Meditation Linked to Alzheimer's Disease Prevention

As if you needed another reason to take up a meditative practice. New research published by the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease has shown that a regular meditation practice has been shown to prevent the bodies stress and inflammation that is linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

Key takeaways:

1. 12 Minutes-The meditative practice used in the study was only 12 minutes each day. This is great, as it is an easier practice to adhere to and you get the benefits with a rather small minimum affective dose.

2. Decreased Depression-A regular meditative practice was linked to decreases in depression while boosting mood, energy and memory.

3. Right For Anyone-As opposed to other forms of memory training, meditation can be performed by people of any age without memory loss or with various degrees of impairment.

The research is pretty conclusive here. Start a daily meditative practice and you are going to see long term health benefits. If you are having trouble starting or staying consistent, I’m here to help! Book a free consult today by clicking the link below!

4 Days of Meditation?!?!?!

As you already know, I have find great value in meditation. Not only does it help me deal with the trauma and emotions from years ago, but it allows me to sleep better and recover faster.

Last weekend, I decided to jump in for a four day virtual meditation retreat hosted by Evolving Out Loud founder Kyle Cease. The premise of the weekend was to give the attendee an opportunity to look at some of the patterns that are running their lives and start to question and process them. Each day including 3+ hours of meditation, group work, and individual case studies.

It took about two days of effort and frustration before things started to make a turn. Until that point, I was in an inner struggle of trying to find and eliminate the problem from an egoic space. What I found was that any time you are trying to solve your problems from the “fixer” perspective, you are going to be creating options that are only from your limited old story. Here is an analogy that hopefully explains this concept: imagine you walked to school the same route every day. I then ask you, can you tell me another way to get to school? Because of your limited perspective, it would be impossible. To find a new route, you would have to deviate from the old. That’s where my breakthrough came. By allowing my thoughts to be observed and letting go of the way it “should"“ look, things started to shift I was able to challenge the thoughts of “this is bullshit and doesn’t work” and “If I could only figure this out, then I’d be fixed!” When I heard these voices come up, I created space and allowed them to be there. Didn’t try to fix or push/pull. I just let them be. Each time I got caught back into the story, as soon as I noticed, I went back to feeling the body and allowed the thought to be there. The beautiful biproduct of this technique is that you get some unbelievable breakthroughs and epiphanies on the other side (which I will share more in later posts).

All in all, it was an amazing experience (one that wouldn’t have been possible without my unbelievably patient and gracious fiancé Lauren) and I am going to continue to integrate these meditative practices on a daily basis.

If you are interested in learning more about meditation and how it can help you achieve your goals, I am here to help! Click the link below to set up a free assessment today!

Should You Be Meditating?

There are many benefits to meditation including:

1. Lowering Stress

2. Connecting to yourself and others better

3. Understanding your pain

4. Reducing mental noise

5. Improving Focus

Personally, I have a hard time being present, especially when I have a lot on my plate. I get easily distracted by work, my phone, the tv; it never ends. Spending time listening to silence in a quiet room allows me to become aware of all the mental chatter that’s going on. From there, I am able to deidentify with the chatter and give the thoughts and feelings space to pass.

If you experience repetitive thoughts or feelings that crop up during the day, meditation may be a great tool for you. Here is my meditation for beginners:

1. Find a quiet space in your home or outside: Make sure you feel safe and it isn’t foreign. Sitting with your eyes closed in a space that isn’t familiar will cause a natural anxiety/nervousness to occur.

2. Set a timer: Use your watch or phone to set a timer. Then put your phone on airplane mode (ensure that the ringer will go off when the timer is up).

3. Sit in comfortable position: Opposed to popular belief, you do not need to sit with your legs crossed to meditate. You can sit as comfortable as you’d like, but you have to avoid a position that will easily allow you to fall asleep (coincidentally, using meditative practices while lying down can help you fall asleep). I sit in my desk chair with my feet flat on the floor, or propped up.

4. Relax: Notice any tension that you are carrying and let go like you would a closed fist. Continue to scan your body and let go of tension in the brow, jaw, neck, shoulders, chest, arms, hands, back, hips, knees, calves, and feet.

5. Don’t Get Up: That’s it. Just don’t get up. There are MANY different meditative practices (breathing, mindfulness, transcendental) but for me, I just let go and enjoy the show and try to do nothing. I know that sounds simple as you are sitting in a chair in a dark room in silence, but trust me, there is plenty for your mind to do while you are sitting still. Worrying about tomorrow, singing songs, replaying passed events. Trust me, there is plenty your mind wants to do to keep you from being in the present moment. My only objective in meditation is to create space and become the observer of the “show.” The less I do, and the more I become the observer of all the thoughts, feeling, stories, and emotions, the more I deidentify and remind myself of what I REALLY am.

When I first started meditating six years ago, five minutes was about all I could muster. But that was a huge benefit at the time and led me to the next step. And then the next step. Yesterday, I sat in silence for two consecutive hours (It was horrible, not for me, but my ego). I plan on completing two hours of meditating for the next 90 days. I hope you join me in this challenge in whatever way you see fit. If you are new to meditating, go with 5 minutes. If you have been meditating for a while, challenge yourself.

My last tip is this: just because it doesn’t “feel good” to meditate, doesn’t mean that it isn’t working or it’s not right for you. It may be that there is a part of your mind that is not ok with being still, or being seen. Or maybe you aren’t ok with not doing anything. Regardless, give meditation a try and see your world fall into place in the most peculiar ways.

Clearing the Runway...

Last week, in my post about a common sleep mistake (going to bed without being sleepy), I mentioned the term “clearing the runway” in regards to going to bed with too much going on in your mind. Coach Matt Wignall elaborates on this term, “Your mind before bed is like a jet before landing: The bigger, more powerful the jet the longer a runway it needs to land and come to a complete stop. In other words, the more mentally active and stimulated you are during the day, the more time you need to gradually slow your mind down in the evening before it’s ready to fall asleep.”

If you are dealing with sleep issues and are mentally charged when trying to fall asleep, it is important to transition from the stress of the day, to a more sympathetic state where your body can restore. Matt offers some suggestions:

• TV Shows. A lot of people report success with nature documentaries like Planet Earth or old favorite sitcoms like Cheers or Seinfeld. And don’t worry about “blue light” impacting your sleep. The science of this is shaky at best, and even when some studies have shown a negative effect of blue light on sleep, the effects are typically quite small—much less influential than, say, worrying and getting anxious about not sleeping because you got into bed without being sleepy.

• Stretching or yoga

• Meditation or formal relaxation practices like Progressive Muscle Relaxation or Diaphragmatic Breathing

• Puzzles or other non-competitive games

• Certain hobbies may have aspects that are non-stimulating and would therefore be appropriate sleep runway activities. For example, sketching ideas for a new watercolor painting or simply listening to music without doing anything else.

Personally, I meditate before going to bed each night. I sit down and set a timer for one hour. Once my head starts bobbing, I know it’s time to get to bed. I usually last 30 minutes, but on some nights it’s longer. I know from experience that if I force myself to go to bed for I am tired (and I’m anxious about tomorrow), I will have poor sleep quality. To me, 5-6 hours of quality deep sleep is always better than 8-9 hours of disturbed sleep.

Need help identifying your own sleep triggers?