327 0 Posted on Jul 06, 2017, 6 a.m.

Meditation and yoga are not only relaxing; they can also 'reverse' molecular reactions in DNA which trigger ill-health and depression.

Research recently published in theFrontiers in Immunologyjournal shows the behavior of human genes is impacted by different mind-body interventions including yoga, Tai Chi, and meditation. Mind-body interventions, commonly referred to with the acronym of MBI, do much more thanrelaxpeople. They also reverse molecular reactions within DNA that spurthe onset of depression and health maladies. The research was conducted by Radboud University in the Netherlands and Coventry University in the United Kingdom. Ivana Buric of Coventry University's BrainBelief,and Behavior Lab served the study's lead investigator.

About the Research

The academicians at the above-referenced universities reviewed 18 studies encompassing 846 individuals across 11 years. They determined a pattern of molecular changes that result from MBIs and how those alterations benefit mental health as well as physical health. The research team zeroes in on how gene expression is impacted. This phraseology refers tothe manner in which genes are activated to produceproteins that influence the body's biological make-up, the immune system, and the brain.

When an individual endures a stressful event, his sympathetic nervous system (SNS) is stimulated. This is the system that is responsible for the human body's fight or flight response. The triggering of this system boosts the production of a molecule referred to as nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB) that regulates the manner in which genes are expressed. NF-kB activates genes to create proteins known as cytokines that spur inflammation at the cellular level. This reaction is helpful as it serves as a temporary fight or flight reaction. However, if it is persistent, there is a higher chance for the onset of cancer as well as faster aging and even psychiatric disorders such as depression.

The Power of MBIs

The study reveals those who practice MBIs experience a reduction in NF-kB and cytokines that spur a reversal of the pro-inflammatory gene expression as well as a reduction in the risk of conditions and diseases related to inflammation. The study's authors state the inflammatory effect of the body's fight or flight response plays a key role in humanity's hunter-gatherer prehistory when there was an enhanced risk of infection resulting from wounds. Yet in modern day society stress is more psychological in nature and sometimes longer-term. As a result, pro-inflammatory gene expression might be persistent and more inclined to spur medical and psychiatric problems.

The Rise of MBIs

In summary, the benefits of MBI commence at the molecular level and alter the ways in which our genetic codes operate. This is fantastic news for the millions of people who engage in MBIs on a regular basis. These individuals already enjoy the health benefits of such exercises. It appears as though they also enjoy the reversal of DNA reactions that induce stress and anxiety. Inlayman's terms, MBIs allow the brain to steer the human body's DNA processes along a route that improves well-being. Additional studies must be conducted to gain a more in-depth understanding of these effects. It will be interesting to find out if the benefits of MBIs are comparable to those provided by traditional exercise or a healthy diet.

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Meditation and Yoga Change DNA - Anti Aging News

On Saturday, July 8, join meditation master Tom G. OBrien as you put mind and moonlight over matter in a guided full moon meditation on East Beach. Designed for newcomers and meditation experts alike, the non-dogmatic, hour-long session is open to anyone seeking to enjoy the therapeutic and practical benefits of meditation, with the added scenic and sonic bonus of gently crashing waves lit by themoon.

Tiki torches will light the way to the meditation location, where OBrien will commence the hour with a set of concise instructions and breathing exercises. Arrive a few minutes early, warmly dressed and with a blanket, towel, yoga mat, or beach/lawn chair to sit on, and let the universe, as OBrien might say, do therest.

Started in 2012, OBriens full moon sessions have provided hundreds of Santa Barbarans with an hour of peace along the beach. A Santa Barbara native, OBrien is happy to share the wisdom he has gained from a practice that has taken him far and wide. As founder of Rupa Meditation its name refers to a soft, sacred blue light often seen by meditators behind closed eyes he has served young teens and adults, prisoners andpensioners.

He first encountered meditation around the age of 28 while living in New York and finding work as a perspiring actor. Uncertain where his life was headed, caught on a carousel of decreasingly satisfying work and relationships, he reached a turning point when, seeking answers in various philosophical texts, he found some resonance in the hundreds-year-old teachings of Zen masters. I was like, I need to find a teacher with a capital T, someone who has crossed over to the other side in terms of their human experience, he said. He sought out various meditation groups in New York and stumbled across a little flyer in a Jewish deli for a non-denominational class. I owe my spiritual awakening to a knish, hejoked.

Since having a profound spiritual awakening, OBrien has meditated almost daily. Ive meditated 98 percent of my days on this planet, he said. Hes felt far more creative, far more energetic, and hes thinking a lotclearer.

And hes gone on to share the benefits with others especially in prisons, such as the California Mens Colony in San Luis Obispo and numerous state prisons in New York. Ive seen dozens of men whose lives have been completely transformed after regular meditation practice, OBrien said of the inmates hes instructed. Theyre back with their families, raising their children, paying taxes, being functioning members of society for the first time in their life, hesaid.

OBrien emphasized the practical benefits of meditation, citing a Harvard neuroscience study that showed frontal lobe growth after just eight weeks of meditation. Meditation improves your brain, slows your heart rate, and offers freedom from the tyranny of our own thoughts. Where we are the witness of our mind, we are not being swept away by our thoughts, OBriensaid.

The Full Moon Meditation Workshop takes place on Saturday, July 8, at 8 p.m. East Beach. RSVP to rupameditation@gmail.com.

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Meditate Under the Moon at East Beach - Santa Barbara Independent

Rep. Tim Ryan believes meditating not only helps him navigate through tumultuous political waters but that it can be useful for the country in these uncertain times.

There's no better place to ... practice embracing uncertainty than in the United States Congress, Ryan told ABCs Dan Harris during an interview for his 10% Happier podcast. Especially now nobody has a clue of what direction well go in.

Ryan, D-Ohio, sat down with Harris and meditation teacher Jeff Warren during Harris' and Warrens cross-country meditation road trip shortly after President Trumps inauguration. The interview is the featured 10% Happier podcast episode posted today.

Ryan has been in the spotlight recently for being among the Democrats who have made a push to oust Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as House minority leader. Ryan himself launched a failed challenge to unseat Pelosi for the position last November.

When asked in January if he thought his meditation practice could help him work better with Republicans and then newly-elected President Trump, Ryan said absolutely.

I dont have to like him, I dont have to go drink beer with him, I dont have to play golf with him, Ryan said at the time. But if he has something thats going to help my constituents, I hope I can ratchet me own stuff down to be able to do that. I mean, its my obligation to be able to do that.

Subscribe and listen to the "10% Happier" podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Play Music, TuneIn, on ABC Radio podcasts and under the "Listen" tab on the ABC News app.

Ryan has been hosting meditation sessions for members of Congress and their staffs for years, bringing in a variety of different teachers, from practitioners who work with veterans to Deepak Chopra. The sessions are bipartisan, and the congressman said people from both sides of the aisle have joined.

I had a bunch of people grab me just this year saying, I think we need to start coming to your thing, Ryan said. People dont even know what to call it but they know its stress reduction stuff and more and more people are looking to be a part of it.

Ryan said he has heard from others on Capitol Hill that finding the time to meditate is a challenge.

Its hard with the demands you fly in right before votes and you stack your schedule with meetings and then you fly out as soon as you can, so carving out the time and really make it a priority is tough for people, Ryan said. Thats what I think the staff [participation] is really important because you can still work your way into an office where someone is starting to want to change the dynamics of the office.

The congressman knows the exhaustion of the job all too well. By 2008, he was in his third term and after spending the election cycle campaigning and fundraising for candidates through his swing state, Ryan said, I was almost out.

It wasnt burnout I was just like, Ive got to do something, he said.

He went on a five-day retreat with Jon Kabat-Zinn, a renowned meditation teacher who focuses on secular mindfulness meditation without religious overtones. Sitting for hours in silence on retreat, Ryan said he started to feel the benefits from meditation.

It was just like, this is unbelievable,' you can start really seeing your thoughts, he said. And then you become aware of why you have high blood pressure. I keep thinking these negative thoughts over and over and over again and you wonder why youre stressed out [over] stuff thats years gone by or hasnt even happened.

Ryan is now an eighth-term congressman representing Ohios 13th District, and his experiences with meditation led him to write A Mindful Nation, in which he talked about areas of government in which mindfulness could be helpful.

In May, Ryan co-sponsored a bill aimed at providing funding for reducing teacher stress, and previously he sponsored a bill to increase holistic-medicine assistance for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Ryan said he tries to explain to others that even though meditation gets a reputation for being a liberal, new-age practice, there are conservative values embodied in it.

Its about taking care of yourself, he said. Its about understanding yourself. Its about making you healthier.

Link:

Rep. Tim Ryan says meditation not only reduces his stress, it may ... - ABC News

Kate Love of the Open Mind-Open Heart meditation group in Bethesda says that meditation can help reduce stress. Photo contributed

There is the expectation that we need to be available and informed all the time. This expectation wasnt in place 10 years ago. Kate Love

In her dimly lit basement in Great Falls, Mary Beth Kogod sounds a meditation bell that echoes through the room. The 12 people sitting on cushions in a circle around her close their eyes and listen to the gentle sounds of her voice.

If your mind begins to wander, gently guide it back to the sound of my voice, said Kogod, as she leads the group in a mindfulness meditation session.

The practice of meditating to aid with ills running the gamut from stress and anxiety to pain and depression is on the rise. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 18 million people practiced some form of meditation in 2015, and the number of Americans who engage in the practice has doubled over the last 15 years.

We have more smartphones and other electronics that consume us and give us constant access to stressful events we see on the news, said Kate Love, who runs the Open Mind-Open Heart meditation group in Bethesda. There is the expectation that we need to be available and informed all the time. This expectation wasnt in place 10 years ago.

Love says that while scientific research to back up these claims is limited, it is growing. For example, a study funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health at NIH shows that mindfulness practices have a positive impact on insomnia.

Meditation usually entails sitting relatively still and quiet, as in Kogods meditation session, and focusing on one thing, such as a sound, an image or ones own breath.

I teach clients concentrative meditation where they focus on one thing, she said. I also teach mindful meditation where people try to cultivate a sense of awareness of what is happening in their body. For example, what thoughts pass through your mind as you sit quietly? What sounds do you hear? What emotions do you feel? The work comes when you notice these sensations and then let them go.

A 2011 study by the Association for Psychological Science showed that meditation can be effective in boosting memory and concentration. Settings for this mind-body practice now range from workplaces to classrooms.

Amber Wilson, a fourth grade teacher, guides her students in mindfulness meditation practices most afternoons during the school year. A lot of my students have difficult home environments which affects their ability to concentrate in school, she said. When I stop them between subjects and let them chill out a little bit, it really makes a difference in their performance, even after just five minutes.

Meditation can also help with addiction treatment, says Warren Schelter, Ph.D., a psychologist with a practice in Alexandria. It can instill a sense of calm and overall wellbeing, he said. Anxiety and depression often go hand-in hand with addiction, which is why a calming meditation practice might be effective for some people.

Schelter underscores the fact that meditation should not replace traditional medicine. I would recommend that anyone experiencing symptoms of mental or physical illness see a medical doctor first, she said. Mediation should work in conjunction with traditional medicine, not in place of it.

Read more:

Wellbeing: Meditation as Medicine - The Connection Newspapers - Virginia Connection Newspapers

"I thought meditation was very important, or it was to me," Read, 95, said last Friday, sitting in the naturally lit, wooden-floored UND Lotus Meditation Center. "I felt a need for it and I didn't want to live in a place that didn't have one. Grand Forks did not have one, and I didn't want to move, so I built one."

The meditation group housed at the center met in the building for the last time in late June. The center is attached to the International Center on University Avenue, a building that is being torn down later this summer as part of a wider effort to cut down the campus footprint and reduce deferred maintenance expenses in older buildings. The cost-saving push comes as UND is absorbing a $32 million cut in its two-year state appropriated budget.

According to university spokesman Peter Johnson, the planned demolition of the International Center was announced to the public in late 2015, but Read says UND never reached out to her directly. She and the meditation group learned their center would be torn down only after reading about it in the Herald in the spring of 2016.

Johnson says UND administration has worked with the group to relocate it on campus but couldn't speak to when the center's users were notified. He wrote in an email that the announcement of the International Center's offline status overlapped with changes in key personnel, namely the exit of campus facilities leader Dave Chakraborty.

Read, a former UND music professor, paid for the construction of the center in 1997 and gave it to the school. She also provided a $10,000 endowment entrusted to the UND Foundation and Alumni Association to cover the center's programming and biannual retreats.

The Herald reported at the time that the center was built for $50,000. By the time it was all said and done, Read says she spent as much as $200,000 getting the place in shape.

She's grateful that the center had 20 good years. But now she wonders what message the closure of her center sends to anyone else considering making a gift to the university. She's also questioning the way things are going on campus, a place she describes as being caught up in a wave of cuts sweeping North Dakota and higher education as a whole.

"It seems like the plans for the university are to cut a lot of things down: Programs, buildings, like we don't need it, we don't need a campus," Read said. "I don't think you can get an education online only. It can be helpful for some facts. But without interaction, the human side of it, I don't think you can get it."

Read is a few years shy of a full century on earth, but she gets around well with the help of a cane. A former UND music professor and a Louisiana native with a trace of accent, she came to the university in 1959 and remained employed there until 1988. She was interested in the role of music in cultures around the world and brought performers to campus to share music from as far as Zimbabwe and as close to home as the Turtle Mountain reservation. Over more than half a century in Grand Forks, she has won numerous accolades, including the Sioux Award, UND's highest honor.

Since its founding, her center has played an interfaith role on campus. Though Read herself has maintained an interest in Buddhism, she said the launch of the Lotus Meditation Center included representatives of all the local religious groups she could find. The center was used frequently as a prayer space by Muslim students and faculty and hosted classes in traditional Chinese practices qigong and tai chi.

The center also held retreats, typically on a twice-a-year basis, where attendees could find a more in-depth experience in meditative practices.

Adjusting to new space

The International Center was identified in a December 2015 public forum as one of a pool of buildings UND would stop using.

UND librarian Janet Rex, a longtime leader the meditation group, wrote in an email that the center's users missed that forum and were "oblivious of these plans to demolish" the building until they read about them in a Herald article. Even then, they weren't sure if the move would affect the meditation center. The group, which operated in some ways like an independent organization, had an unusual placement in the UND hierarchy of things but ultimately answered to Sandra Mitchell, the former UND associate vice president for diversity and inclusion.

Rex said the group consulted first with Mitchell, then eventually with UND Provost Tom DiLorenzo to see if the center could possibly be saved. Read was hopeful it could be separated from the International Center and moved elsewhere to be preserved and, for a brief period, Lotus Meditation Center leaders thought it possible that Read still owned the building itself, opening a chance that it could be relocated to an off-campus site. That proved to not be the case, so the group looked to finding a new home.

Through talks with UND leaders, it came to be decided that the best place for the Lotus Meditation Center would be in UND's Memorial Union or, more specifically, in a remodeled meeting room in the tunnel that connects the union to Swanson Hall.

It was to that room that Rex and a team of UND facilities workers were moving the Lotus Meditation Center's belongings last Friday. The new space, being underground, lacks natural light and is lit with florescent bulbs. Maybe more importantly, it lacks the autonomy of the old space.

With the loss of the center, Rex said the group has been relegated to the status of any other campus organization trying to schedule time in a public space mainly intended for use by students, who get priority when requesting to use the room. As the meditation group was preparing to transfer its various cushions, benches and other furnishings to their new space, they were confronted with another bump in the roadthe university had initially sought payment from the center to cover the cost of the labor used to move everything into the space under Swanson Hall. The university eventually dropped that request, but Read was adamant that she wouldn't have authorized the payment anyway. The move has marked a challenging time for the center, but both Read and Rex are optimistic it will continue in its new home.

Among themselves, the meditation group is trying to focus on the transition as an example of Buddhist teachings in daily life.

"This gives us a lot to work with," Rex said. "In our practice, there's suffering because of our clinging to things. So this is a very deep exercise in letting go and how life changes every time."

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UND meditation group says its was unaware of demolition plans - Grand Forks Herald

Event Date:

09:30 to 12:30

Open your heart to love, on Saturday, July 15, and join Rev. Karen for a half-day retreat at Meditation Mount from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The world needs love, Rev. Karen says, and we are here to be it and express it. The morning will be devoted to inner reflection, wisdom talks, sacred music, and quiet walks on the beautiful grounds. Randee Vasilakos, registered Science of Mind Practitioner, will be available to assist with prayers for personal healing. People of all faiths and traditions, or no tradition, are welcome to attend. We have access to an inexhaustible supply of love, Rev. Karen says. It is our Nature; our true Self. We access that love through silence and in prayerwhether we pray with words, or simply remain in an open meditative state. Join us for a morning devoted to experiencing that Essence. The retreat is by donation; $10 is suggested. Meditation Mount is located at 10340 Reeves Road, Ojai. For more information, contact Rev. Karen at 310-968-8928, or register online at http://www.karenswylie.com.

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Mid-Month Devotional Retreat at Meditation Mount - Santa Barbara Edhat

Seniors and community members interested in meditation will soon be able to learn techniques in a guided course at the Munday Activity Center.

Starting July 11, the center will offer weekly classes from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at its West Second Street location. Classes will be free for participants over 60 with a suggested $2 donation.

Dana Peveler, executive director of the center, said the classes came as a suggestion from some of the participants at the center, like most of their other activities.

"We had some requests for meditation after people had been hearing about the benefits in our yoga and Zumba classes," Peveler said. "We think it complements some of the other activities here."

Classes will be guided by Sheila Clark, who also instructs the yoga class. Clark will be leading participants through mindfulness exercises and breathing techniques that Peveler said helps promote relaxation and stress relief and has other health benefits.

Peveler said she has been practicing some form of meditation almost daily for about 20 years and encourages community members to try something new.

"I think the meditation gives several benefits, but it also offers an opportunity to participate in a social activity," Peveler said. "All of our activities help get folks out of the house and hopefully involved in the community."

An article from staff at the Mayo Clinic cites meditation as helping with anxiety, depression, asthma and even irritable bowel syndrome.

Meditation is offered in group class settings, but Peveler said participants will be learning a skill they can practice on their own throughout their day.

Peveler said new classes such as meditation are an example of the variety of activities the center tries to offer for the different age groups participating at the center.

"We are always listening to our community to offer things they want from educational opportunities to exercise," Peveler said. "If one of these days we have to offer rock climbing, I gladly would."

Original post:

Munday Center to teach meditation - messenger-inquirer

Kate Love of the Open Mind-Open Heart meditation group in Bethesda says that meditation can help reduce stress. Photo contributed

There is the expectation that we need to be available and informed all the time. This expectation wasnt in place 10 years ago. Kate Love

In her dimly lit basement in Great Falls, Mary Beth Kogod sounds a meditation bell that echoes through the room. The 12 people sitting on cushions in a circle around her close their eyes and listen to the gentle sounds of her voice.

If your mind begins to wander, gently guide it back to the sound of my voice, said Kogod, as she leads the group in a mindfulness meditation session.

The practice of meditating to aid with ills running the gamut from stress and anxiety to pain and depression is on the rise. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), 18 million people practiced some form of meditation in 2015, and the number of Americans who engage in the practice has doubled over the last 15 years.

We have more smartphones and other electronics that consume us and give us constant access to stressful events we see on the news, said Kate Love, who runs the Open Mind-Open Heart meditation group in Bethesda. There is the expectation that we need to be available and informed all the time. This expectation wasnt in place 10 years ago.

Love says that while scientific research to back up these claims is limited, it is growing. For example, a study funded by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health at NIH shows that mindfulness practices have a positive impact on insomnia.

Meditation usually entails sitting relatively still and quiet, as in Kogods meditation session, and focusing on one thing, such as a sound, an image or ones own breath.

I teach clients concentrative meditation where they focus on one thing, she said. I also teach mindful meditation where people try to cultivate a sense of awareness of what is happening in their body. For example, what thoughts pass through your mind as you sit quietly? What sounds do you hear? What emotions do you feel? The work comes when you notice these sensations and then let them go.

A 2011 study by the Association for Psychological Science showed that meditation can be effective in boosting memory and concentration. Settings for this mind-body practice now range from workplaces to classrooms.

Amber Wilson, a fourth grade teacher, guides her students in mindfulness meditation practices most afternoons during the school year. A lot of my students have difficult home environments which affects their ability to concentrate in school, she said. When I stop them between subjects and let them chill out a little bit, it really makes a difference in their performance, even after just five minutes.

Meditation can also help with addiction treatment, says Warren Schelter, Ph.D., a psychologist with a practice in Alexandria. It can instill a sense of calm and overall wellbeing, he said. Anxiety and depression often go hand-in hand with addiction, which is why a calming meditation practice might be effective for some people.

Schelter underscores the fact that meditation should not replace traditional medicine. I would recommend that anyone experiencing symptoms of mental or physical illness see a medical doctor first, she said. Mediation should work in conjunction with traditional medicine, not in place of it.

Read more:

Wellbeing: Meditation as Medicine - Alexandria Gazette Packet

NEW DELHI: Meditation is an activity practiced by millions of people worldwide. But how does it affect your brain?

In recent years, there has been a sharp increase in international research on meditation and the findings may not be what you expect. Although the options are many, the purpose is basically the same: more peace, less stress, better concentration, greater self-awareness and better processing of thoughts and feelings.

A research team at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the University of Oslo and the University of Sydney have worked to determine how the brain works during different types of meditation. Meditation techniques can be divided into two main groups. One type is concentrative meditation, where you focus attention on your breathing or on specific thoughts, and in doing so, suppresses other thoughts.

The other type can be called nondirective meditation, where you effortlessly focus on your breathing or on a meditation sound, but beyond that the mind is allowed to wander as it pleases. Although according to the team, the research still reveals very little about which technique is the best, or better, it still provides food for thought about the increasingly popular concept of meditation.

Fourteen people, who had extensive experience with the Norwegian technique Acem meditation, were tested in an MRI machine. In addition to simple resting, they undertook two different mental meditation activities, nondirective meditation and a more concentrative meditation task.

Nondirective meditation led to higher activity than during rest in the part of the brain dedicated to processing self-related thoughts and feelings. When test subjects performed concentrative meditation, the activity in this part of the brain was almost the same as when they were just resting.

"I was surprised that the activity of the brain was greatest when the person's thoughts wandered freely on their own, rather than when the brain worked to be more strongly focused," said Jian Xu, who is a physician at St. Olavs Hospital and a researcher at the Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging at NTNU.

Adding, "When the subjects stopped doing a specific task and were not really doing anything special, there was an increase in activity in the area of the brain where we process thoughts and feelings. It is described as a kind of resting network. And it was this area that was most active during nondirective meditation."

"The study indicates that nondirective meditation allows for more room to process memories and emotions than during concentrated meditation," says Svend Davanger, a neuroscientist at the University of Oslo, and co-author of the study.

"This area of the brain has its highest activity when we rest. It represents a kind of basic operating system, a resting network that takes over when external tasks do not require our attention. It is remarkable that a mental task like nondirective meditation results in even higher activity in this network than regular rest," added Davanger.

NTNU is a world-class research hub in the medical sciences, especially neuroscience and study of the brain. Nobel prize winners May-Britt and Edvard Moser, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2014 with their mentor John O'Keefe for their work identifying the place cells that make up the brain's positioning system, are directors of the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience department under the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at NTNU.

The rest is here:

Meditation brings peace, fights stress, and keeps you positive - Economic Times

Its Sunday night and you feel it creeping in that sense of dread as the working week begins. Come Monday morning, youll be bombarded with an overflowing inbox and endless calls. Seventy-eight per cent of people experience the Sunday Night Blues according to a Monster.com poll.

The idea of meditating might seem like an impossible task, but the ancient Eastern practice could be the answer to ending anxiety and sleepless nights. Meditation isnt just some complicated spiritual activity reserved for monks on mountain tops, as coach Will Williamsexplains. It can be as simple closing your eyes and focusing on the breath for 10 minutes.

Drazen_ via Getty Images

For Will, it all started in an East London bar. He was working in the city at the time in a stressful, high-powered job. I was out one night and my friend told me about this amazing meditation technique. He was a big shot himself. So I thought, if hes up for it, then maybe I should give it a go. Will had tried yoga and other relaxation techniques in the past to alleviate anxiety, but nothing quite clicked. Within two weeks, my stress levels totally lifted. I became happier and more productive, he says.

Will quit his high-flying career and spent two-and-a-half years travelling the world, practising with meditation masters, learning new techniques and gaining his first formal meditation coach training. I became aware that it was the West that needed meditation more than anyone else, says Will. Technology has taken over and removed us from who we really are. People are more directionless. They go to work each day, not really knowing why. Its just to pay the bills. Theres been a loss of connection. Meditation is great for lowering stress and reconnecting to who you are again.

Squaredpixels via Getty Images

Meditation is also particularly good for anxiety - or quelling that pervasiveSunday Fear. In fact, vedic meditation has been shown to be 250 per cent more effective at reducing anxiety than other technique, according to a study by the Journal of Counselling and Development. More people come to me because of anxiety than any other situation, notes Will. In the vast majority of cases, meditation reduces anxiety.

Our brain restructures itself according to experiences. If we keep living life in this high-octane way, our brain starts programming in anxiety on a daily basis. It just gets worse and worse. Thats why anxiety sufferers find themselves more easily triggered. To offset that pattern, Will recommends meditating twice per day to encourage your brain back to its optimal state.

Youll start to see the benefits of meditating after just a few weeks. The results are astonishing. Meditation calms your nervous system, so youll see an improvement in your sleep quality. Youll find yourself less anxious and less reactive in demanding situations, says Will. After three months, youll find yourself having more stamina because the frontal cortex of your brain will be recharged with more physical, mental and emotional energy, explains Will. This means youll be more productive, more creative and your relationships will improve because you are in a good space. Youll feel happier and find more joie de vivre. There will be a spring in your step again.

Rawpixel Ltd via Getty Images

If youve struggled with meditation in the past, just keep trying different techniques until one sticks. Choosing a meditation style is like dating. Its not like you hook up with the first person you meet and decide to get married, says Will. You need space and time to actually start going out and dating other people to see where the chemistry is. Its the same for finding a meditation technique that works for you.

So next time you experience that sinking feeling on a Sunday night, try something new and sign up to a meditation course. Feel freedom from all that worry and soon the Sunday Fear will be a thing of the past and youll be ready to smash Monday when the alarm slams into action.

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How Unlocking The Benefits Of Meditation Can Help You Conquer Sunday Fear - HuffPost UK