5 Reasons Why Meditation is Good for You
For years now, the emotional, physical, and mental benefits of meditation have been highlighted in various studies. And while there are still more to reveal about the potential of meditation, this practice has proven to be an efficient tool that can help improve one's quality of life.
Psychology experts and meditation instructors say that there are countless benefits that meditation can give a person who does it regularly.
Research about such advantages has, up to now, been promising with clinical studies presenting results such as improved memory, better emotional intelligence, and enhanced creativity.
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5 Advantages of Meditation
The regular practice of meditation does not only help you become healthier and happier as a person. It is advantageous, too, when it comes to your relationships, your daily productivity, and your capability to connect with other people.
Here are 5 of the countless advantages you can get from regularly practicing meditation:
1. Less Stress
When you're stressed, your body emits hormones like cortisol and adrenaline, leading to a series of psychological impacts.
Chronic stress can result in a disastrous effect on your health, leading to interrupted sleep and high blood pressure.
Research says that a brief mindfulness meditation practice--say, only 25 minutes--for three consecutive days is ideal for reducing stress.
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2. Enhanced Self-Esteem
Meditation can result in improved emotional health by increasing your confidence and self-esteem. A study recently examined the activity of participants' brains through the use of an MRI scanner prior to and following completion of a two-month course of meditation.
Additionally, research respondents reported improved self-esteem, more positive and less negative self-promotion, enhanced activity in a brain network linked to attention regulation, and less activity in the brain system linked to self-image.
3. Enhanced Memory
Essentially, mindfulness meditation functions on central brain networks playing a vital role in various cognitive tasks. Such a role includes "working memory," which lets the brain temporarily hold onto information.
Meditation can help combat age-related memory loss, as well. A review of several scientific studies assessing the probable impacts of meditation on age-related cognitive drop presents that meditation enhances attention and "mental quickness" among older respondents.
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4. Improved Quality of Sleep
A brief meditation at night can relax your body and mind, getting them ready for better sleep. In another research that examined the worth of mindfulness meditation in insomnia treatment, participating respondents who meditated were able to fall asleep sooner and remained asleep for an extended period compared to those who didn't.
5. Less Pain
Meditation has been proven to both lessen pain sensations and develop resilience in the body, leading to more excellent capability of coping with pain.
In effect, just 10 minutes of mindfulness meditation need to be spent as a substitute for painkillers. This was according to a Leeds Beckett University study, which found that meditation improved tolerance in pain.
The said study also found that such a practice improved threshold and lessen worry over pain among participants.
Lastly, another research which evaluated how meditation could be applied to ease the feeling of those terminally sick, found that meditation may help alleviate lingering pain "at the end of life."
Aug 05, 2020 12:48 PM EDT
