10 reasons to love meditation

Constant stresses bother, probably, every modern urban dweller. And of all the ways to relieve tension, one of the most effective experts call conscious meditation. In this article we will explain why.

Do you constantly feel pressure and stress and can’t put your thoughts in order? It’s urgent to relax, but don’t know how? Meditation will help to achieve calm and awareness, discipline the mind, reduce anxiety. Thoughts will become more streamlined, and with them life. Health will improve. Here are 10 scientifically proven beneficial effects that meditation has on a person.

1. Recovery of brain cells

In 2011, Harvard experts decided to find out if meditation is able to repair damaged brain cells. To do this, they gathered two groups of volunteers and did an MRI of their brain. Then, for 8 weeks, one group needed to practice meditation on average half an hour a day. The second group did not. At the end of the experiment, scientists took new pictures of the subjects' brains and compared with previous ones. It turned out that the amount of gray matter in those who meditated became larger, and brain cells began to recover. Volunteers themselves confirmed that they began to act more consciously, their attention and memory improved, reactions to stress became not so strong, and their ability to perceive information increased. Those who did not practice meditation did not find such changes, and the MRI of their brain did not change.

2. Brain rejuvenation

With age, the gray matter of the brain becomes thinner, it becomes smaller, the brain ages. Meditation not only restores cell damage, but also makes the gray matter more dense, which allows the most important organ to stay young longer. This was proved by American scientists by comparing the state of the brain of 13 people who are far from meditation and 13 Zen practitioners.

3. Reducing the risk of heart disease 

To prove the benefits of meditation for the cardiovascular system, a group of scientists watched over 201 patients, men and women suffering from coronary heart disease for more than 5 years. Patients were divided into 2 groups, some were engaged in transcendental meditation, others - according to the methods of the health education program. And as a result, it was in the first ones that the risk of a heart attack decreased by 48%.

4. Anesthesia

Scientists from the United States found that meditation reduces unpleasant and painful sensations even more effectively than morphine and other painkillers. Researchers at Wake Forest University wanted to find out if the activity of certain areas of the brain can see how a person relates to pain. Previously, they made a map of the brain, noting the areas that are responsible for certain emotions. Scanning the brain of the volunteers on a tomograph, they simultaneously applied a hot bar of metal to their feet. Volunteers noted that they felt pain and discomfort, and activity in the corresponding brain zones was visible on the tomograph. Then the subjects went through 4 sessions of conscious meditation, each for 20 minutes. The experiment with the bar was repeated, but now the tomograph could not record the reaction in the same areas, so it decreased. At the same time, sites became more active, which are responsible for controlling behavior and emotions. It turned out that this activity and dull the pain. Perception of pain decreased by 40%, unpleasant sensations - by 57%. The subjects confirmed that they feel pain much weaker than the first time. Those of them who have practiced meditation before, noted a decrease in pain and discomfort by as much as 70 and 93%, respectively.

5. Strengthening immunity

Not only emotionally, but also physically, we suffer from frequent stresses. Many diseases do not arise under the influence of certain external stimuli, but because immunity weakens from lack of sleep and constantly overwhelming negative emotions. And this can be prevented with the help of the same meditation. A study conducted at the walls of Harvard Medical School confirmed that if you regularly practice yoga and meditate, more energy will begin to be generated in the mitochondria of the cells. And this will positively affect immunity and stress resistance.

6. Making up for lack of sleep

Meditation, although not a substitute for sleep, is good for its quality. Thanks to her, it’s really possible to learn how to restore strength in much less time. Kentucky experts analyzed how mediation practices affect people who sleep little and do not get enough sleep. It turned out that even a short meditation can improve sleep for a while. And with regular long classes, the need for rest is reduced, a person gets enough sleep in much less time and feels better with a lack of sleep.

7. Breathing training

Breathing is the very first and basic need of a person. And it can also be more or less high-quality, calm and deep. Proper breathing better nourishes the entire body with oxygen. This has a positive effect on well-being and life expectancy. Meditation helps to focus on this process, to breathe consciously, measuredly and deeply. So a habit is developed, which then remains for life.

8. Amplification of tactile sensations

German experts representing the Ruhr University in Bochum and the University of Ludwig and Maximilian in Munich conducted a joint study of the influence of mediation practices on the power of tactile sensations. To do this, they took a limited marker, which is called the "threshold of discrimination on two points." This marker can measure how far apart two stimuli should be from each other so that a person perceives them as two different sensations. And meditation improves this perception by 17%, which can be compared with the tactile perception of visually impaired people. Usually it is developed in them by 15-25% more than in people with good vision due to the fact that the visual channel for obtaining information is replaced by touch. And meditation allows you to train the tactile channel without harming others and much faster.

9. Help with stress and depression

Multitasking seems a necessity in the modern rhythm of life. But often people do not do so well with several tasks at the same time, and the habit of taking on too many tasks usually leads only to increased stress with low productivity. And here, too, meditation can help, because its main goal is to learn how to focus. By the joint efforts of scientists from Washington and Arizona, it was proved that meditation can achieve greater productivity, the level of stress is reduced, and this prevents it from developing into depression. To do this, the researchers took 3 groups of office workers and two of them needed to practice conscious meditation for 8 weeks. At the same time, before practice and after it was necessary to pass a test with many complex tasks. And members of the third group did not need to meditate and perform stress tests. Only before and after the study did the experts measure their stress level. It was found that all volunteers spent about the same time on similar tasks and made mistakes. But those who regularly meditated, better switched between tasks, better remember information and focus on it. And, most importantly, their overall stress level was much lower.

10. Getting in touch with your inner world 

Many of us are subject to one habit: to run away from ourselves. At work and other things, we forget to listen to ourselves. Instead of knowing his inner world, a person seeks to become what he is not at all. He wears masks to meet public standards and other people's expectations. Moves to imposed goals, consciously or unconsciously avoids the activities that he likes, because he considers them wrong, inappropriate. People constantly compete with each other and want to prove something to someone, instead of just accepting themselves and others, relaxing. Such a substitution of values ​​leads to complexes and longing, which cannot be overcome, because the reason is too deep inside. 
It’s not easy to run away from oneself, but to find one's self is not so easy, because this requires full awareness and an established connection between the inner world and the outside. This is where meditation is needed, it is it that helps to establish this connection and accept everything as is. 

Writer and social activist Will Stanton, author of The Education Revolution, believes that meditation should be practiced from a very young age and even included in the school curriculum. The sooner a person learns awareness and comes to inner harmony, the easier it will be for him to find his vocation and place in life, the better he will develop relationships with others, the healthier he will be.

There are many techniques of meditation: concentration on breathing, certain sounds, sensations, counting to oneself. Whatever you choose, it is important to practice it regularly, to find at least a few minutes on yourself every day, so that the effect is complete. Over time, you will notice that you have become calmer in dealing with problems, feel more energetic, and cope with your usual tasks faster. Thanks to this, you can really become happier and healthier.