Introduction
Meditation has been used for thousands of years, and it is easy to see why. With its countless physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological benefits, meditation is suited for everyone—especially those afflicted with mental and physical disturbances. And in today’s world, who doesn’t have those?
In this article, we will delve into 5 of meditation’s top perks. These include anxiety management, enhanced self-awareness, physiological benefits, improved cognitive functioning, and reduced negative psychological affect. Any of these can be achieved alone or in a group setting.
Anxiety Management
Meditation’s most well-known benefit is the alleviation of anxiety. People get stressed—that’s just life, but managing that stress can be difficult. Meditating is a way to alleviate tension both in the short and long-term.
Study after study has shown that meditation, even when done on an irregular basis, leads to significant reductions in anxiety and stress. This is even more true for people who have anxiety disorders, which is about the highest level of stress you can have.
Meditation is successful with managing anxiety because:
- It acts on the areas of the brain associated with stress and anxiety
- It disrupts the cycle that leads to continued anxiety
- It reduces the level of stress hormones
Even taking just a few minutes to do breathing exercises is evidenced to significantly reduce stress levels.
Enhanced Self-Awareness
Setting time aside to meditate and, quite literally, think about your thoughts, helps improve your understanding of yourself and boosts mindfulness.
Self-inquiry meditation implores you to get a better understanding of yourself, thought patterns, and interactions with others. By doing this, you can determine in what areas you are struggling and think critically about how to rectify them.
Practicing these types of meditations can help additionally with social interactions by:
- Building empathy
- Increasing compassion
- Building social connections (such as making friends)
- Increasing amicability
Meditation also builds on self-efficacy, which is confidence associated with yourself and your capabilities. Comprehending how your brain operates makes it easier to achieve harmony between your thoughts and behaviors. Plus, it allows your brain to regather itself and to look at things objectively.
Physiological Benefits
The pros of meditation are not limited to the mind—it can aid your body, too. There have been many proven physical benefits of meditation, including but not limited to:
- Boosting the immune system (fighting disease)
- Improving sleep patterns and quality
- Decreasing blood pressure
- Easing gastrointestinal upset
- Reducing headaches (both in frequency and intensity)
- Improving physical fitness (for those who combine meditation with yoga or other activities)
- Reducing muscle tension
- Decreasing the experience of pain
Keep in mind that there are many other physiological advantages of meditation on the body, but these are the most immediate and notable.
Improved Cognitive Functioning
Another upside to meditation is that it can improve the way your brain functions on a day-to-day basis. Resting the mind, as is done during meditative practices, allows for mental clarity. This leads to stronger neurological connections and makes the brain more efficient.
Some of the most prominent and heavily evidenced cognitive gains are as follows:
- Improved problem-solving, decision-making, and critical thinking
- Improved attention span
- Improved memory and academic performance
- Delaying cognitive decline and combatting disorders like Alzheimer’s or dem entia
- Improved ability to fight addictions and other bad habits
In short, meditation can rewire your brain to function on an optimal level—even working to make you smarter!
Reduced Negative Psychological Affect
The last benefit we will cover is the reduction of negative psychological affect, which is the experience of negative moods and emotions so strong that it impacts your daily life. This can manifest itself in many ways and is shown to be linked to a myriad of psychiatric disorders.
A few of the disorders and impairments that meditation improves are:
- Depression (produces feel-good chemicals in the brain)
- Bipolar disorder (regulates mood swings)
- Postpartum depression (reduces mood instability and facilitates connections to the child)
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD; calms anxieties that lead to compulsions)
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; improves attention and focus)
You do not have to have a diagnosable psychiatric condition to experience these benefits. In fact, one study was done that revealed a pattern of fewer negative thoughts, even when exposed to negative stimuli. This is further evidence that meditation boosts your resilience towards painful or negative experiences, objects, and people.
Conclusion
There are so many upsides to meditation that you could go on forever about them, and more studies are being done all the time to expose ones that we have yet to discover.
5 of the most notable benefits are management of anxiety and anxiety-related symptoms, greater self-awareness, physical and health-related symptom alleviation, increased cognitive functionality, and a reduction in negative psychological affect.
All of these will significantly improve your quality of life and overall well-being. Whether you choose to do yoga, deep breathing exercises or go to a meditation retreat, there is a method of meditation for anyone with any given set of needs.