6. Meditation
Oh. Did you think you were going to make it through this book without me dedicating a section to meditation? You must be meeting me for the first time because meditation is an incredible, easy tool for just about everything when it comes to mental health. If you are skeptical about meditation, welcome to the club. The only reason I started meditating was because of the scientific evidence of how it helps improve your mental health. By meditating every day, you're strengthening a part of your brain called the prefrontal cortex. Think about it like doing bicep curls or push-ups for this part of your brain, but the great news is that you don't even have to leave your house or put on gym clothes to do it.
I'm not going to teach you how to meditate in this book. I'm going to explain the neurological benefits to meditation that science has proved time and time again. The prefrontal cortex is the brain that separates us from other animals and helps us be at the top of the food chain. The problem is that we have to train ourselves to access this part of the brain. This part of the brain has a wide range of responsibilities, but we're going to focus on two for the purpose of this book, which are impulse control and emotional regulation.
When we struggle with impulse control, we say and do things that hurt ourselves or hurt others. I've you've ever punched a hole in the wall, broken your cell phone out of anger or yelled at someone and immediately regretted it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Due to our lack of impulse control, we cause more wreckage than we need to. Again, it's alright to be mad, but we need to train our "pause button" by meditating. Meditation is all about awareness and knowing what's happening in the moment. By meditating on a daily basis, you'll be naturally training your pause button, which will help you respond rather than react.
Emotional regulation is another huge one, which is why so many people should be meditating. Some of us get far more angry than we should be. This is one of the primary reasons why Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) is so beneficial for Borderline Personality Disorder. Many of the practices of DBT come from mindful meditation practices, and this is because mindfulness helps you regulate your emotions better. So, rather than getting furious when certain things happen, you get a little irritated instead.
Homework: Meditate every day for 5-10 minutes minimum. If you're not willing to dedicate at least 5-10 minutes a day to your mental health, there's not much I can do for you.
To get started, the easiest thing you can do is just type in "mindfulness" or "meditation" on your phone's app store. There are many free ones, but some of my favorites are Calm, Headspace and Buddhify.
Suggested reading list:
