The benefits of meditation
For some people in the western hemisphere, meditation is seen as a sort of "hippy new age" fashion, something you do right before eating granola and hugging a spotted owl. However, Eastern civilizations have learned about the power of meditation and have used it to control the mind and expand consciousness. Today western thought is finally recovering ground and there is a growing awareness of what meditation is and its many benefits for the human body and soul. Let's take a look at some of the ways scientists have discovered that meditation is good for you.
Reduce stress, change your brain
We are all busy: we have work, school, families, bills to pay and many other obligations. Add it to our fast-paced technical world and it's a recipe for high stress levels. The more stress we experience, the harder it is to relax. A Harvard University study found that people who practiced meditative awareness not only had lower stress levels, but also developed more volume in four different brain regions. Sara Lazar, PhD, told the Washington Post:
“We found differences in brain volume after eight weeks in five different brain regions of the two groups. In the group that learned meditation, we found thickening in four regions:
- The main difference, which we found in the posterior cingulate, which is involved in wandering the mind and self-esteem.
- The left hippocampus, which helps in learning, cognition, memory and emotional regulation.
- The temporal parietal junction, or TPJ, which is associated with taking perspective, empathy and compassion.
- An area of the brain stem called Pons, where many regulatory neurotransmitters are produced. "
Additionally, Lazar's study found that the amygdala, the part of the brain associated with stress and anxiety, shrank in the participants who practiced meditation.
Boost your immune system
People who meditate regularly tend to be healthier, physically, because their immune systems are stronger. In the Alterations in Brain and Immune Function study produced by Mindfulness Meditation, the researchers evaluated two groups of participants. One group engaged in an eight-week structured awareness meditation program and the other did not. At the end of the program, all participants were given a flu shot. People who practiced meditation for eight weeks showed a significant increase in antibodies to the vaccine, while those who hadn't meditated hadn't experienced it. The study concluded that meditation can really change brain functions and the immune system and recommended further research.
It reduces pain
Believe it or not, people who meditate experience lower levels of pain than those who don't. A study published in 2011 examined the results of magnetic resonance imaging of patients who, with their consent, were exposed to different types of pain stimuli. Patients who had participated in a meditation training program responded differently to pain; they had a higher tolerance for pain stimuli and were more relaxed when responding to pain. In the end, the researchers concluded:
"Since meditation probably alters pain by improving cognitive control and reformulating the contextual evaluation of nociceptive information, the constellation of interactions between expectations, emotions and cognitive evaluations intrinsic to the construction of the sensory experience can be regulated by the meta-cognitive ability of non- carefully judge your attention on the present moment. "
Enhance your self-control
In 2013, researchers from Stanford University conducted a study on training in the cultivation of compassion, or CCT, and how it affected the participants. After a nine-week CCT program, which included mediations derived from Tibetan Buddhist practice, they found that the participants were:
“Openly express concern, cordiality and a sincere desire to see suffering alleviated in others. This study found an increase in awareness; other studies have found that mindfulness meditation training can improve higher-order cognitive skills such as regulating emotions. "
In other words, the more compassionate and attentive you are towards others, the less likely you are to fly away when someone upsets you.
Reduce depression
Although many people take antidepressants and should continue to do so, there are some who are finding that meditation helps with depression. A sample group of participants with various mood disorders was studied before and after mindfulness meditation training and the researchers found that this practice "mainly leads to a reduction in ruminative thinking, even after checking the reductions in affective symptoms and of dysfunctional beliefs ".
Become a better multi-tasker
Have you ever felt that you can't do everything? Meditation could help you with this. A study on the effects of meditation on productivity and multitasking showed that "training attention through meditation improves aspects of multitasking behavior." The study asked participants to do an eight-week session on mindfulness meditation or body relaxation training. A series of tasks were therefore assigned to be completed. The researchers found that awareness improved not only the way people paid attention, but also their memory skills and the speed with which they finished their homework.
Be more creative
Our neocortex is the part of our brain that guides creativity and intuition. In a 2012 report, a Dutch research team concluded that:
“Attention focused meditation (FA) and open monitoring meditation (OM) have a specific effect on creativity. First, OM meditation induces a state of control that promotes divergent thinking, a style of thinking that allows many new ideas to be generated. Second, FA meditation does not support convergent thinking, the process of generating a possible solution to a particular problem. We suggest that the improvement in positive mood induced by meditation increased the effect in the first case and contrasted in the second case ".