Mindfulness: 11 scientifically proven benefits of meditation

The effects of meditation are scientifically studied and each one is one more reason to start practicing.

Meditation is a mental and physical technique that allows you to control your attention and your thoughts. Or rather, prevent involuntary, automatic thoughts from controlling your mind.

Therefore, the first beneficial effect of meditation is that it provides greater control over your life, which helps you achieve goals and react appropriately to each situation.

However, the scientifically proven physical and mental health benefits of meditation go much further.

THE MAIN BENEFITS OF MEDITATION

In addition to providing better control over your life, meditation provides a number of benefits that have been scientifically proven. This is the list of the main benefits of mindfulness:

1. Meditation reduces stress and anxiety

A study with 3,500 people carried out at Johns Hopkins University (United States) shows that it is effective in reducing levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. Stress causes general discomfort, disrupts sleep, causes physical inflammation, increases blood pressure, and impairs immunity.

2. Improves emotional well-being

People who meditate regularly score high on tests of self-esteem and optimism, and tend to have fewer symptoms of depression. In regular practitioners the positive effects are maintained indefinitely.

3. Helps cultivate concentration

Increase your ability to decide what to focus on and how long you can do a task without being distracted. The improvement can be seen after 4 days. This makes meditation a practically essential tool for people who study, who do intellectual work or who cannot afford a mistake in their work.

4. Preserve memory

Meditation reduces age-related memory loss and enhances clarity of thought, according to a review of 12 scientific studies. In particular, the method of meditation called Kirtan Kriya, which combines mudras (hand gestures) and mantras (chants) is especially beneficial for memory.

5. Helps keep addictions under control

It is one of the therapeutic applications, but we can all benefit from the self-control that meditating at least 10 minutes every day provides. Meditation allows you to discover the causes of addiction through observing your own thoughts.

6. Improve sleep

People who meditate fall asleep quickly and wake up later. It especially helps to avoid falling into the spiral of thoughts that lead to insomnia. A study published in Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine concluded that people who meditate fall asleep earlier.

7. Helps control pain

The ability of meditation to reduce the perception of pain has been visualized in brain scans, where the effect on pain control centers is seen. Meditators have a greater ability to cope with pain.

8. Lowers blood pressure

By lowering blood pressure through its action on the hormonal and nervous systems, meditation also reduces the workload on the heart. Consequently, the risk of cardiovascular disease is reduced.

9. Strengthens attention

A recent study by different Spanish universities in collaboration with the University of California (USA) and King”s College London (UK) suggests that practicing Sahaja Yoga meditation, which allows people to achieve a state of mental silence, could strengthen the brain”s networks of attention and executive control.

10. Could help in case of Parkinson”s

A review of studies carried out at the University of Girona and published in the journal Medicina Naturista concludes that the mindfulness technique improves both motor and non-motor symptoms in the event of Parkinson”s disease.

11. Improves academic performance

A study from the University of the Basque Country showed that the daily practice of just ten minutes of relaxation, meditation and mindfulness provides physiological, cognitive, emotional, social and academic benefits among adolescent students. Another research from the University of Coruña concluded that meditation significantly improved the coping strategies of university students.