Why meditate? 11 scientifically proven benefits of meditation
Created on 22 August, 2022 • Business • 8 minutes read
See your mind or thoughts as a kind of tool. Meditating is a technique for learning how to use this tool.
"Meditation is a precise technique for resting the mind and state of consciousness that is different from the normal waking state. It is the means of fathoming all the levels of self and finally experiencing the center of consciousness within."
See your mind or thoughts as a kind of tool. Meditating is a technique for learning how to use this tool.
The first step is to learn how to use it correctly, by observing it. How does it work? What can I do with it?
Then you can use it as effectively as possible.
Meditation is a natural way to get to know and train your mind. Training the thoughts is not easy at all. It requires a lot of practice.
This is also not weird. If you have never done this before, your thoughts are actually 'the boss' of you all your life.
For example, your thoughts determine what you eat and how much you eat. Whether you are going to exercise or going to hang out on the TV. Whether you get up early or stay in bed for a long time. Etc.
Your thoughts do what they want to do.
Nonsense?
How often can you say to yourself successfully - "Okay, stop worrying now and think only positive thoughts" -?
So your thoughts are the boss. Meditation can ensure that you gain more control over these thoughts.
More control, so that you are less guided by emotions.
How does meditation work? Simply put, meditation is just like resting.
If you have exercised, your body needs rest to recover. Your mind and thoughts are no different.
All-day long you get all kinds of impulses and your brain processes a lot of information. Sounds smell feelings etc.
Sleeping accounts for a large share of restoring the mind. But sometimes your thoughts hold on to certain things and even sleep cannot make you handle these things in the right way.
Think of important keys, an important date, someone who has annoyed you, or other things that you can not put your mind off.
You just can not stop worrying and you just keep worrying about these fears.
Would it go well? Why does that person do something like that to me? Did I learn well enough? What does that person think of me? Am I good enough?
Why meditating is good for you
Meditation on this level works by becoming more aware of these thoughts and emotions that we experience.
Meditation does not try to solve these problems, but to change your attitude towards these problems. Which creates more relaxation.
If you have more experience with meditation, it is more about observing and understanding the true nature of these thoughts.
Your thoughts are still there, but you do not take them personally anymore. They are there, you are aware that they are there, and you are satisfied with them. Whatever these thoughts may be.
I have to say that this is sometimes quite difficult to explain and understand. Meditating and the benefits of meditation can only be achieved by practicing and experiencing it.
You can read certain things from books. But you will do it yourself and you have to work to train your mind. And this does not happen overnight, why meditateWhy meditate? 11 scientifically proven benefits of meditation often I read articles on the Internet that say that meditation is good against stress and that you feel more relaxed and you feel happier, etc. Maybe you have read these articles too? A lot of what was written is also true. But I do not come across very few articles that explain why these meditation benefits are right now.
The life that helps meditation against stress, but which shows that? I think this is one of the reasons why many people meditate quickly and feel cloudy. Sad, because there are many benefits of meditation that could help many people to improve the quality of their lives. For this reason, the greatest benefits of meditation have been scientifically proven. So no imaginary gluttonous positive effects, but solid scientific evidence ;-).
1. Stronger immune system
You may think that meditating has only psychological benefits. Yet there are also physical benefits of meditation So Jon Kabat-Zinn injected several participants of a meditation program with a virus to test how their immune systems would respond. The people who participated in the program proved to have a stronger immune system and recover faster than people who did not meditate.
People with depression are constantly in the past or the future. They ponder about what has happened or what is to come. A study has shown that meditation can help you to live more at this moment. By becoming more aware of the NOW you automatically worry less about the past and the future.
2. More emotional balance
A 2012 study showed that people who meditate create lasting emotional balance. In the study, the brains of people participating in an 8-week meditation course were scanned. This showed that after the course the brain activity in the part of the brain that controls the emotions was lower. This does not mean that when you meditate you have no emotions at all, but that you have better control over them. See the world around you as a sort of tornado storm. He goes in all directions and anything can happen. You do not influence that. What you do influences your thoughts and emotions. People who meditate do not let themselves be blown away in all directions by the storm, but sit still and powerfully in the middle of this storm.
3. Developing Compassion
One of the other positive effects of meditation is that people who do this develop more compassion. Not only compassion for other people but also compassion for himself. When the Dalai Lama first visited the Western world, he was surprised that the meaning of the word "compassion" was badly referring to compassion for others. In Buddhism, compassion means both having compassion for others and yourself. You simply can not have compassion for others if you do not first have compassion for yourself. The good news is that you can train compassion. A study has shown that a short meditation alone can increase the compassion of people by 50 percent.
4. Reduced shock reaction
People have a shock reaction when something unexpected happens suddenly. You know what I mean. You blink for a moment with your eyes as the first reaction. Everyone has this. Even the most trained police officers. Every time they fire a gun, they still flash their eyes, even though they know it's going to happen. Lama Oser was the first person ever to suppress his fright. At the moment he meditates, he is so relaxed, so focused that nothing can distract him. Why is this one of the benefits of meditation? There is a strong correlation between the fears of people and this shock reaction. The less this shock reaction is, the less anxious someone is. In turn, anxiety is connected to stress, depression, and countless disorders. A pretty important finding ...
5. You become happier
Social psychologist Daniel Goleman has done several experiments with Lama Oser, the right hand of the Dalai Lama, with more than thirty years of experience in meditation. A brain scan showed Lama Oser's connection between the two hemispheres much higher than in his book 'Destructive Emotions. than average. The higher this ratio between the left and the right hemisphere, the happier people are.
6. Better concentration and focus
Various studies by Harvard University have shown that meditation increases the number of waves in the brain. The so-called 'Alpha state' ensures that you can learn better and process more information. We are more creative and we use both our brain halves. In addition, information in our environment that can distract us is precisely filtered out by these Alpha waves. In short, we can concentrate and focus better.
7. Prevention of depression
One of the greatest benefits of meditation is that it helps to prevent and cure depression. One of the characteristics of people with depression is worrying and spinning thoughts in the head.
8. Less fear
In the same research on the meditation program, Jon Kabat-Zinn showed that people who meditate suffer less anxiety. After a few weeks of meditation (45 minutes a day), students who participated had fewer fears than the control group.
9. Lower blood pressure
In America, about 1 in 3 people have elevated blood pressure. With increased blood pressure, people are more likely to have cardiovascular disease, heart attack, heart failure, and kidney disease. A study at the University of Kentucky has shown that Transcendental Meditation (repeating a mantra) significantly lowers blood pressure.
10. Less loneliness
Loneliness is a big hidden problem in the world. Especially many elderly people are lonely. A sense of loneliness can damage both our physical and mental health. A study by J. David Creswell has shown that 30 minutes of meditation a day can drastically reduce the feeling of loneliness.
11. Better sleep
A study done among people who suffer from sleep problems has shown that meditation techniques improved the quality of sleep, sleep, and sleeping efficiency. Because people had a better night's sleep, the quality of their life improved during the day. Word you meditating a superman? If you do not want to start meditating now, I do not know it anymore ;-) The above benefits of meditating may seem like becoming a kind of Superman when you meditate. Is that also true? It is more to use your true potential. Because we often live and are guided by our emotions, we often do not even think about what we can do as people.
By meditating you simply create more awareness of these qualities and through training you get more control over it. So you do not become a superman, but rather more yourself. What benefits of meditation have you experienced? I am very curious about the benefits of meditation you have experienced.
Do you recognize the above points? Or do you experience very different things? PS: Do you want to start meditating? These tips will help you on your way!