The Health Benefits of Meditation
The benefits of an ongoing meditation practice as it impacts our health can be classified further into three categories: physiological, psychological, and spiritual. Most people who practice meditation do so to reduce stress, anxiety, anger and other negative emotions.
Physical Benefits
- Deep rest; measured by decreased metabolic rate, lower heart rate, and reduced work load of the heart
- Lowered levels of cortisol and lactate; two chemicals associated with stress
- Reduction of free radicals; unstable oxygen molecules that can cause tissue damage (thought to be major factors in aging and in many diseases)
- Decreased high blood pressure
- Drop in cholesterol levels; associated with cardiovascular disease
- Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing (helpful to asthma patients)
- Younger biological age (people who meditated more than 5 years, measured 12 years younger than their chronological age
Psychological Benefits
- Increased brain wave coherence (harmony of brain wave activity in different parts of the brain is associated with greater creativity, improved moral reasoning, and higher IQ)
- Decreased anxiety
- Decreased depression
- Decreased irritability and moodiness
- Improved learning ability and memory
- Increased self-actualization
- Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation
- Increased happiness
- Increased emotional stability
Spiritual Benefits of Meditation
The longer people practices meditation, the greater the likelihood that their goals and efforts will shift toward personal and spiritual growth. Many individuals who initially learn meditation for its self-regulatory aspects find that as their practice deepens they are drawn more and more into the realm of the spiritual.
Neurophysiology of Meditation
Meditation is a form of contemplation, mostly of a spiritual nature. Meditation attempts to concentrate the mind to focus inwardly and with this effort of concentration allows us to gain knowledge deep within each of our souls. Meditation helps in controlling the restless mind, allowing us to hear our inner wisdom. The mind, as if, is made still. Meditation may be, therefore, taken as a 'passive' activity but we know it is far from passive.
Tremendous changes observed in the brain and nervous system during mediation disproves our belief that meditation is a passive activity. Research has show that altered state of consciousness can be brought about by hypnosis, drugs, sleep, etc., but additional studies show that meditation can bring about specific altered consciousness. Also found was that people who have meditated long term, more than 5 years daily could slow both heart rate and rate of respiration and could slow the rate of metabolism as confirmed by decreased oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide output.
Additionally, Electro-Encephalo-Gram (EEG - recording of brain activity) showed changes of calmness in the form of "alpha rhythm" during both eyes closed and eyes open recordings and their skin resistance to electric stimulation was increased (indicating increased tolerance to external stimuli).
Health Conditions That Are Benefited By Meditation
Meditation technique has proven to be a successful strategy in helping to deal with addictions, "a useful tool in helping to control the immune system, and an effective manager of stress and pain.
Prolonging Life Expectancy
A strong link has also been established between the practice of meditation and longevity. Two factors have been scientifically determined to actually extend life: caloric restriction and lowering of the body's core temperature. Meditation has been shown to lower core body temperature.
Most of the people who are on meditation do so because of its beneficial effects on stress. Stress refers to any or all the various pressures experienced in life which can come from work, family, illness, or environment and can contribute to such conditions as anxiety, hypertension, and heart disease. How an individual sees things and how he or she handles them makes a big difference in terms of how much stress he or she experiences. Research has shown that hormones and other biochemical compounds in the blood that indicate the level of stress tend to decrease during meditation. These changes also stabilize over time, so that a person is actually less stressed during daily activity. This reduction of stress translates directly into a reduction of anxiety and tension. Literally dozens of studies have shown this.
Pain Management
Chronic pain, over time, can erode the quality of life. Great strides are being made in traditional medicine to treat recurring pain and treatment is rarely as simple as prescribing medication or surgery. Anxiety decreases the threshold for pain and pain causes anxiety. The result is a vicious cycle. Compared with people who feel relaxed; those under stress experience pain more intensely and become even more stressed, which enhances their pain. Meditation breaks this cycle.
Meditation is also a key element in the Arthritis self-help Course at
Childbirth preparation classes routinely teach pregnant women deep breathing exercises to minimize the pain and anxiety of labor. Few call it breath meditation, but that's what it is.
Cancer and Other Chronic Illness
Meditation to deep relaxation helps people to center themselves so they can figure out how they'd like to handle their illness and proceed with life. Research was done on 73 patients, who attended at least 20 intensive meditation sessions, whereby noticed considerable reduction of anxiety and depression, which in turn reduced their discomfort and pain.
Heart disease
Meditation is a key component of Ornish therapy, the only treatment scientifically proven to reverse heart disease.
High blood pressure
Meditation reliably reduces blood pressure in those who practice the art daily. Research found that several weeks of practice, significantly declined the average blood pressure, reducing their risk of stroke and heart attack.
There are so many more conditions like, infertility, psoriasis, respiratory crises, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and tension headaches that benefit from meditation.
Psychological Benefits of Meditation
Meditation can help most people feel less anxious and more in control. The awareness that meditation brings can also be a source of personal insight and self-understanding.
Handling Repressed Memories and Enjoying Life
Meditation may lead to a breakdown of memories from early childhood abuse episodes. Traumas can suddenly flood the mind, making the patient temporarily more anxious until these traumas are healed. Many meditation exercises are actually forms of imagery and visualization that are extraordinarily useful in healing old traumas, confronting anxieties, finishing 'old business', learning to forgive, and enhancing self-esteem.
It has been found that meditation frees the person from their preoccupation with the past and future and allows them be in the moment and to fully experience their life today. Many people tend to live in a state of perpetual motion and expectations that prevents them from appreciating what they have right in front of them in the present moment. People live their life in a state of insufficiency; waiting for a mother to love them, for a father to be kind to them, for the perfect job or home; for the perfect partner to come along or even to become a perfect person. Unfortunately is it s myth that keeps people from being whole.
Meditation is humbling process that gently returns us to the now of our lives and allows us to wake up and see the way that we live our lives.
Depression
Feelings of helplessness, hopelessness and isolation are hallmarks of depression and our country’s most prevalent mental health problem. Meditation increases self-confidence and feelings of connection to others.
Panic attacks
Panic attacks are often treated with drugs, but studies show that if people who are prone to panic attacks begin focused, meditative breathing the instant they feel the first signs of an episode, they are less likely to have a full-blown panic attack.
In Conclusion
Many of Nature's cures - acupressure, aromatherapy, biofeedback, exercise, heat and cold therapies, massage therapy, music therapy, tai chi and chi gong, visualization, guided imagery and self-hypnosis and yoga incorporate elements of meditation. Because of all the health and spiritual benefits, many people are now turning to meditation to find their own healing and to live their lives as fully as possible.
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