Sitting there can not only keep fit but also remove dirt and diseases.

Ancient health practitioners paid great attention to sitting still and keeping fit. The key is to combine movement and stillness, and alternating tension and relaxation. Meditation, especially meditation before going to bed, is considered by many health experts to be an effective way to calm the mind, eliminate impurities and diseases.

The purpose of meditation is to achieve "stillness". Except for sleeping, people are in a "dynamic" state every day, which causes the organs of the human body to work under load and unable to relax. "Stillness" is relative to "movement" and allows the human body to relax. Scientific research shows that when meditating, the heart rate, breathing and brain waves slow down, muscles relax, the body's basal metabolic rate decreases significantly, oxygen consumption decreases, levels of adrenaline and other stress hormones decrease, and immune function is significantly enhanced. During meditation, the EEG is highly ordered and the cerebral cortex is in a state of protective inhibition. At the same time, cortical function is synchronously strengthened and enhanced, the functions of the cortical and subcortical nerves are coordinated and unified, and small blood vessels throughout the body are in a state of dilation, causing blood pressure to drop.

Meditation fitness can not only make the human organs move in a balanced manner, but also improve work and sleep quality, reduce nightmares, and allow the brain to get a better rest. People work during the day, and if they can close their eyes and sit quietly for a while before going to sleep at night, they will gather the energy and spirit that have been dispersed during the day's work back into the body. In the process of sitting quietly and regulating their breathing, they will dredge their qi and blood meridians, especially relax the tired brain nerves. People are bound to encounter various unpleasant experiences in a day's work and life. Meditation before going to bed at night can gradually allow oneself to enter a state of tranquility and nothingness, dilute or even forget the disturbance of the seven emotions and six desires, and allow oneself to fall asleep peacefully. Meditation before going to bed has obvious therapeutic effects on chronic diseases of the nervous system and digestive system.

Further reading: What are the benefits of sitting still for fitness?

1. Relieve stress and increase happiness

A professor of medicine at Harvard University in the United States said that practicing meditation can reduce muscle tension and reduce the amount of serum lactic acid. Tests show that after practicing meditation for 20 minutes a day for a week, concentration and emotional control are improved, and negative emotions such as anxiety, depression and anger are significantly reduced. Not only that, meditation training can also improve blood circulation in the brain, changing the brain's response from "fight or escape" to "accept reality", thereby enhancing a person's sense of happiness.

2. Protect the liver

After lunch, would you choose to take a nap or go out for a walk right away? In fact, it is best to sit quietly and rest for about half an hour before doing other things. This is very necessary for liver maintenance. After people finish their meals, blood is concentrated in the digestive tract to participate in the digestion of food. When the body moves from lying down to standing up, the blood flow to the liver will decrease by 30%. If you start walking again, the blood flow to the liver will continue to decrease. If the liver is not supplied with enough blood, its normal metabolic activities will be affected. Therefore, after eating, sit down quietly, close your eyes and relax for 10 to 30 minutes to allow as much blood as possible to flow to the liver and supply liver cells with oxygen and nutrients.

3. Reduce appetite and control weight

The fast-paced urban life not only makes us rush around, but also makes our lunch at work like a war, which must be fought quickly and resolved quickly. Once we have time to rest, we tend to overeat, which leads to the growth of excess fat. In fact, overeating is a behavior caused by stress. When you urgently need to release stress through food, you might as well "sit quietly" to relieve stress, relax your body and mind, and let the idea of ​​"eating to your heart's content" settle down before eating. This will help slow down your eating speed, and while you chew the food slowly, your food intake will gradually decrease, and you can easily say goodbye to your "barrel waist".

4. Lower blood pressure and stay away from cardiovascular diseases

The United States once conducted meditation intervention therapy on a group of hypertensive patients. The results showed that meditation training reduced the patients' systolic and diastolic blood pressure by 4.7 mm/Hg and 3.2 mm/Hg, respectively. It can be seen that meditation is very effective in lowering blood pressure, thereby greatly reducing the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis, without causing any side effects of drugs.