• There are scientifically proven benefits of meditation.
Image: Courtesy
Meditation is practiced widely across the world and is said to have many benefits.
But what exactly is meditation?
Simply put, it is a practice to attain a sense of mental clarity.
During meditation, an individual can use techniques such as mindfulness where they focus their mind on a particular object, thought or activity to achieve mental clarity and an emotionally calm and stable state.
According to a cardiologist, Herbert Benson, any condition that’s caused or worsened by stress can be alleviated through meditation.
This is only one of the benefits of meditation.
What are some of the others?
1. Meditation has lasting emotional control.
It makes us feel calmer while we practice it, and according to research, it has lasting effects of calmness.
2. Meditation also cultivates compassion.
Meditation has said to help people become more virtuous and compassionate, and this was put into a scientific test.
In a study, two actors pretended to be in great pain when they walked into a room of people that had been meditating and those who hadn’t been meditating.
What was found is that those that were meditating were 50% more likely to help the person in pain.
3. Meditation changes brain structure.
Eight weeks after someone practices meditation, their brain structure starts to change.
When a study was conducted, it was found that before and after people did meditation, grey-matter density in the hippocampus–an area associated with learning and memory–was increased.
4. Meditation reduces pain.
In a study that was conducted, it was found that those that practiced meditation had a higher pain tolerance. In the study, heated plates were placed on the calves meditators and non-meditators.
It was found that the meditators had a higher pain tolerance.
5. Controls anxiety
Because it controls stress, meditation controls anxiety.
In a study that lasted eight weeks, it was found that anxiety had reduced among the participants.
In addition, it also reduced the symptoms around anxiety disorders, including phobias, social anxiety, paranoid thought, obsessive-compulsive behaviors and panic attacks.
Meditation has clear benefits. If you want to get started but are a beginner, don't worry.
Here is a guide for beginners.