Student blog: The effects of meditation

BA (Hons) Acting student Lucas Magiolo talks us through the effects of meditation and how trying the practice could impact your life. 

When you think about meditation many people would immediately shut you down. What they don’t know is that people who practise meditation daily, whether it’s chakra meditations or basic meditations, tend to be people that have so much on their plate that they sometimes need to just stop and create some space for clarity. Examples of people who include meditation in their daily lives are Will Smith, Hugh Jackman and Kristen Bell.

Sometimes we carry unnecessary tension in our bodies from issues we have had in the past. A basic example would be that you have a very busy day ahead of you, you wake up and might be carrying thoughts from the day before which could affect your day ahead- all because you didn’t check up on yourself in the morning.

Meditations are a great way of identifying these thoughts. You’d be surprised how much these tension points can affect the way the world sees us, through our posture and voices.

One of my favourite types of meditation is the chakra meditations. The seven chakras are seven energy centres that each correspond to certain nerve bundles and major organs.

These energy centres need to be at their best and stay balanced or open, because if blocked you might experience physical or emotional symptoms related to this particular chakra.

The seven chakras are as follows:

• Root chakra – base of your spine, responsible for your sense of security and stability
• Sacral chakra – below your belly button, responsible for your sexual and creative energy
• Solar plexus chakra – stomach area, responsible for confidence and self-esteem
• Heart chakra – centre of your chest (heart), responsible for your ability to show love and compassion
• Throat chakra – your throat, responsible for your ability to communicate
• Third eye chakra – between your eyes, responsible for intuition and imagination
• Crown chakra – top of your head, responsible for your spiritual connection to yourself, other and the universe

I recommend first years or anyone that has recently gone through a big change in their lives to find a guided chakra mediation, to just take time to check up on yourself and be kind to yourself.

I encourage you to notice any resistance you may have when bringing your awareness to a certain chakra, or if you have recently been experiencing any specific feelings with frequency or noticed any physical changes that could be due to blocked chakra centres.

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Preview image by Sophie Kent, BA (Hons) Illustration