Mindfulness has been shown to help with stress, depression, and overall well-being. Here are 16 tips to help get the most out of your day and be more mindful!

About the author: Sarah-Kate Rems is an Ivy-league trained Board-Certified Family Nurse Practitioner licensed in California and New York State with an expertise in preventative healthcare. She considers nutrition and exercise to be the basis of well-being and is a strong advocate for daily physical activity and maintaining a healthy diet. Sarah-Kate is also a co-founder of The Mindful Tech Lab

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Meditation has so many amazing benefits (that you can read all about here) to help improve your mind and body. Though many meditation beginners get frustrated with the difficulty of completing a practice without their mind constantly wandering - which is actually entirely normal!
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Here are 8 tips that will help you begin and improve your practice:

1. Get Comfortable
Feeling uncomfortable throughout your practice will distract you and pull your attention towards it. Try using pillows and others props to help support an upright and attentive posture.


2. Relax your body
For your mind to be able to effectively concentrate on your practice, you need to begin by relaxing the body. Try taking several deep breaths prior to beginning your practice. This will help release the tension in your body.


3. Prepare your surroundings
It is important to find a meditation location that is free from external interruptions (think phones, tv's, etc.). Find a private space where you know that you won't be disrupted. Using headphones is a great way to minimize distractions.


4. Watch your breath
Focus on the inhalation and exhalation of each breath. By doing this, you'll be less likely to have your mind wander. You can also count in your ahead with each inhale, then count back down with each exhale.


5. Re-center your focus
Your mind inevitably will wander during your practice, this happens to even long time meditation practitioners. Simply let your thoughts and emotions come into presence, observe that they are there (that's all they really want!) and then let them go. Try and refrain from identifying and holding onto them.


6. Keep a half-smile
Adopt a simple half-smile throughout your practice. A ton of stress and tension is actually held in our facial muscles - a subtle smile can help relieve this.


7. Bring attention to your heart beat
Following your heart beat will not only help you from wandering your mind, but also brings an aliveness as our heart pumps blood throughout our entire body. Be grateful for the power of the heart.


8. Don't judge your practice
​You are never doing it "wrong". Meditation beginners often get turned off because they feel they aren't doing it right. Remember, there is really no wrong way to meditate - it is simply just you being at one with your own self.



Note: The great thing is that you can meditate for as little as 5 minutes per day and still receive many of these amazing benefits meditation offers. Try MeditateBot[free] for Messenger today and start benefiting from a daily meditation practice!


About us: At The Mindful Tech Lab, we develop and market apps that are easily ingrained into your daily routine to deliver positive results. We are most known for our Facebook Messenger chatbots that help you live your best life, you can check them each out by clicking on their links:

MotivateBot - Motivation
MeditateBot - Meditation
Daily FitBot - Fitness
HealthyBot - General Health
Eat Clean Bot - Healthy Recipes
StoicBot - Stoic Philosophy

There are so many amazing benefits of meditation. Not only does it make you feel good in the moment while meditating, but it also actually changes the way your brain operates, and scientific research has proven it.
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You've probably heard about all of the elite athletes, business leaders, and other successful people talking about the power of meditation. Here are 7 benefits, backed by science, to help you better understand how a daily meditation practice can improve your life.

1. Lowers Stress
"Meditation has been proven to decrease mood disturbances and stress symptoms in both male and female patients..." Read the entire study here

2. Reduces pain
"After four-days of mindfulness meditation training, meditating in the presence of noxious stimulation significantly reduced pain-unpleasantness by 57% and pain-intensity ratings by 40% when compared to rest." Read the entire study here

3. Increases brain grey matter (which helps process information)
"Meditation practice has been shown not only to benefit higher-order cognitive functions but also to alter brain activity. " Read the entire study here

4. Improves happiness
"A short program in mindfulness meditation produces demonstrable effects on brain and immune function. These findings suggest that meditation may change brain and immune function in positive ways." Read the entire study here

5. Improves body awareness
"Results indicated a linear relationship in coherence, with meditators having highest levels... We conclude that the coherence between subjective and cardiac aspects of emotion is greater in those who have specialized training that promotes greater body awareness." Read entire study here

6. Enhanced focus and attention
"Brief mindfulness training significantly improved visuo-spatial processing, working memory, and executive functioning. Our findings suggest that 4 days of meditation training can enhance the ability to sustain attention; benefits that have previously been reported with long-term meditators." Read the entire study here

7. Improves handling of difficult emotions
​"Meditation may be associated with structural changes in areas of the brain that are important for sensory, cognitive and emotional processing. The data further suggest that meditation may impact aggregated declines in cortical structure." Read entire study here


Note: The great thing is that you can meditate for as little as 5 minutes per day and still receive many of these amazing benefits meditation offers. Try MeditateBot[free] for Messenger today and start benefiting from a daily meditation practice!


About us: At The Mindful Tech Lab, we develop and market apps that are easily ingrained into your daily routine to deliver positive results.

We are most known for our Facebook Messenger chatbots that help you live your best life, you can check them each out by clicking on their links:

MotivateBot - Motivation
MeditateBot - Meditation
Daily FitBot - Fitness
HealthyBot - General Health
Eat Clean Bot - Healthy Recipes
StoicBot - Stoic Philosophy