Science-Based Benefits of Meditation
The popularity of Meditation is increasing as more high-profile celebrities and influencers share their experiences and the benefits yielded from meditation to their wide audience.
A habitual process of training your mind in order to increase self-awareness, many people use meditation as a means to control stress and harness concentration.
I’ve recently become a student of meditation, and having integrated it into my daily habits I want to share with you the science-based benefits you can expect to gain from finding as little as 13 minutes a day to welcome meditation into your life.
1. Stress Reduction
The most common reason people Meditate is to relieve stress.
The environment we live in, be that work or our private life can create mental or physical stress which, in turn, causes an increase in the level of Cortisol in our bodies. Cortisol (also known as the stress hormone), is released by our adrenal glands so our body can deal with stressful situations. While the short-term effect of cortisol can keep us safe during times of danger, or keep us going through difficult situations, it can have long-term health impacts when cortisol levels are chronically high – weight gain, high blood pressure, heart disease and low energy levels, to name but a few.
A 2014 Meta-Analysis by Jama Internal Medicine found that meditation can result in small to medium reductions in psychological stress, although they did point out that they found no evidence that meditation was more effective than medical intervention, exercise and behavioural therapies – so a holistic approach should probably be considered for chronic stress.
2. Anxiety Control
Chronic stress can manifest itself in Anxiety, an intrusive feeling of unease, such as worry or fear which you can’t shake. Anxiety can be overwhelming and debilitating. Research shows a strong correlation between meditation and a reduction in anxiety – a Review by the Journal of Alternative Complementary Medicine found that Transcendental Meditation was more effective than most alternatives medicines at reducing anxiety levels and that furthermore, the higher the levels of anxiety, the greater the efficacy.
3. Improved Self-awareness
There are many forms of meditation, some of which help promote a stronger understanding of yourself, which is believed to assist in personal growth – becoming the best version of yourself with belief in your own abilities and capacity.
A Review by Evidence-Based Complementary Alternative Medicine showed a significant increase in self-efficacy through regular practice in Tai Chi.
4. Improved Attention Span
Meditation helps to increase the strength and endurance of your attention span and has been found to reverse patterns within the brain which are contributing factors for poor attention and mind-wandering. It’s natural for our brains to seek out and focus on events that are pleasant. novel or even threatening but this can hinder our ability to focus on day to day tasks that require our full attention. This was evidenced within a Review by Explore, they also gave further support to the potential improvements in anxiety and depression.
5. May Improve Memory
With improvements in attention span and clarity of thoughts, what impact can you expect on your memory?
A Review by Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences assessed several studies investigating the effects of meditation on age-related memory decline. They found that meditation interventions for older adults are feasible and evidence suggests that several different meditation methods can help to offset age-related memory loss.
6. Addiction Management
Meditation helps to cultivate mental discipline and that discipline can be used to increase self-awareness of situations that trigger addiction and improve self-control during such situations.
Transcendental Meditation as an intervention for alcohol abuse was studied by The Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment and they found promising results, asserting that consistently practising this form of meditation was associated with better outcomes as participants reported high satisfaction rates. Those practising twice a day yielded a lower chance of replacing with alcohol consumption.
7. Aids Pain Management
Pain is perceived by your mind and it’s been found that with regular meditation, you can harness your mind to better cope with pain sensations.
A substantial meta-analysis of 3,515 participants which assessed efficacy in many areas including mood, substance use and weight management, found that mindfulness meditation programs had moderate evidence of improvement to pain.
8. Improved Sleep
Racing, circular thoughts and anxiety can go hand in hand with insomnia and many of us will struggle with sleeping issues at some point in our busy and stressful lives.
A study published in the Sleep Journal evaluated the efficacy of meditation as an intervention for insomnia and found that it is a viable treatment option and could provide an alternative to traditional treatments, such as sleeping tablets.
Is Meditation For Me?
I can wholeheartedly say that meditation is definitely for me. The most marked improvement has been my ability to focus – living in beautiful Wales, it’s easy for my mind and vision to wander!
The great thing about meditation is the accessibility, you can meditate anywhere you have peace and it’s something anyone can learn in order to increase your mental ability and capacity.
To find out more about meditation and find the right training/technique for you, check out Headspace – it’s full of interesting articles and guided meditation.