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Happy Living | Blog | Meditation“If you have time to breathe you have time to meditate. You breathe when you walk. You breathe when you stand. You breathe when you lie down.”
(Ajahn Amaro)

I discovered Happy Living when a friend shared one of their posts on their LinkedIn accounts. At that point in my life, I was in desperate need of change to make my life happier and more fulfilling. After reading “Daily Practices for Life”, I truly connected with the author’s mantra of “Teach. Learn. Move. Create” and try to practice it daily. That post (and the many others) made me into a Happy Living convert who continues to return daily. The site has inspired me so much that I felt the need to contribute myself so that maybe I can help someone else struggling and help them find fulfillment and tranquility through health and wellbeing!


Our lives are constantly moving forward at a fast pace. Evidently, slowing down from it will most likely be the last thing on our minds. However, slowing down and taking a step back from life and obligations is not only essential to keeping everything in perspective, but also necessary for nurturing our emotional and physical well-being.

One of the best ways to start is to set aside time in your daily routine to practice meditation, the mental practice that helps you bring awareness to your emotions, thoughts, and current physical state.

These are the incredible benefits you can expect to reap after embracing meditation:

The development of a stronger sense of self

Who wouldn’t like to get to know themselves better? Meditation encourages allowing one’s thoughts to freely come and go throughout the mind. This acceptance aids you in becoming more comfortable with your emotions and see them as less threatening to experience. As a result, you begin to understand more of who you are over time and get used to looking at yourself through a transparent lens, rather than suppressing truths out of fear. When you develop a stronger sense of self, you learn the reasoning behind your actions, values, and what drives you. Subsequently, this awareness can increase your motivation to accomplish goals.

Emotional well-being

Mental health can always use more love. Meditation plays a role in improving mental health by acting as a coping mechanism for stress. The practice significantly reduces stress as well as the amount of cortisol and adrenaline our body produces when triggered by a stressor. Thus, meditation aids in improving mental discipline so that over time, you learn to stay grounded when overwhelmed and react with rationality, rather than emotion in the future. Plus, meditation helps you release negative thoughts as opposed to unnecessarily holding onto them.

Increased capacity for empathy and self-love

Meditation is a form of self-care when you think about it! Deliberately taking time out of your busy day to solely focus on yourself cultivates empathy and self-love. When thoughts come and go through your mind, you inevitably think about your experiences bigger than yourself, such as the world and the billions of people that live in it. Eventually, you will foster the ability to not only understand yourself on a deeper level but relate to those around you.

Improved physical health and strength

In addition to mental and emotional well-being, meditation also affects the body physically. First, brain activity changes for the better: your general cognitive function improves, it becomes easier to sustain mental clarity and focus, and you slow down the inevitable aging of the brain. Furthermore, meditation is preventative against multiple diseases such as cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and even heart attacks and strokes.

Undoubtedly, meditation is undeniably a fantastic practice to implement into your daily life, and only good can come from doing so. After embracing it, you will impact every aspect of your life in a positive manner. Therefore, the next time you find yourself a little overwhelmed with life, allow yourself to take a step back from it and find solace in the safe mental space meditation provides.


Trevor McDonald is a professional freelance and content writer, living his dream as a writer in sunny California. You can find him here: Website | LinkedIn

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