The Benefits of Meditation for Weight Loss...The Amazing Truth Revealed

Introducing the fast, easy way for you to experience the benefits of meditation today.

Meditation has long been used to aid in weight loss and make dieting easier. Sometimes diet and exercise alone are not enough to get you through the times when you're hungry, fatigued, or stressed out, leading to emotional eating, the primary cause of obesity. Meditation can help you stick to your diet and shed pounds over a longer period of time, resulting in permanent weight loss.

When you experience distress on a daily basis, your body produces more of the stress hormone cortisol. Overproduction of cortisol contributes to excess belly fat, making it much more difficult to lose weight. This is because cortisol relocates fat, causing it to be stored deep in the abdomen, making it more difficult to burn off. Meditation reduces your cortisol by increasing GABA production, and boosts serotonin and endorphin levels so you are less stressed, fatigued, and irritable.

Researchers at Indiana State University found that meditation was effective in treating binge eating disorder. Meditators have a greater ability to moderate the intensity of their emotional arousal during stressful situations, according to the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences. Meditation is responsible for reduced high blood pressure and death rates from heart attack and stroke, as reported in the American Journal of Cardiology.

More of meditation's advantages:

• Renewing your sense of confidence, vitality, inspiration, and happiness
• Permanently reducing stress, anxiety, depression and worry
• Eliminating uncontrollable fears and habits
• Boosting your levels of GABA, HGH, serotonin, DHEA, melatonin and endorphins
• Making whole-brain synchronization possible
• Decreasing mental chatter and self-destructive impulses
• Improving sleep, boosting your energy levels
• Reducing the production of the stress hormone cortisol
• Strengthening your immune system, helping your body protect against disease
• Increasing your emotional stability
• Enhancing your learning ability, memory, and concentration
• Helping you maintain a clear, focused mind at all times
• Dramatically reducing the risk of many diseases, including cancer

Here are 5 effective ways of using meditation to bolster your weight loss efforts:

1. Focused Breathing

Concentrating on your breathing will help you focus your mind on losing weight. Research has shown that your heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature can be affected by how you breathe. Supplying your body with a constant and plentiful source of oxygen by exhaling more completely allows your body to expel dangerous toxins, which benefit your entire body.

Prior to practicing breathing exercises, make sure your spine is straight. Inhale through your nose with a long, sustained breath. As you inhale, feel your abdomen filling with air, which is actually filling your lower lungs. Hold your breath for about three seconds. Then, exhale slowly through your mouth for six seconds, and picture all of the tension and anxiety exiting your body. Associate your focused breathing with words such as “calm” and ”relax”.

The more you practice focused breathing, the more you will discover its benefits and become more aware of your shallow breathing patterns. Commit to making the focused relaxation breath a replacement for the short, shallow breathing, common in Western cultures, that has kept you from experiencing relaxation and an anxiety-free life.

2. Visualization

Visualization is an effective tool to help you succeed in your weight loss goals. To prepare for a visualization session, find a comfortable place free of distractions. Take off your shoes, and turn down the lights. If desired, play some soothing music. Sit in a comfortable chair, find a relaxed position, and take slow, deep breaths. You are now ready to begin visualizing.

Visualizing yourself thin is a powerful way to stay motivated and keep weight loss at the top of your priority list, whether your goal is to lose 10 pounds or 100 pounds. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that the act of imagining every delicious detail of a food leads people to eat less.

3. Body Imagery

Use body imagery to see yourself with a healthy body, exactly as you wish to be after your diet. Then, imagine that you are trapped inside a statue and need to break free. You can use an imaginary hammer, a chisel or anything else that will release the real you from the confines of the statue. This kind of imagery takes about ten minutes a day.

Another way to use body imagery is to find photographs of healthy people whose physiques you admire. You can look in magazines, family photo albums, or the internet. In your mind, combine the image of what you want to become with these pictures of people you admire. Keep your photos where you can see them every day, and remind yourself of them frequently throughout the day. Always remember that the perfect body is a myth.

4. Mindful Eating

Mindful eating is the practice of being aware of what you are eating, and how much you are eating. You can use the following mindful eating technique with any solid food.

1. As you bring food to your mouth, slow down and become aware of your movements.
2. Once the food is in your mouth, clear your hands. Put silverware or remaining food down.
3. Chew each bite with your mind in laser-sharp focus on the process.
4. Concentrate on the taste of the food and the act of chewing.
5. Don't do anything else while you're chewing. Simply chew and pay attention.
6. Keep chewing until the food is uniformly smooth. Use this consistency of the food as a signal to swallow.
7. Before you bring more food to your mouth, rest for a few seconds. Take a deep breath and pause before your next bite.

5. Binaural Beats Meditation

Binaural beats meditation can benefit people suffering from anxiety, depression, and mood disorders, according to research from the Oregon Health and Science University, the National College of Natural Medicine, and the Clinique Psychoanalytique de Montreal. Scientists at Duke University found that binaural beats improved mood, performance, and vigilance. At least 100 studies have been published on the emotional and physical benefits of binaural entrainment.

Binaural entrainment is the process of introducing different auditory frequencies into each ear through stereo headphones, which causes your brain to create its own third signal, known as a binaural beat, equal to the difference between the two tones. Scientists call this effect frequency following response (FFR). If frequencies of 440 Hz are played into your right ear and 447 Hz in your left ear, your brain will detect the difference and produce a third frequency at 7 Hz. This process manifests what is known as “whole-brain functioning”, causing you to enter a deeply focused meditative state, like those achieved by Zen monks, in a much shorter period of time than traditional meditation.

These are only five examples of how meditation can help you lose weight. All forms of meditation can help with weight loss and medical conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, and joint pain caused by obesity. Weight loss is much more effective with a positive mental outlook. Getting started is easy. There are many books, CDs, and guided meditations available so that you can meditate in the privacy of your own home. Now you known the benefits of meditation for weight loss, and you can see the amazing truth revealed. Use these techniques to improve your quality of life and experience the benefits of meditation for weight loss today.

1. Prev:Changing to a Low Glycemic Diet Index
2. Next:Lose Fifty Percent More Weight – At What Cost?