Imagine you're sitting in this chair, breathing in fresh air, and looking out at a peaceful landscape. What are you thinking? Are you distracted by a nagging to-do list? Worried about a loved one? Or does your phone suddenly alert you to someone else's pressing need?  

If you find it difficult to sit down for just five minutes without an onslaught of unfinished tasks, worries, and other distractions keeping you from achieving a moment of peace, then you, my friend, are stressed. 

Our brains are not meant to experience constant stimulation, with no rest for hours on end. We need mental downtime. Periods of rest and recovery allow your brain to reflect on lessons you've learned, consider future plans, and solve problems.

"It creates rejuvenation in the brain, when you can chew on or consolidate information and make meaning out of what's going on in your life," says Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Ed.D., a professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California's Brain and Creativity Institute. "It helps you make sense of who you are what actions to do next, and what things mean, and it's linked to well-being, intelligence, and creativity."

According to Harvard Medical School, mindful meditation can help ease anxiety, depression, and pain. Through 47 well-designed studies on meditation, researchers were able to conclude that meditation is a legitimate method for improving mental health.

The definition of anxiety is a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome. Mindfulness, by its very nature of focusing one's thoughts, is one of the most powerful antidotes to anxiety. 

Many people who battle anxiety are essentially battling their own fears. FEAR (which we define as "False Expectations Appearing Real") has a paralyzing effect. It inhibits progress. Difficult to control worries can lead to sleep deprivation, which can lead to irritability and health problems. But it's important to understand that worries are simply thoughts, no matter how real they may seem, and they do nothing to change the outcome of one's situation.

So it's simple, right? Just change your thoughts! But the problem is that a person may not even realize when he or she is worrying.By committing to a daily meditation practice with a focus on meditating on positive thoughts, an anxious person can learn how to identify self-defeating negative worries and replace them with positive affirmations.

The way to overcome anxiety is to reprogram the brain to hold captive those negative beliefs, submit them to a better truth, and create an entirely new belief system based on encouraging thoughts. Meditation is a key practice for transforming a negative mindset into a healthy, positive, and winning mindset.

"Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5

If you're new to meditation, try out the meditation practice contained in the video at the top of this page. Scroll up and hit play. The meditation starts at 2:01.

Feel free to sample a few more meditations, featured on this page. But know that if you are serious about taking control of stress, anxiety, and other self-defeating habits, you must make meditation a daily practice. 

Souletics® the Mindset Coach would like to help you cut through the noise and sail above the storms each day with our powerful meditation and mindset program. If you want to overcome stress, anxiety, depression, and any other of life's challenges, you must reprogram your brain. Meditation is the right place to begin.