What Is Meditation?
According to FreeMeditation.com, meditation is a state of deep peace that occurs when the mind is calm and silent. While many picture yoga poses and lotus positions when imagining the practice of meditation, meditation can actually be achieved during the course of daily routines and events, through managing breath, clearing the mind, and freeing oneself from distractions.
The Buddhist Centre describes meditation as a means of transforming the mind through a series of practices that encourage and develop concentration, clarity, emotional positivity, and a state of calm. While once considered something of an Eastern practice, today more than 30 million Americans regularly practice meditation, including celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, and the health benefits have been scientifically proven.
What Are The Benefits?
People who practice meditation have cited a wide range of physical, mental and social benefits from the practice of meditation. Among eight of the key benefits outlined by practitioners that have been supported by science, meditation helps achieve the following:
Increased Life Satisfaction
Meditation has proven effective in treating social anxiety disorder. The ability to create more numerous and more positive social bonds has been linked to an overall sense of life satisfaction. According to Adiba Osmani, author of Bidushi.com, mindful meditation can decrease our sense of perceived social threats, which can both reduce our feelings of loneliness and increase our feelings of positive connection with others. Quoting a 2008 Stanford University study, Osmani explains that just seven minutes of mindful meditation resulted in increased positive feelings towards strangers and decreased their sense of mistrust, as compared with a control group.
Decreased Stress and Anxiety
Meditation has been shown to be a true blues buster. Studies have shown that successful meditation may be as effective as antidepressant treatment in patients with depression. A 2014 study found that after only three meditation training sessions, study participants experienced a significantly lower level of stress than those without training when subjected to anxiety-inducing scenarios such as delivering presentations to stern-faced audiences.
Better Immune Function
According to the Chopra Wellness Center, mediation stimulates activity in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and anterior insula, the areas of the brain that control the function of the immune system. When these areas of the brain are stimulated, they can boost your overall immune system and your response to illness.
Some experts also suggest that this practice may help with chronic health conditions, including Type II diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Another study found that meditation training boosts antibodies in those who practice meditation, both compared with a control group of non-meditators, and in their own bodies prior to the onset of meditation training. Meanwhile, a UCLA study showed that HIV patients who practiced meditation slowed their reduction in CD-4 cell count, the immune cells that keep the virus from propagating.
Decreased Pain
Even brief meditation training has been shown in studies to reduce the intensity and sensation of pain in patients. Study participants were able to successfully block out pain sensations and focus on breathing - with an average reduction in pain of 40 percent, and an average reduction in unpleasantness by 57 percent. This is because meditation reduces activity in pain-processing regions of the brain, according to a 2011 article published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
Improved Memory And Focus
A Yale University study found that meditation decreases the activity in the part of the brain that controls self-referential thoughts. This type of mind wandering has been found to be linked with general unhappiness and a decrease in overall life satisfaction, as well as an increase in overall anxiety. Because they have trained their minds, meditators are better at snapping out of these mental wandering spells, leading to an increase in focus.
Improved Cardiovascular Health
It’s no secret that stress has a negative impact on our hearts and cardiovascular systems. Meditation has been shown as a means to get a handle on our life stresses, which can in turn lead to a decrease in blood pressure and a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease.
A 2012 study published in Time magazine found that, when used in combination with traditional medical care, meditation has significantly positive impacts on cardiovascular health. Study participants were followed over a five-year period, and those who were in the meditation group were found to have a 48 percent reduction in their risks for heart attack, stroke, and cardiovascular-related death. They had lower blood pressure, and reported less stress and chronic anger.
Improved Cognition
A 2015 UCLA study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that meditators had more preserved brains over time than non-meditators. They retained more grey matter and a decreased loss in cognitive ability. This practice has also been shown to literally change the structure of the brain, increasing the thickness in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that manages learning and memory. There were also physical volume decreases in the brain’s amygdala, the center of the brain that controls fear, stress, and anxiety, according to Forbes Magazine.
Addiction Treatment
Meditation has been shown to be a successful way to overcome various forms of addiction, including smoking cessation. Experts speculate that because meditation trains the mind to separate itself from the mental craving from the physical ingestion of the addictive item, it allows a person to overcome the addictive craving without caving into the need.
Meditation is free. It can be done anywhere, and the benefits are indisputable. So what are you waiting for? Sit back and relax… literally. It is likely to resolve a host of health issues plaguing you and your loved ones. At the end of the day, it’s your mind that really matters.