Seniors, learn about the various methods of meditation along with the benefits you can experience for yourself, and live the best time of your life!
With such a wide variety of benefits, it’s no wonder that seniors are turning to meditation. Even doctors are recommending meditation for older adults. But if you’ve never tried meditation, or you tried unsuccessfully, you might feel a bit overwhelmed navigating the wonderful wide world of meditation. As a senior myself, with more than 50 years of experience meditating, I am here to help guide you so you can enjoy the best time of your life, totally Zen, peaceful and calm.
Mental health and meditation
Depression, anxiety, loneliness, memory loss, and other similar conditions can affect our emotional health adversely. It’s not just complementary and integrative health practices that recognize the role that meditation can play when dealing with mental health issues. Traditional allopathic doctors are also seeing the evidence and recommending meditation as part of their treatment plan.
When it comes to dementia and Alzheimer’s, meditation helps participants feel calmer, lessening perceived stress and reducing the risk of Alzheimer's. Meditation literally reduces the stress hormone cortisol, which has been known to increase the risk of developing dementia. Meditation also increases cortical thickness and grey matter which slows the aging rate of the brain.
Physical health and meditation
Insomnia, chronic pain, high blood pressure, poor health, and any other physical ailment can also affect our happiness quotient. Because the mind and body are intimately connected, when we take care of our mental health by meditating, our physical health also improves.
Types of meditation
Body scan meditation
Level of difficulty: Easy
This guided meditation practice can be done sitting or lying down. It can help with pain management and be used as a tool to fall asleep. It is also excellent for after a yoga session.
Here’s an easy-to-follow video you can try.
Meditation with the eyes open
Level of difficulty: Easy
If closing your eyes is a bit of a challenge, in the beginning, you can try a walking meditation technique. If you don’t have a labyrinth to use, find a safe path or trail where you can connect with nature and practice being aware of your surroundings.
Many local senior centers offer Tai Chi classes that focus on muscle control, stability, balance, and flexibility, while increasing body awareness, all done with eyes open.
Mindfulness meditation
Level of difficulty: Moderately challenging
When it comes to mindfulness meditation, a guided practice is easier than you trying to control your mind. If you have ever tried to stop thinking about something, you already know how challenging it is to try to control your thoughts.
If you practice mindfulness without a specific technique, it may take some time before many benefits are realized. You may want to try a meditation technique that naturally yields more mindfulness in daily life, or stick to guided practices.
Guided meditation
Level of difficulty: Easy
Though guided meditations are not really a meditation technique per se, they are easy to practice and give many benefits including reduced stress and anxiety.
Try this 10-minute guided mindfulness meditation led by a master of meditation, Gurudev.
Mantra meditation
Level of difficulty: Easy to moderately challenging
Depending on which mantra-based meditation technique you try, you may find this type of meditation needs a teacher’s guidance and group practice to experience all of the benefits this method offers. Many meditators find their blood pressure decreases and cognitive function increases with mantra-based techniques.
I have been practicing Sahaj Samadhi (effortless) Meditation for more than 28 years. I highly recommend this meditation method for beginners and veterans alike.
Breath-based meditation
Level of difficulty: Easy
Breathing exercises are great tools for deeper meditation, and offer many health benefits. One technique that combines breathwork and meditation is SKY Breath Meditation. I have been practicing SKY for almost 27 years. It’s easy to do and partners perfectly with mantra-based meditation techniques, though it is also a great stand-alone practice.
Benefits of meditation
The health benefits of a meditation practice can help both our physical and mental well-being. Here’s a partial list of benefits reported by millions of practitioners.
- Healthier blood pressure
- Reduced stress and anxiety
- Increased emotional well-being
- Improved long-term memory
- Less depression
- More contentment
- Greater mental focus
- Improved sleep
Practice mindfulness without even trying
At this point in our lives, I think we all want simple, easy, and effective ways to reach our overall well-being goals. If your goal is to become more mindful, my best advice is to practice a technique that naturally yields mindfulness.
If you want all of the benefits listed above and mindfulness, SKY Breath Meditation gives all of that. SKY is also easy to learn and practice, and increases mindfulness without even trying. In addition, SKY improves respiratory function! As a senior, that’s important to me.
You can see why I have so much enthusiasm for SKY Breath Meditation! I would like to personally invite you to attend a free introduction to SKY by clicking the image below. Pick a day and time that works best for you. By the way, you will also learn a breathing exercise known for its energizing effects. Yes, please!
