We are a big believer in the power of meditation classes in Newcastle Psychologist & Counselling’s headquarters because we have seen the results.
Our specialist mindfulness teacher Michael Atkinson has undertaken research in addition to having years of experience in delivering meditation classes in both group and one-to-one sessions. Mindfulness meditation is incorporated into other therapy modalities such as CBT and ACT but it is also highly effective as a separate practice.
Let’s go over a few ways that meditation can help you to live life on your terms.
Goal: Sleep Better
If you struggle with sleeping, wake often, or find it hard to fall asleep, meditation can help you to develop a healthier sleep routine.
Sleep is highly important for our mental and physical health but if we constantly have high levels of cortisol and adrenaline in the body, our body finds it hard to relax and therefore can cause difficulties with sleeping.
Meditation has been demonstrated to help reduce stress and its negative impact that can carry over into causing problems with sleep. A key part of meditation involves you learning to observe and let go of your thoughts so that you can relax and calm the mind.
When you become more in touch with being able to relax your body’s state, the better you can become at winding down and getting ready for optimal rest and recovery through sleep.
Goal: Improve Concentration
Meditation classes in Newcastle (or online meditation) can help to ground you into the present moment so that you can make intentional and conscious choices.
When you learn to calm the mind and declutter your thoughts, you detach from all the narratives that you carry around that cause emotional reactions and cloud your judgement, allowing you to be more logical and intentional in your decisions.
By learning to be both physically and mentally still, meditation can help you become better able to take in new information and are more able to resist the distractions of modern life so that you enjoy the present more and are more engaged in day to day life.
Goal: Reduce Negative Emotions
Some research has shown that practicing meditation reduces activation of the part of the brain that controls anxiety and fear responses (an area called the amygdala).
The more you are able to dampen down the effects of the amygdala when feeling stressed, the less reactive you will be and the more able to respond without being clouded by negative emotions.
Similarly, on a day to day level, those that meditation more frequently are reported to be happier and more productive than those that do not.
Meditation can increase your happiness by helping you notice and release negative thought patterns that might cause dwelling, rumination and upset… these are important factors that often lead to negative emotions that might come with depression, anxiety, anger, and other problems.
The impact of meditation has led some people to think that meditation might even be the key to happiness in itself!
For More Information
If you want to experience the benefits of mindfulness meditation classes as a personalised class or in a group setting, please get in touch with our team at Newcastle Psychologist & Counselling so we can help you achieve your therapy goals.
Fill in the box below or call 07966645198 to speak to a member of the team today.
Best wishes,
Dr Stuart Sadler
Lead Clinical Psychologist
