HEALTH

We know: your schedule is totally overloaded, which means you're not exactly itching tack onto your to-do list. But a little meditation (aka, sitting quietly and breathing deeply), will secretly zap your stress and add tons of other unexpected benefits to your life. Keep reading to find out why you should add a little "om" to each and every day...your skin (and brain) will thank you.

Meditation can help you lose weight

We can’t guarantee that if you meditate a few minutes a day you’ll instantly look like a Victoria Secret model, but it's still great for your bod. Meditation reduces stress, which means you’ll be less likely to overeat when you're stressed or anxious. It also ups your mindfulness, which means you'll think twice before reaching for those Cheetos. 

Meditation can give you #flawless skin

Sitting pretty on your meditation can give you skin like Taylor Swift. Meditation improves skin by introducing more oxygen into your body. Since you take deep, strong breaths while meditating, you're basically upping the health of your skin cells. Hello, hotness.

Meditation can help you sleep

Get ready to nix grogginess in the a.m. Here’s how: As you meditate, your entire body begins to relax. Your pulse slows, blood supply to your legs increase and your blood pressure decreases. All these things make you sleep, unlike texting until all hours. 

Meditation can improve your memory

We could all use a few more A’s on exams, right? This is still being studied, but doctors think people who regularly meditate have a thicker cerebral cortex (the chunk of your brain that controls mental functions like learning) than those who don’t meditative. Because of the thicker part of their brain, they can remember more detail and concentrate better than others. Can you say honor roll?

Meditation can reduce pain

A recent study showed that meditation has been known to reduce not only emotional, but physical pain. Because you focus your attention on your breathing and ignoring certain stimuli, within a few meditation sessions (practice makes perfect after all), people who meditate are able to block out a bunch of pain—how crazy is that?

So, wanna give it a try? Download an app like Headspace, DailyMeditation or Gabrielle Bernstein's Spirit Junkie for more details. Or, get the how-to right here.

Have you tried meditation before? Share in the comments below.  

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