Effectively Manage Stress, Anxiety, and Depression with Meditation

Man meditating in nature. Meditation can help manage stress, anxiety, and depression

How Meditation Can Transformatively Help You Annually, the 19th of November is set aside for the global awareness of issues that men face. The bright side of this celebration is the focus on the positive value that men bring to the world, communities, and families, motivating them to become positive role models. This call urges men to take care of their emotional, mental, physical, and social well-being, and meditation proves highly effective for robust improvement. International Men’s Day is a platform to raise awareness of the issues that men face, especially on mental health. On social media, netizens encourage men to cry, speak up, seek help, and express their emotions without fear of judgment or ridicule. However, despite these suggestions, most men still find it hard to shed tears. Just as I introspected during a conversation with my friend reacting to a video I posted, she explained that men tend to die faster than women because they prefer to keep silent about their struggles. I understand her standpoint, and as we conversed, I explained my experience of trauma and feelings. While men may choose discretion for various reasons, and though I have no rational explanation, most men see crying as a waste of time and would prefer to use that time to solve the problem. The best recommendations for improving mental health should be therapeutic and problem-solving. The eureka I could think of, like Einstein, is constant meditation. Stress, anxiety, and depression are inimical to our person. These emotional irregularities have a negative impact, deteriorating the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being of the individual. Meditation offers many benefits to evading future maladies. Types of Meditation 1. Mindfulness meditation: This meditation is based on awareness of what you are experiencing in the present moment. You don’t judge or react but instead focus on your breath, body sensations, thoughts, or emotions. The goal is cultivating a non-judgmental attitude and accepting yourself and your experience. 2. Transcendental meditation: Repeat in your mind a specific mantra, a word, or phrase with special meaning to you. This self-help technique transcends thoughts and reaches a state of pure consciousness, attributed to lowering blood pressure, improving cardiovascular health, and enhancing creativity and intelligence. 3. Guided meditation: Involves a teacher or recording guiding you through a specific meditation pattern, useful for beginners needing support. It helps you relax, focus, visualize, or achieve a certain goal. 4. Vipassana meditation: An insightful meditation aiming for a clear and direct understanding of the true nature of reality. Observing breath and sensations helps develop wisdom, compassion, and liberation. 5. Loving-kindness meditation: Cultivate feelings of unconditional love toward yourself and others, aiming to develop a sense of connection, empathy, and generosity. 6. Chakra meditation: Focus on each of your seven chakras, corresponding to different aspects of your health. The goal is to balance and harmonize the chakras and activate and enhance your energy flow. 7. Yoga meditation: Centered around the ancient practice of yoga, involving poses, movements, and breathing techniques to calm your mind, relax your body, and connect to your inner self. Benefits of Meditation – Lowers stress levels by reducing cortisol production and increasing activities of the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting relaxation and healing. – Improves memory and focus by enhancing attention strength and endurance, working memory, and recognition memory. – Reduces depression symptoms by increasing self-awareness, self-esteem, and positive emotions. – Increases creativity and intelligence. – Offers a new perspective on stressful situations. – Enhances self-awareness and personal growth. – Generates kindness by increasing positive feelings and actions. – Helps fight addiction by increasing self-control and awareness of triggers. – Improves sleep by controlling and redirecting thoughts leading to insomnia. – Equips with the ability to cope with pain. – Decreases blood pressure by reducing the strain on your heart. Conclusion Meditation has proven to be therapeutic based on various studies, benefiting many people and highly recommended for you. Different types of meditation can help cope with toxic emotions. Start meditating today for turbulent results.

Men and Mental Health

relaxation meditation health 7282116

Men’s mental health has not been taken seriously for a while now. Depression and loneliness have often been attributed to women alone. Both men and women suffer from mental health disorders. Men’s mental disorder has been a silent crisis. It is an epidemic that is not talked about because men fail to show it. Mental health is focused on women, and the gender gap added to the prevalence of mental disorders among men. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reports that men are more likely to die by suicide than women. It is a crisis that men tend to repress and not show. They battle with it privately so as not to show signs of weakness. The pandemic in 2020 also added to the breakdown of mental health as men had to stay at home. This made many men go into depression and anxiety. Social isolation made many men suffer from mental health. Surveys around the world have admitted that men suffer from mental health as much as women do. Failure to open up about mental health has led to the death of many persons. More men are on the verge of suicide due to mental health. The best way to find out about mental health among men is to check through suicide statistics around the world. You will be stunned to discover that a lot of men have suffered from this disorder. Through research, web content, and academic studies, men’s mental health came to light. There are many reasons why some men choose to be silent about their struggles with a mental disorder. One of them is that they may be termed weak and feminine when seen as depressed or having anxiety. The socio-cultural way men are seen or portrayed in society tends to make men keep their struggles to themselves. Men that repress and bottle up their anxiety or depression, tend to be aggressive and often sink into further disorders like loneliness. Knowing about it will be the first step to overcoming the disorders. This will aid in understanding your health and improving it. Common Mental Disorders There are some mental health issues out there that many men are suffering from which some may not be aware of. Here are lists of some of the common mental health issues: Depression: This is one of the silent killers of men all over the world. Research conducted by some medical professionals shows that the major cause of suicide in America was caused by depression. Many celebrities have taken their lives due to depression. During an interview, Dwayne Johnson, popularly known as “The Rock” admitted that at some point in his life he has a bout of depression. In his words, “I found that, with depression, one of the most important things you could realize is that you’re not alone.” Eating Disorder: This may be considered a minute thing, but it is a disorder that some men fight with daily. Men with this disorder tend to have an intense fear of weight gain or being fat. Loneliness: This may seem like nothing but during the Pandemic lockdown, the social isolation forced many men into loneliness and depression. Separation and divorce seem to be the leading causes of mental health among men. The separation from spouses and children can badly affect them psychologically and thus lead to suicidal thoughts. Tiwa Savage’s ex-husband, Tunji Balogun, popularly known as TeeBillz suffered from depression in 2016 and also attempted suicide after his marriage with Tiwa Savage crashed. Personality Disorder: Men with this disorder find it hard to relate to people and situations. They have a rigid and unhealthy pattern of thinking. Such men may have been abused verbally or influenced by their peers. Researches have it that they are mainly caused by genetic and environmental influence. Stress: High workload or the need to meet deadlines is a major factor for men to be stressed. Lack of social support may add to the heavy load of stress. The hustle and bustle of city life have a ripple effect on the lives of men as it weakens the body and increases the stress rate among men. Anxiety Disorder: it is a mental disorder that comprises feelings of worry, anxiety or fear that are strong enough to interfere with one’s daily plans. In Nigeria alone, there are about 1.5 million cases reported per year. Men with this disorder tend to be overstressed and unable to set aside worry. They are mainly restless. Martin Luther King has this quote, “everything done in this world is done by hope.” I firmly trust that there is hope and help for every man out there suffering from any form of mental disorder. Apart from educating yourself, you need to take the next step by speaking with a friend or speaking with a medical doctor. Though treatment varies for each mental disorder, opening up and not dying in silence is the first step to getting help. Some forms of treatment are counselling, medication, and psychotherapy.