Time Out

Fight stress by making little moments your own and help your mind, heart and body. Focus on the things you can control. Enjoy a short meditation, a walk with a friend or simply taking a moment to breathe.

Meditation Guide for Heart Health

A growing body of evidence suggests that mediating 20 minutes per day reduces risk factors related to heart disease by reducing stress levels. Stress can increase blood pressure, blood sugar, and the inflammatory response in the body. Excess levels of each of these things promote heart disease and increase risk of heart attack.

Mediation is a skill, and most people find it requires practice. Starting off with shorter time frames and increasing duration over time is an effective approach to building your meditation skills. There are different methods for meditation; one can do it with closed eyes or open eyes, sitting in different stances, in the dark or light, and with different points of focus.

An easy and useful method is as follows:

1. Choose a relatively quiet room if possible. Generally, quieter is better. If a TV or radio is on, it’s best to turn it off.
2. Sit comfortably. You may sit on a chair, a sofa, or a flat surface. Even though it is common to see people meditating while sitting on a flat surface, do not force yourself to sit on a flat surface if you are unable to do so safely, or if you might not be able to stand up safely from there when you are finished.
3. Close your eyes.
4. Take several deep breaths. Use this deep breath to bring your attention to your breathing. From there, allow yourself to fall into a normal and steady rate of breathing. There is no need to try to breathe extra deeply after you’ve become focused. Meditation is not about forcing it. Steady and natural wins.
5. Thoughts will come and go. Do not panic, do not try to force them out. Acknowledge them, and maintain focus on your breath. When you first start this practice, you will likely notice a steady stream of thoughts despite a desire to have a quiet mind. This is where practice really helps. With consistent practice, most people find their minds become more responsive to the process, and able to be quietened with less effort.
6. During your first several sessions, do not worry about the time. If you find that after 3-4 minutes, you keep losing breath focus and get frustrated, that’s okay.
7. Once you start to get the hang of it, set a timer with a goal in mind. You might try 7 minutes at first, and over time work up to 20 minutes.
8. Duration: The maximum benefits observed in studies have been seen using 20 minutes of meditation twice per day. However, 20 total minutes per day is still awesome. Always keep in mind that some is better than none, even if not a full 20 minutes.
9. You can split up your sessions if you prefer. For instance, you can do 10 minutes of meditation in the morning, and 10 more minutes in the evening to achieve your total 20 minutes.

Terms associated with meditation that can be helpful to keep in mind as goals of meditation:

Zen – a state of peace and calm

Nirvana – lack of suffering and desire, perfect happiness, an ideal place

References:

Levine GN, Lange RA, Bairey-Merz CN, Davidson RJ, Jamerson K, Mehta PK, Michos ED, Norris K, Ray IB, Saban KL, Shah T, Stein R, Smith SC Jr; American Heart Association Council on Clinical Cardiology; Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing; and Council on Hypertension. Meditation and Cardiovascular Risk Reduction: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. J Am Heart Assoc. 2017 Sep 28;6(10):e002218. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.117.002218. PMID: 28963100; PMCID: PMC5721815.