The Link Between Meditation And Your Body
It’s easy to be sceptical about meditation. Given its increasing popularity in the Western world over the past decades, it can be seen as a fad without real substance.
When we experience stress every day, it causes physical damage to our bodies. Meditation could be the answer to this problem. Meditation affects the body in the opposite way that stress does. Not only it calms down the body, but it also helps the body to repair itself and prevents new damages to the body too. So what is the link between meditation and your body?
Meditation can reverse your stress response and thus protecting you from the effects of chronic stress. According to research which compared a meditating group to a non-meditating group, they found that the nonmeditating group has worse stress responses such as high blood pressure, pain syndromes, and other conditions compared to the meditating group. Experts have said that any condition caused or worsened by stress can be alleviated through meditation.
When you are meditating, you are actually relaxing your body. This helps decrease metabolism, lowers blood pressure and it also improves heart rate, breathing, and brain waves. You start using oxygen more efficiently and you also sweat less. When you do it daily, your immune functions starts improving. Once your mind is cleared of its stress, your creativity also increases.
In people who are meditating, brain scans have shown that there is an increase in activity in areas that control metabolism and heart rate. Buddhist monks have shown that meditation produces long-lasting changes in brain activity areas involved in memory, attention, learning, and perception.
Meditation also helps ward off illness and infections. It is an immune booster. When you are relaxed, you are less prone to suffering from infectious diseases. Whereas for stressed people, their bodies are already physically damaged and their immune function is already low, so it does not take much to get them sick.
Although meditation is a little difficult to start, it is not difficult to learn. All you need is practice. Over time, you will be able to meditate properly, and to clear your mind, you too will be able to enjoy the benefits that meditation has to offer.
The Benefits Of Meditation For Peace And Joy
When the word meditation comes to mind, the image that comes to mind is a bunch of Buddhist monks sitting cross-legged chanting Aum. However, meditation is one of the most widely practiced stress management techniques worldwide. There are many benefits that you can derive from meditating. The benefits of meditation are for everyone, whether you’re a seasoned meditator or someone who’s looking to try it out for the first time.
So let’s look at some of the benefits that meditation has to offer.
Meditation helps to soothe and reduce the risk of depression.
Some studies suggest that meditation can help to alleviate depression.
One study, conducted in 2000 by cognitive psychologist John Teasdale from Oxford University, indicated that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) was helpful in preventing depression. MBCT is a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy that requires the patient to concentrate on one thing.
Furthermore, meditation helps you control your own thoughts. Man has conquered space and Mount Everest. But the most difficult thing to conquer is your own mind. Even the greatest minds on Earth are not able to control their thoughts. Look at Van Gogh. He succumbed to his thoughts and committed suicide. They are not able to reject their negative thoughts and focus on the positive. However, the art of meditation teaches that not only that you can control your own thoughts, you can also reject your negative thoughts. Through meditation, you will be able to create peace of mind that you always wanted.
Meditation also teaches you, detachment. It is easy to get annoyed by all the little things in life. It may be the jam to work in the morning, the rude lady that cut your queue. Every little small thing may annoy you. No matter how you try and avoid these problems, they will also keep appearing and we need to get used to doing that. Meditation will help you develop detachment and also keep your mind in perspective. Through meditation, you will be able to detach yourself from all these irritating little nuisances.
Meditation also helps you discover the purpose of life. If you are feeling empty inside, meditation allows you the time that you need to examine yourself inwardly and helps you gain a greater understanding of life. You will start to relax and you will be able to view your life from a whole different perspective.
Lastly, meditation leads to happiness and peace of mind. As we have pointed out before, it helps you control your thoughts. So it is out with the negative thoughts and in with the positive energy. It detaches you from little petty problems and also helps you discover the purpose of life. So try meditating today to live a better life tomorrow.
Meditation provides your soul with the ability to be fully present in the human experience of life.
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