The Benefits of Meditation
In the past meditation was considered a ‘wuwu’ type of thing that was not backed up by science. This has quickly changed though! Over the past couple decades there have been hundreds of reputable studies from the top universities and medical centers around the world that have shown its effectiveness. The science on meditation is becoming clearer and clearer! In creating this posts I came across studies from Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, UCLA and Carnegie Melon. Many of these studies specifically showed the physical changes to the brain as a result of meditation.
The benefits of meditation include:
Increase happiness - meditation has been proven to both increase your happiness and decrease the risk of depression. This has been proven in many studies including one at Johns Hopkins University in 2014.
Reduce stress and anxiety - a Harvard study in 2011 show decrease brain volume in the amygdala which is responsible for fear, anxiety and stress.
Improve emotional self-control - meditation helps improve both your emotional self-control and emotional well-being. It allows you to deal with difficult emotions more effectively and helps you respond rather than react to triggers.
Increase awareness - meditation has been shown to improve your self-awareness and your ability to live in the present moment. This is the connection between meditation and mindfulness.
Increase kindness and compassion - loving kindness meditation has been shown to improve both your kindness and compassion. It does this by increasing the neural connection in the part of the brain that regulates positive emotions.
Improve immune function - according the Mayo Clinic meditation may help people manage conditions in anxiety, asthma, cancer, chronic pain, depression, heart disease, irritable bowel syndrome, sleep problems and tension headaches.
Improve brain function - meditation has been shown to improve concentration, memory, mental clarity and creativity. The 2011 Harvard study showed it increased the thickness in the hippocampus which is responsible for learning and memory.
Improve sleep - meditation has been shown to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. This is the because meditation helps relax the body and releases tension.
Helps control pain - a study of 3,500 participants in PubMed found that meditation decreased pain.
May help with addiction - was shown to lower alcohol use in treatment for alcohol in one study and helped control food cravings in another study.
For me personally meditation has helped me become more relaxed in social situations which has improved my authenticity.
