Meditation is good for our heart health. Many of us live in a chronic state of imbalance. A tense, ready-to-go. That is bad news for our heart. But there is a simple way to restore balance in our nervous system—meditation. The authors of the article “Effect of Meditation on Autonomic Function in Healthy Individuals,” published in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, state, “Meditation is known to have a positive effect on cardiorespiratory health. One of the important effects of meditation is to relieve stress. Due to this, it has been used for many medical conditions. It mainly alters the autonomic function by decreasing sympathetic tone and increasing parasympathetic tone. Better balance is seen between sympathetic and parasympathetic components… This balance may be responsible for nonsignificant change in resting blood pressure and heart rate.” To meditate to improve our heart health, we must make it part of our lifestyle. Here are two approaches to integrating meditation into our life.

Approach number one: Invite mindfulness into our daily routine as often as you can. As an example, as we are drinking our decaffeinated coffee, slow our breathing down, inhale, exhale and shift gears from “thinking-and-doing” mode to “feeling” mode. Feel the warmth of the drink and feel the weight of the mug.

The simple mindfulness exercise of shifting the gears from doing to feeling can be an entry point to experiencing the benefits of meditation. This mindfulness approach is available anytime. When we are stuck at a long red light, take a deep breath and feel the texture of the steering wheel. When standing at the end of a long line at the grocery store checkout, feel the texture of our socks and realize just how rich and sensuous each and every passing moment is.

Approach number two: Make meditation part of our routine. As with exercise, we can experience the full benefit of meditation if we make it a regular habit. Many people use meditation apps to make it work for their busy lifestyle, and that’s great, and group meditation is also worth a try, where the authentic social connections can bring us into the ventral vagal state, which allows for a deeper sense of safety and relaxation.

Jiyoon Lee is the director of the Dallas Meditation Center. For more information, visit Tinyurl.com/Meditation-Heart-Benefits.