In recent years, scientific studies have focused on the benefits of meditation on our brains.
And the incredible thing is that each study attributes a benefit to meditation.
Science and new technologies only confirm the benefits of meditation on the brain. Meditation is a relaxing activity that can improve health in many ways.
Studies show that meditation has a protective effect on the heart, promotes sleep, strengthens the immune system, calms anxiety, and lowers the risk of depression.
Today, more and more people are practicing meditation, and the media is picking up on the subject.
Mindfulness or meditation is training the mind to focus on the present moment intentionally and without judgment.
Whether you are convinced, simply curious, or even skeptical, here are 10 benefits of meditation for your mental health.
It reduces stress and anxiety:
Research in the medical field has shown that regular meditation can improve mental health, help better regulate emotions, and help reduce stress and anxiety.
Indeed, by meditation, we learn to settle down and concentrate on ourselves. The goal is not to pretend the anxieties don’t exist but to gain awareness and look at them with a new eye.
- It develops your attention skills:
By practicing mindfulness, we notice that our actions are often performed on autopilot without thinking about it.
We can then learn to focus on one thing at a time without being constantly caught by the comings and goings of our thoughts, thus reducing multitasking and setting clear intentions for our priorities.
3.It helps manage pain:
Mindfulness programs have been developed to help people cope better with pain, in particular, to accept it better.
- It can boost your creativity:
Meditation also allows us to approach change beyond our usual patterns and thus be more creative.
Meditation exercise increases the blood flow to the brain and affects brain waves.
That ultimately helps to develop systemic intelligence and thus gain clarity in the brain—solving complex problems.
- You get to have a more peaceful sleep:
According to research (the interest in the subject is still very new), practicing mindfulness in addition to cognitive behavioral therapy would reduce the night’s awakening time and decrease sleep disruptions.
This is enough to give hope to people who suffer from sleep disorders.
- It develops altruism and leadership:
Many organizations have decided to implement mindfulness meditation programs on a global scale because the individual benefits are also added to the positive effects in the group.
A study has shown that decision-makers better perceive their skills after a 12-week training course: shared vision, moral intelligence, and motivation.
Mindfulness, therefore, reinforces leadership qualities.
- And it’s for children too!
Adults are not the only ones who can benefit from the benefits of this practice.
Indeed, research also showed mindfulness meditation’s positive effect on children and adolescents.
Among the benefits of this practice, meditation can allow children to understand their mental patterns better, help them better accept and manage their emotions, and develop better relationships with others.
- It improves concentration:
It is not just children who are prone to concentration problems.
Millions of adults have the same challenges whether or not they have ADD. One of the most important benefits of meditation is that it improves our ability to concentrate.
- It slows down the aging of the brain:
According to a study from the University of California (UCLA), which looked at aging, the brains of people who have practiced meditation for several years are better preserved than those who do not.
People meditating for over 20 years have more gray matter in their brains.
This is not to say there is no loss of gray matter over time in meditating people—this loss is less pronounced than in people who never practice meditation.
- It reduces symptoms of depression:
Meditation can reduce symptoms of depression, as well as alleviate anxiety and pain.
Meditation is, therefore, an active form of brain training.
Many people think that meditation is just sitting down and doing nothing.
But this perception is wrong. Meditation is an active training of the mind to increase our ability to be “mindful.”
Better ability to concentrate and accept emotions, improve sleep, and promote creativity— whatever our situation, mindfulness benefits us.
But beware, it’s no miracle recipe, like any practice. To feel the benefits, you must practice regularly and over the long term.
