When you hear the word “meditation,” what comes to mind? Peace, solitude, releasing stress… or a hippie sitting with their legs crossed and arms outstretched? Since 2012 the number of people practicing meditation has tripled, so it’s becoming much more mainstream. Meditation might seem boring or strange, but the benefits are scientific, and can be especially impactful for first responders.

Reduces Anxiety: A recent study found that 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation helped reduce anxiety symptoms in people with generalized anxiety disorder, along with increasing positive self-statements and improving stress reactivity and coping.

Improves Focus: Meditation may reverse patterns in the brain that contribute to mind-wandering, worrying, and poor attention (Source). Even meditating for a short period each day may enhance attention and memory after 8 weeks (Source).

May Help Fight Addiction: The mental discipline you can develop through meditation may help you break dependencies by increasing your self-control and awareness of triggers for addictive behaviors (Source).

There are many other benefits of meditation that have been found and studied, but the impact of meditation can be different for different individuals. It’s worth exploring if you feel you could benefit from any of the above perks or just need some stress relief and mental break.

Ready to try meditation? Here are a few guided meditation resources from YouTube that take the guesswork out of this restorative practice

10 Minute Meditation for Beginners

Quick Meditation for First Responders