6 Benefits of meditation according to science
Meditation is a trendy buzz word at the moment, but the practice of meditation can be traced back as early as 5,000 BCE and is recorded in many ancient religious practices. However, you don’t need to be part of any particular religion to benefit from meditation. You can do it just about anywhere and the impact is life changing. Here are 6 scientifically proven benefits of meditation:
1. Takes control of anxiety:
Taking a moment to stop and breathe during an anxiety inducing moment will help ground you in the present moment and puts you in control of your emotions. Practicing daily meditation also helps reduce chronic anxiety.
“A meta-analysis including nearly 1,300 adults found that meditation may decrease anxiety. Notably, this effect was strongest in those with the highest levels of anxiety (Source).
2.Promotes emotional well being:
Speaking from experience, I FEEL ahead of my day on days I meditate, I feel more in control and that things are happening FOR me and not TO me. This in turn creates a more positive outlook, no matter what happens in the day.
But you don’t have to take my word for it - here’s the study done backing up this experience. A study done with over 3,500 people found that a mindfulness meditation practice has “moderate” evidence for improving anxiety, depression, and pain after 8 weeks of a daily practice. (Source).
3.Creates more self awareness:
There are different forms of meditation, and some forms of it can help bring more self awareness such as self-inquiry meditation by bringing you into your body and pausing to notice your emotions and what’s going on around you.
Meditation helps you create a sense of awareness of your negative thought patterns, giving you the chance to act on them and stop the negative thought before spiraling.
4.Helps expand attention span:
Meditation has been compared to weight lifting for your brain. Exercising the muscles (yes I know the brain is not a muscle, but for this analogy lets view it as one), makes them stronger with every rep you do. You don’t notice yourself getting stronger in the moment, but after a few months of a steady exercise routine you’ll look back and notice how those small actions are creating great change. Same with meditation; when you practice sitting still for a few minutes everyday, you’re becoming more patient with a longer attention span.
In 2021, adults have a shorter attention span than a goldfish. I wish I was being dramatic about this statistic, but it’s not an exaggeration. Gold fish has the average adult beat by one second with having a NINE second attention span.
With our fast paced lifestyles, we want everything to be instant.
When you sit in meditation for as little as 13 minutes a day, studies show that your attention span will slowly increase over an 8 week time period.
5.Keeps your mind young:
We have skin care routines to keep our skin young, meditation is like a daily moisturizer for your brain.
“Kirtan Kriya is a method of meditation that combines a mantra or chant with repetitive motion of the fingers to focus your thoughts. Studies in people with age-related memory loss have shown it improves performance on neuropsychological tests (Source).”
6.Improves sleep:
My favorite time to meditate is either right when I wake up or right before going to sleep. When I do it right before falling asleep, I sometimes even drift off into sleep during the meditation. That’s when ya know you slip into a deep relaxation!
Don’t take my word for it, science backs up this explanation.
Part of the reason meditation helps improve sleep is because it helps reduce stress and anxiety, the thoughts keeping you up at night. And it also helps people who struggle with insomnia.
A study showed that people who have a meditation practice stayed asleep longer than the control group who was not meditating (Source).
There you have it, now you know HOW mediation can help you and how you can benefit from it. Now, all you have to do is do is NOTHING.
That’s what meditation is, doing nothing.
Below are links to meditative music that is free on Youtube - you don’t need a fancy app, a blanket, or crystals. You just need to show up as you are and sit with yourself. You are worthy of this. Do this for you. Thank you for showing up for yourself, the world is a better place because of you.
Meditative Music: https://youtu.be/PIWmKZZ33SA
Breathing Exercise: https://youtu.be/SEfs5TJZ6Nk