5 Ways Meditation Helps Parents Survive
Parenting is a game of survival.
The sheer amount of stress and the number of challenges involved with being a parent these days means moms and dads need all the help they can get.
One of the best little helpers for parents is meditation. It’s a simple but powerful way to relax and focus the mind, and it can help parents to keep their cool even in the most challenging of circumstances.
Meditation is always of benefit.
Particularly for parents.
As a meditation teacher, I’ve personally taught many parents to meditate, and have seen firsthand the wonderful ways in which meditation can help parents.
Let’s take a look at five key ways meditation can help parents.
1. Meditation helps with infertility
For starters, meditation can help couples to become parents in the first place.
5% of couples experience either primary infertility (the inability to have any children) or secondary infertility (the inability to carry a pregnancy to term). (*1)
Scientific studies have proven that many of these cases of infertility are physiological or psychosomatic. (*2) In other words, they are problems of the mind.
Meditation helps to clear the mind, to reduce stress, and to restore mental balance. It is a simple restorative practice that boosts mental health. And, in turn, it helps to cure many cases of infertility.
2. Meditation protects against postpartum depression
One of the biggest threats to new parents is postpartum depression, symptoms of which are experienced by 11% to 20% of women following childbirth, according to the Centers for Disease Control. (*3)
Dr Sona Dimidjian, professor in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Colorado, has studied the affects of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy on postpartum depression.
In 2015 Dimidjian published an article in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology in which she states that women of childbearing age are at the highest risk of depression, but meditation, she says, can help. (*4)
After extensive research and clinical trials, Dimidjian has confirmed that mindfulness can indeed reduce the risk of postpartum depression. And at a time when most families are saving for their futures, the fact that mindfulness offers a free treatment for this most common and serious condition comes as a godsend.
3. Meditation reduces the need for sleep
A major problem most parents face is that they simply cannot get enough sleep. This is especially true for new parents. Sleep deprivation is the norm for the first three months postpartum. This can cause anything from fatigue and stress to serious health complications.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that meditators need less sleep than non-meditators. The exact difference in sleep requirements is in dispute. Some researchers claim meditators need just one hour less sleep. Buddhist texts, on the other hand, claim that advanced meditators only need four hours sleep.
Meditation allows the mind to enter a restfully aware state, which is quite closely related to the state we are in when we are sleeping. This is a restorative state for mind and body. It enables body and mind to get some of the benefits of sleep without actually nodding off.
4. Meditation reduces stress
Being a parent, and caring so fully about another life, is a constant source of stress. That isn’t likely to change, but it can at least be improved upon.
One of the most well-known facts about meditation is that it reduces stress. Spending twenty minutes sitting with the eyes closed, focusing on the breath or on a relaxing object, is a potent form of relaxation. A period of meditation gives the mind an opportunity to restore itself to peaceful balance. This helps to undo the stress of parenting.
5. Meditation stops headaches and migraines
Headaches. Inevitable. Listening to a baby crying for hours on end is bound to take its toll on the brain. But meditation offers a remedy.
Scientific research published in the journal Headache shows that meditation reduces the risk of headaches. (*5)
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center taught mindfulness and yoga to 19 migraine sufferers and taught them either a combination of yoga and meditation or standard medical advice.
The group who had practiced meditation and yoga experienced less severe headaches and had 1.4 less migraines per month on average.
The duration of headaches was also reduced for the meditation group, with headaches lasting on average 3 hours less than those in the control group.
Meditation is a highly valuable tool for parents, and particularly for new parents. It offers a powerful means of relaxation, and can help to soothe many of the unpleasant sides of parenting, like stress and headaches.
It is easy to learn meditation, too. And all it takes is twenty minutes per day.
For parents, meditation really is a no-brainer.
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Originally published at https://www.nadyoga.org on June 1, 2020.
