Meditation is the process of training your mind to focus and refocus your thoughts.
The popularity of meditation is increasing rapidly as more and more people are discovering its many health benefits.
You can use it to increase awareness of yourself and your environment. Many people see it as a way to reduce stress and develop more concentration.
People also use the meditation training to develop other beneficial habits and feelings, such as a positive mood, self-discipline, healthy sleeping patterns and even increased pain resistance.
This article reviews 10 health benefits of regular meditation.
Meditation reduces stress
Reducing stress is one of the most common reasons people start meditating.
Normally, mental and physical stress cause elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol. This causes many of the damaging effects of stress, such as the release of inflammatory chemicals called cytokines.
These effects can disrupt sleep, promote depression and anxiety, increase blood pressure, and contribute to fatigue and cloudy thinking.
In an 8-week study, a meditation style called `` mindfulness meditation '' reduced the inflammatory response caused by stress.
In addition, research has shown that meditation can also improve symptoms of stress-related conditions, including irritable bowel syndrome, posttraumatic stress disorder and fibromyalgia.
Control of anxiety
Meditation can reduce stress levels, which translates into less anxiety.
A meta-analysis with nearly 1,300 adults found that meditation can reduce anxiety. This effect was particularly strong in those with the highest levels of anxiety.
One study also found that 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation helped reduce anxiety symptoms in people with generalized anxiety disorder, along with increasing positive self-explanations and improving stress responsiveness.
Another study In 47 people with chronic pain, it was found that completing an 8-week meditation program led to noticeable improvements in depression, anxiety, and pain over 1 year.
Meditation can also help manage work-related anxiety. One study found that employees who used a mindfulness meditation app for 8 weeks, like for example Headspace experienced improved feelings of well-being and less stress and work pressure compared to those in one control group.
Promotes Emotional Health
Some forms of meditation can lead to an improved self-image and a more positive outlook on life.
An outcome of one review For example, of treatments given to more than 3,500 adults, mindfulness meditation showed improved symptoms of depression.
Likewise, a review showed 18 studies indicated that people who received meditation therapies experienced reduced symptoms of depression compared to those in a control group.
Another study found that people who completed a meditation practice experienced fewer negative thoughts in response to viewing negative images, compared to those in a control group.
In addition, inflammatory chemicals called cytokines released in response to stress can affect mood, which can lead to depression. An overview of various studies suggests that meditation can also reduce depression by lowering the amount of these inflammatory chemicals.
Improves self-awareness
Some forms of meditation can help you develop a positive image of yourself, allowing you to grow to be your best self.
Self-inquiry meditation, for example, is explicitly aimed at helping you develop a better understanding of yourself and how it relates to the people around you.
Other forms teach you to recognize thoughts that can be harmful or self-destructive. It idea is that as you become more aware of your thinking habits, you can steer them into more constructive patterns.
A review of 27 to investigate showed that the practice of tai chi can be associated with enhanced self-efficacy, a term used to describe a person's belief in their own ability or ability to overcome challenges.
In addition, experience with meditation can develop more creative problem-solving skills. .
Meditation extends the attention span
Focused attention meditation is like lifting weights for your attention span. It helps increase the strength and endurance of your attention.
For example, one study found that people who listened to a meditation tape experienced improved attention and accuracy while completing a task, compared to those in a control group.
Even meditating for a short period every day can be of added value. One study found that meditating daily for just 13 minutes postponed attention and memory 8 weeks improved.
Meditation can reduce age-related memory loss
Improvements in attention and clarity of thinking can keep your mind young.
Kirtan Kriya is a meditation method that combines a mantra or chant with repeated movements of the fingers to focus your thoughts. Studies in people with age-related memory loss have shown that it increases performance neuropsychological tests.
In addition to combating normal age-related amnesia, meditation can at least partially improve the memory of patients with dementia. It can also help manage stress and improve coping with those caring for family members with dementia.
Meditation can induce kindness
Some types of meditation can especially reinforce positive feelings and actions towards yourself and others.
Metta, a type of meditation also called loving-kindness meditation, starts with developing kind thoughts and feelings for yourself.
Through practice of this meditation, people learn to practice this kindness and forgiveness externally, first to friends, then to acquaintances and finally to enemies.
A meta-analysis of 22 investigations to this form of meditation showed that it is able to increase people's compassion for themselves and others.
A study at 100 adults randomly assigned to a program that included meditation for loving-kindness found these benefits to be dose-dependent. In other words, the more time people spent in weekly metta meditation, the more positive feelings they experienced.
Meditation improves sleep
Nearly half of the population will one day suffer from insomnia.
Becoming proficient in meditation can help control or redirect the fleeing or runaway thoughts that often lead to insomnia.
Plus, it can help your body relax, release tension, and put you in a peaceful state where you fall asleep more quickly.
A study compared several mindfulness-based meditation programs and found that people who meditated slept longer and improved the severity of insomnia, compared to those who did not follow a meditation program.
Meditation helps control pain
Your perception of pain is linked to your state of mind, and it can be increased in stressful circumstances.
Some research suggests that incorporating meditation into your routine can be beneficial for pain management.
A review of 38 studies concluded, for example, that mindfulness meditation can reduce pain, improve quality of life, and reduce symptoms of depression in people with chronic pain.
A big meta-analysis of studies involving nearly 3,500 participants concluded that meditation was associated with reduced pain.
Meditators and non-meditators experienced the same causes of pain, but meditators showed greater ability to cope with pain and even experienced a decreased sense of pain.
Meditation can lower blood pressure
Meditation can also improve physical health by reducing the workload on the heart.
Over time, high blood pressure makes the heart work harder to pump blood, which can lead to poor heart function.
High blood pressure also contributes to narrowing of the arteries, which can lead to heart attack and stroke.
A meta-analysis of 12 studies with nearly 1,000 participants found that meditation helped lower blood pressure. This was more effective in older volunteers and those who had higher blood pressure prior to the study.
In part, meditation appears to control blood pressure by relaxing the nerve signals that coordinate heart function, blood vessel tension, and the 'fight-or-flight' response that increases alertness in stressful situations.
Conclusion
Meditation is something anyone can do to improve their mental and emotional health. You can do it anywhere, without any special equipment or memberships.
Meditating regularly helps improve your quality of life, even if you only have a few minutes to do it each day.
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