The benefits of meditation are many and varied, some of which are related to the body, and others to the mind. In the following article, we will introduce you to the most important scientifically proven benefits of meditation.
The practice of meditation has spread greatly in recent years around the world so it has become a fashion followed by most, but did you know that the benefits of meditation are many, including health and the mind?
Awareness about the practice of meditation has become greater in recent times, so the number of its practitioners has increased, but in order to motivate others and encourage practitioners to continue doing so, you must know the most important health and psychological benefits of meditation.
Meditation is a continuous and regular process of the mind in order to try to empty it of the many thoughts, control them in order to exclude those that are not important, and focus on the important and necessary thoughts.
The Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation
Reducing stress
Reducing stress is one of the most important benefits of meditation that has been scientifically proven, as a scientific study conducted on about 3,500 adults found that their regular practice of meditation reduced the level of stress they felt.
Physical and psychological stress causes high levels of cortisol in the body, which in turn leads to the release of chemicals called cytokines, which negatively affect sleep, blood pressure, fatigue, and depression.
In addition, some scientific studies have found that practicing meditation would reduce the symptoms and complications associated with stress, the most important of which is the problem of irritable bowel syndrome.
Control Anxiety
This benefit is based on the previous one, as the lack of stress will help you control and reduce anxiety.
An eight-week study found that mindfulness in particular helped people manage and reduce their anxiety.
It is also possible to apply this matter to phobias or phobias in their various forms. Meditation would reduce the symptoms associated with these types of anxiety, the most important of which are social phobia and panic attacks.
It should be noted that meditation helps reduce levels of work-related anxiety and stress.
Promoting mental health
So, it can be concluded that the practice of meditation and mindfulness work to enhance mental health as a whole, through:
- Improve your perception of yourself and increase your confidence
- The feeling of general satisfaction with your body and your psyche
- Increased feeling of happiness
- Fight negative feelings
- Increased ability to focus.
Improving brain health and protecting it from aging
Since meditation targets the brain and works to try to control it and the thoughts that revolve inside them, this reflects positively on its health and protects it from the problems associated with advancing age.
In a review targeting 12 scientific studies, it was found that meditation in its various forms works to increase alertness, enhance memory, and protect the brain from Alzheimer’s and dementia with old age.
Increase kindness and benevolence
In the event that meditation is adopted as a way of life and practiced regularly and continuously, you will notice that the benefits will not only reach you but will also reflect on others, through increased kindness and benevolence on your part.
Metta is a type of meditation that attempts to develop feelings of kindness, benevolence, and empathy for others. It urges practitioners to treat others kindly and to think about their needs as well.
Other benefits of meditation
Regular meditation practitioners can reap some other benefits, which are:
- Help them fight any kind of addiction
- Improve sleep quality
- Relieving pain and reducing its feeling
- Reducing high blood pressure levels
- Reducing the side effects experienced by cancer patients due to receiving chemotherapy
- Reducing premenstrual symptoms in women
- Increase the immune system's ability to fight diseases.