Meditation has become increasingly popular in recent years, and with good reason as there is a huge amount of research that shows that meditation can help with a wide range of health issues. It has been proven to help with both physical wellness:
– a study by the British Heart Foundation shows that it reduces the risk of death, stroke and heart attack by 48% Meditation, mindfulness, and heart disease | BHF)
and mental wellbeing:
Bupa UK found that over a quarter of adults in the UK had used meditation as a way of improving their mental wellbeing Meditation is Brits’ most popular wellbeing therapy | Bupa
So, with all of this evidence out there, and lots of websites and apps such as Headspace (www.headspace.com) Calm (www.calm.com) and Insight Timer (www.insighttimer.com) which make it extremely easy to access, why do some of us find it so difficult?
A major reason is that meditation calls for us to be still, to notice what is coming up for us, and allow it to be there. This all sounds quite simple, but in reality, can be very challenging when the things that come up could be anxiety, stress, fear, grief, anger or sadness, particularly if these emotions take us by surprise or feel overwhelming. In the past couple of decades it’s become really common for busyness to be perceived as being linked to success, that somehow we ‘should’ be busy, which means that often we’re not aware when we’re using busyness as a coping mechanism, a way of protecting ourselves from feeling those emotions that feel terrifying.
With that insight in mind, it makes perfect sense that when starting to practice meditation, it can feel hard to just stop and notice what’s going on for us. Even harder when we realise that what’s coming up is not the picture-perfect version of meditation, the serenity and calmness and feeling of ‘Zen’, but emotions that feel overwhelming, frightening and leave us feeling vulnerable.
Meditation can really help with all of those feelings, but what can be even more helpful is to get an understanding, through counselling, of where these feelings are coming from to help us to process and release these feelings which can lessen the sense of overwhelm.
If you’d like to book a FREE initial telephone consultation to discuss how counselling could meet your needs, please contact us on hello@couragecounselling.co.uk or fill in the website contact form to arrange an appointment.
