Fish oil for meditation: fish oil can enhance your meditation practice by improving the communication between your brain cells, which leads to deeper focus, enhanced awareness, and increased willpower and ability to stay still for long periods of time.
Meditation has long been considered a great natural way of reducing stress, taming anxiety, and improving your relationship with the world around you.
Fish oil, on the other hand, is one of the most popular supplements for overall health – second only to a multivitamin.
Fish oil contains compounds such as omega-3s which are important for our health. If you aren’t a person who eats lots of oil fish on a regular basis, a fish oil supplement can ensure you meet your required intake of omega-3 fatty acids.
In this article, I’ll explain:
- The benefits of taking fish oil daily
- The benefits of daily meditation
- How fish oil and meditation can enhance each other’s effects
- Fish oil dosage, type, and other important notes
Benefits of fish oil
Many people know that fish oil is great for the heart and the cardiovascular system. As a matter of fact, fish oil is an integral part of the Mediterranean diet, which has strong evidence backing its effectiveness at preventing heart disease.
Thanks to its anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids, fish is also a brain food that can massively benefit your wellbeing. Did you know that your brain is mostly made out of fat? Did you know that most of that fat is DHA – a type of omega-3 fatty acid?
Indeed, consuming more fish can fire up your mental functions, by stimulating the growth and repair of your brain cells. This includes those in the hippocampus area which governs complex cognitive functions such as language learning and decision making.
Fish oil has been shown to:
- Lower depression symptoms
- Reduce OCD and restless thoughts
- Enhance mental clarity
- Support long-term planning and decision making processes
- Enhance willpower to resist temptations
Benefits of meditation
Meditation has been practiced by monks for millennia. Its popularity in the West has been growing exponentially in recent years – and for a good reason.
Studies show that meditation has profound benefits – such as enhancing the parts of the your brain that regulate emotions, self-control, and creative thinking.
When regular people started practicing daily meditation, brain scans showed physically reduced size of their amygdala, which is a part of the brain that triggers fear, anxiety, and flight-or-flight reactions. The brain image also showed an increase in grey matter density, especially in the hippocampus area which controls your mood, emotions, deep thinking and other complex processes.
Interestingly, fish oil too has been shown to fire up the hippocampus activity. Therefore, it’s clear that combining meditation and fish oil can have some amazing synergistic effects.
How fish oil can enhance your meditation practice
Fish oil’s DHA and EPA, two key omega-3 acids, are some of the most beneficial nutrients for building your brain cell membranes, reducing neuron inflammation, and even promoting the growth of new nerve cells.
Both fish oil and meditation work to boost your mood and protect against brain disorders ranging from depression, to anxiety, to memory loss and dementia. People who meditate regularly are shown to have brains that are physically 7 years younger compared to non-meditators.
The problem with meditation, though, is that it’s often hard to enter the ‘flow’ state. Scientists don’t know yet if meditation has the same benefits if you aren’t able to reach those deep states consistently. It’s here that fish oil can be of massive help.
As fish oil has been linked to increased concentration and focus, among other benefits, it can directly improve your meditation experience – which can in turn help you maximize meditation’s benefits.
It can be said that supplementing high quality omega-3 oil – be it from fish or even better, algae – is almost essential for serious meditators who’re looking to get the most out of their practice.
Fish Oil Dosage for Meditation
American Heart Association recommends 1g of omega-3s daily. This relates to the combined amount of EPA and DHA. Higher doses have been shown as effective for a variety of goals, including improving brain function.
Therefore, to maximize the effects of fish oil on your meditation, you will want to look for supplements that have at least 500mg-1,000mg of DHA.
Keep in mind that the effects of fish oil are not instantaneous. It takes several weeks of supplementation for your blood levels of DHA to rise, and several months for your brain levels. Eventually, though, you should notice an improvement in mental energy, and you should also have more clarity and focus.
Anything Else to Consider?
The source of your omega-3 fatty acids is just as important as the dose. Small fish that are rich in omega-3s but low in mercury and PCBs are the best. Those include sardines, cod, and wild-caught salmon.
If you aren’t able to get enough omega-3s through diet, a supplement can do wonders!
The best form of omega-3 fatty acid supplement is from algae – not fish! This is because algae are the direct source of omega-3 fatty acids. It’s where fish get their omega-3s in the first place!
Algae are also clear of toxins and contain a highly bioavailable form of omega-3s, which ensures your body utilizes them most efficiently.
I personally use Omega-3s from Performance Lab. This is the most concentrated and purest omega-3 supplement I’ve found. Performance Lab, in general, uses some of the cleanest and most advanced nutrition technology processes that I’ve seen in any supplement. It’s all plant-based and eco-friendly, too.
Conclusion
Fish oil is a source of EPA and DHA, essential omega-3 fatty acids which are crucial for our health.
Not getting enough DHA can negatively affect your focus, concentration and other aspects of mental function that are essential for an effective meditation session.
Beyond that, omega-3 deficiency can also put you at risk of premature mental decline.
As I’ve mentioned above, I recommend the algae-based Omega-3 supplement from Performance Lab. This is a company I personally buy my products from and trust in. Their omega-3 is sourced from algae and is currently among the cleanest on the market.
You can read my Performance Lab Omega-3 review here, or check Performance Lab’s whole range here: https://www.performancelab.com/
That would be it folks! Have any questions? Let me know in the comments below.
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