While aging is a privilege, it can often feel like a punishment. Things like decreased mobility, vision and hearing problems, and cognitive decline can all contribute to feelings of discomfort and turmoil. This is perfectly natural; however, it doesn’t have to become your new normal. By understanding and accepting these changes, you can begin to move past them and live in a happier, healthier way.
An easy and accessible way to begin cultivating this inner peace is meditation. With its numerous physical and mental benefits—including relief from depression, improved cognitive clarity, and lower blood pressure—this mindful practice can be a great tool for any senior looking to accept their age and improve their quality of life.
Mindfulness and Meditation
You have likely heard the words “mindfulness” and “meditation” used together. For the purposes of this article, it’s important to note that while they are often used interchangeably, there are a few key differences in the meanings of these two words.
Mindfulness is defined as “the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something” by the Oxford dictionary. In the case of meditation and inner peace, mindfulness describes the state of being aware of your thoughts and environment in a calm, accepting way. This state can be achieved through a variety of mindfulness practices, including mindful eating, walking, journaling, and meditation. Practically anything can be done mindfully!
Meditation is an umbrella term used to describe practices which use mindfulness principles to achieve a state of inner peace. These practices include body scans, breathwork, and guided meditations, and can be anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours long. With origins in ancient India, meditation is now one of the most common mindfulness practices worldwide.
In short, meditation is a practice which can help you to achieve a state of mindfulness, or inner peace, through the use of mindfulness techniques.
The Benefits of Meditation
As mentioned above, meditating consistently has a ton of physical and mental benefits. This is true for anyone, regardless of age, health, or situation. For seniors in particular, this can help you to accept your age, work through mental health issues, and to feel better physically.
In 2015, the National Library of Medicine reviewed previously published studies on the effects of mindfulness-based interventions—such as meditation—on older adults. This review, which compiles the findings of 15 high-quality studies, shows that meditation is directly correlated with improved mental and physical health in older adults; this means that even if you are older, you can still reap plenty of rewards by meditating. In fact, one theory called the socioemotional selectivity theory (SST) suggests that seniors are actually better suited to meditation than those who are younger. As an older adult, you are more likely to be selective of how you use your time, as you see your remaining time as a valuable, limited resource—this is the central idea of SST. The NLM article proposes that mindfulness, or the desire to live in the present moment, is in line with this natural desire of seniors to live life to the fullest.
Mental Benefits
Most people who meditate on a regular basis agree that meditating makes you calmer, makes life easier to manage, and helps to regulate emotions. In one such anecdote, published to The Guardian, one man described his experience with meditation as transformative and immensely helpful with insomnia, mental health issues, and overall stress. Numerous studies have also produced positive anecdotal evidence in favour of meditation. Alongside these anecdotes, it is also important to explore why exactly meditation is so helpful—and we can do that by looking at the science behind it.
While much of meditation’s benefits are still understudied, it has still been associated with improved loneliness, depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions. Of these conditions, the benefits for cognitive decline and dementia are particularly topical for those over the age of 65. As you may already know, the risks of developing dementia and experiencing cognitive decline become higher as you grow older; and unfortunately, neither one has a known cure. In a more recent NCBI review focusing on mindfulness and dementia, “preliminary but promising results” were shown for mindfulness-based interventions in people with dementia and their caregivers. While meditation cannot cure dementia or cognitive decline, it can still help to lessen some of the effects. If you have a caregiver, it can also provide an opportunity to bond and unwind together.
Physical Benefits
While meditation is most commonly viewed as a mental health tool, it also has many proven benefits for physical health. In mid 2023, an article was published to the National Library of Medicine which detailed several physical benefits of meditation. Notable among these were benefits relating to inflammation, blood pressure, and blood cholesterol levels.
Unfortunately, as we grow older, dangerous health conditions such as strokes and heart attacks become more common; These elevated risks are exacerbated by increased levels of low-density cholesterol in the blood, which can build up in arteries as plaque. Meditating consistently has been shown to increase levels of beneficial, high-density cholesterol which works to remove bad cholesterol from your bloodstream, effectively lowering the risks of both heart attacks and strokes.
Meditation can also benefit those with diabetes, hypertension, and those with chronic inflammatory conditions. It is also often used as a tool to manage and deal with chronic pain, as it can strengthen mental resilience, which is crucial in living with such conditions. Interestingly, meditating has also been shown to have cell-level benefits, including the lengthening of telomeres—the proteins protecting your DNA—which improves cellular aging. Changes in gene expression have also been observed, with some evidence suggesting that meditation might improve your immune system, which naturally becomes weaker with age.
How to Start Meditating
After reading about all of the wonderful benefits of meditation, you are likely eager to start. That’s fantastic! You’ve successfully taken the first step. From here, the next steps are largely up to you. The great thing about meditation is that it has many different forms, meaning that you can tailor it to your needs. Are you a busy person? Do you find it difficult to sit still for long periods of time? Asking yourself these questions can identify specific meditation styles that might work best for you.
Trusting your gut and trying out a meditation style that stands out to you is a fine second step; so is trying out lots of different ones to see what fits. And if you don’t have any real sense of what might work best for you, keep reading! Below is a full breakdown of what meditation is, along with some tips and tricks to help you get situated.
Understanding Meditation
A common misconception is that meditating should result in a completely blank, thoughtless state. While meditation does have a quieting effect on your thoughts over time, it is less about silence and more about acceptance. A popular meditation app, called Headspace, uses the analogy of cars in traffic to represent the thoughts in our minds. As we meditate, our goal is not to fight this traffic, but instead to notice each thought as it enters, passes through, and leaves our minds. The more you do this, the more you will realize that each thought is just that: a thought. Letting them pass through your mind without judgement will also become easier. This is where the peace and calm comes from—not from the silence of having no thoughts, but rather from the ability to accept and release each thought as it arises.
Before you start, it can also be helpful to note your reasons for meditating. Are you hoping to gain the benefits listed in this article? Is this for your emotional or spiritual growth? Was meditating recommended to you by a friend? Whatever your reason(s) may be, keeping those clear and at the forefront of your meditative practice can do wonders for your motivation. There will be days that you don’t want to meditate; having your “whys” listed out for you, on paper or in your mind, can help to bring your focus back.
Setting a Time
Having a set time to meditate each day can help to solidify it as a habit. According to Healthline, the act of habit-stacking, or adding a new habit to one you already practice, can improve your chances of sticking with it for longer. This might mean meditating after brushing your teeth each morning and night, or meditating during a daily walk around the neighborhood.
As seniors, it is especially important that you are staying physically, mentally, and socially active. As such, try to pick a time that will not interfere with any routine exercise classes or social outings. Meditation doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out process. In fact, in the beginning, it should be short—probably shorter than you think. While you are building this habit, starting small with just a few minutes at a time is the best approach.
Picking a Place
In 2018, Science Direct’s research review concluded that habits are formed best when one’s environment reflects the habit they are trying to build. For example, if you are trying to “eat healthy”, having readily available healthy snacks will work much better than simply trying to resist unhealthy snacks through willpower alone. If you have the space to do so, creating a meditation area can be a great way to get yourself into the right state of mind. This space can be a corner of one room, or even a basket of meaningful objects that you can lay out, and doesn’t have to take up that much space. What matters is that it is meaningful to you, and that it helps you to meditate consistently.
Your space also doesn’t have to be completely silent either. It’s often thought that meditation should be practiced in a silent space without distractions, but this is both unrealistic and unnecessary. After all, your goal through meditation is to learn to accept and let go of distractions, so the sound of traffic, neighbors, or anything else should not prevent you from meditating. In fact, learning to notice, accept, and let go of these noisy distractions can grow your mental focus over time.
Choosing a Method
Another common misconception is that meditation must be done sitting still, with your eyes closed, purely focused on your breath. While many forms of meditation do involve sitting silently, others can be done while moving around, sitting, or even lying down. You can also keep your eyes closed or open, depending on what you find most comfortable. If you choose to keep your eyes open, keeping your eyes on an object, like a plant, can be helpful to maintain your focus. As long as you are focusing on the flow of your thoughts, or on the present moment, you can meditate in any posture.
For those with low mobility, a sitting meditation may work best. If you experience any discomfort, sitting on a cushion to elevate your hips can reduce the strain on your body. You can also sit on a chair, sofa, or in a recliner, if that is more comfortable; you can also meditate while lying down. While many kinds of meditation exist, the most common stationary meditations include breathwork, body scans, and mantra meditations. Each of these can also be done with a guided meditation, if you are unsure of how to practice them. Searching for “5 minute breathing meditations” or “5 minute body scan meditations” on sites like YouTube will bring up many thousands of possibilities.
If you don’t like to sit still, walking meditations are a great option. These involve actively focusing on the individual sensations of walking—such as the sensations in each part of your feet as they touch and leave the ground, the texture of the ground you are walking on, and so on. You can also do breathing meditation while walking by simply observing your breaths as you move.
Making Adjustments
As mentioned earlier, you may need to try out different forms of meditation before you find one that works for you. Or, alternatively, you may practice a combination of different meditation techniques and swap them out depending on the day. Every person is unique, and so everyone will have a different method that works for them.
As a senior, it may be the case that your body is less forgiving of remaining in a seated position for long periods of time. You may also have a health condition that makes certain movements harder. Taking breaks to stretch, meditating while lying down, or meditating while walking can reduce some of the strain on your body. You don’t have to be sitting perfectly still for meditation to work its benefits. Consistency is key, and finding a method that is enjoyable for you will make you far more likely to stick with meditation.
Final Remarks
In this article, we have discussed the benefits of meditating, and how you might get started on your meditation journey. Learning this new skill can do wonderful things for your cognitive strength, as the process of learning new things has been proven to improve mental resilience, cognitive clarity, and overall mental health.
However, when learning new things, it’s important to be patient with yourself. While you may strive for perfection in other areas of life, it is important to understand that there’s no such thing as the “perfect meditation”. Even those who practice meditation consistently will experience distractions, as the mind will always create new thoughts to think. Practice makes progress, not perfection! The trick isn’t to be free of these distractions, but rather to get better at letting them go as they arise.
