PTSD and anxiety with meditation. 

5. One more: how much you spending on face cream, treatments, pills, therapy, doctors appointments? Meditation is free. Like F-R-E-E.

 And before you think you don't know how, everyone knows how. Sit quietly and listen to your breath. However, if you'd like some help or suggestion as you might be new to the practice, I am happy to point you in the right direction and give you suggestions for visualizations. 

It pretty much comes down to, we can preserve our own lives and reach our full potential by accessing our own power, within our own minds, simply by sitting quietly for right around 27minutes a day.... for free. 

Yours with gratitude,

Anna