Meditation. It can sound intimidating just because it seems elusive. It can sound uncomfortable just because you have always thought that it was hippie-dippy and aerie-faerie and you have to sit in an uncomfortable position for untold lengths of time. Ugh… but you keep hearing about the major transformations that have taken place in people’s lives. But meditating is not something that has only been around for the last hundred years or so. In reality, it has been around since the beginning of humanity.
After you have been meditating as little as six weeks, your brain is already responding in only positive ways. Check out my research paper about neuro plasticity. Amazing info.
There are so many benefits to meditation that the list can seem unlimited. The benefits of meditation are all over the internet, but I have gathered some information to save you the trouble. I would like to suggest that you continue with this research as new findings strongly in favor of meditation are becoming available almost on a daily basis.
1. It lowers oxygen consumption. Your breath rate slows down when you begin to leave the Beta brain wave range and start to enter the range of Alpha. If you need to understand this more, please check my research paper on this site.
2. It decreases your respiratory rate. This is good because it helps to eliminate shallow chest breathing and encourages deep, diaphragmatic, belly breathing. The benefits to this alone are nothing short of miraculous.
3. It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate. Again, miraculous effects and benefits for the human body.
4. Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation.
5. Excellent to help reduce hypertension/high blood pressure.
6. Has been shown to reduce anxiety attacks by lowering levels of blood lactate. Blood lactate is described as lactic acid that appears in the blood as a result of anaerobic metabolism when oxygen delivery to the tissues is insufficient to support normal metabolic demands. I believe that the deep diaphragmatic breathing that is encouraged with meditation is a key player in helping to reduce or even eliminate anxiety attacks and like meditation – it is free.
7. Decreases muscle tension. Just make sure that you are in a comfortable sitting position. If you are in a lying position try to keep your legs from touching each other and have your arms away from you body in a comfortable position.
8. Medical doctors and surgeons are now beginning to understand the importance of meditation before and after surgery and are recommending surgical patients to learn meditation.
9. It enhances the immune system. I don’t fully understand how it does this, but I know that if I catch a cold, the duration is short. I don’t get flu shots and haven’t had the flu in more than 20 years.
10. Reduces P.M.S. symptoms. It helps to balance out the blood chemistry that can wreak havoc with a woman’s brain during the 7-10 days prior to menses.
11. Reduces the duration and intensity of emotional distress and any virus’ that may be roaming about in your body.
12. Increases your energy levels, strength and stamina. You just feel more “durable”.
13. Helps with weight loss, especially if your weight is induced by chronic stress. We will be discussing more of this later. Chronic stress can be devastating and disastrous to your health.
14. It helps reduce free radicals in your system bringing about less tissue damage.
15. Assists in higher skin resistance. I didn’t understand this so I looked it up for a bit on the internet. Here is what I have learned so far. Skin resistance or GSR is a change in the electrical resistance of the skin ( this method is used in polygraph testing). It is determined by passing a weak current through the skin and measuring changes in electricity flow or by measuring the current generated by the body itself. It has been correlated with emotion, attention, and stress…” (Academic Electronic Encyclopedia, 1993). So it works not only on the physical aspect but also on the mind level as well. I could have misinterpreted some of the information so if you have more exact info, please share.
16. It encourages a drop in the cholesterol levels, which lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease. This alone should grab the attention of the western medical associations around the world.
17. It provides improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing.
18. Decreases the aging process. Imagine, a fountain of youth that doesn’t break the bank.
19. Higher levels of DHEAS or dehydroepiandrosterone. I needed to understand this more clearly so I relied on the documentation that I found on the internet. Now mind you, I could be wrong, so please feel free to share if you have documented info. Here is what I have learned so far.
DHEAS, testosterone, and several other androgens are used to evaluate adrenal function and to distinguish androgen-secreting conditions that are caused by the adrenal glands from those that originate in the ovaries or testes. DHEAS can be measured to help diagnose adrenocortical tumors (tumors in the cortex of the adrenal gland), adrenal cancers, and adrenal hyperplasia (which may be congenital or adult onset) and to separate these conditions from ovarian tumors and cancers. DHEAS levels are normally high in both male and female newborns. They drop sharply shortly after birth, then rise again during puberty. DHEAS concentrations peak after puberty, and then, like other male and female hormones, the levels tend to decline with aging.
So work with a doctor on this one but let your doctor know that you would like to supplement his treatment with meditation. If your doctor doesn’t understand the importance of meditation, please refer her/him to this article.
20. Can control, prevent, or slow down the pain of chronic diseases. Think about inflammatory diseases like arthritis, cystic fibrosis, fibro myalgia, etc.
21. Can reduce the intensity and frequency of migraine headaches. There are reports of people who have completely eliminated normal headaches and migraines with meditation.
22. Higher brain functions. We will go into this much more later.
23. Significant asthma relief.
24. Encourages the balancing of your endocrine system.
25. Brings about balance between your sympathetic and parasympathetic systems.
26. Produces lasting changes in brain chemistry and electrical activity. Please refer to the research paper that I wrote.
27. Once the hormones that regulate ovulation are balanced, it can increase your chances of conception and some claim it can cure infertility.
28. It helps to build self confidence
29. Increases your serotonin level which has a powerful effect on your mood and behavior.
30. Combined with alternating deep diaphragmatic breathing it can have a profound effect on your mind when releasing addictions.
31. Helps to hone your focus and concentration. Students pay heed!
32. Increases creativity and brain wave coherence. This can be enhanced by brain wave entrainment. There will be more on this at a later date – hopefully in the not-too-distant future. I am really excited about this.
33. Your emotional stability will increase… in some cases, drastically.
34. Your connection with yourself, partner and community will be enhanced.
35. Your mind will age at a slower rate – with more research we may see a drop in the incline of Alzheimer’s. Science has now shown the ability of the mind to re-generate itself. Check out Neuro-plasticity.
36. Increased productivity. Employers, are you getting this?
37. Communication between the right and left hemispheres of the brain increases more availability.
38. More appropriate reactions to stressors and events in your life.
39. Decrease in potential mental illness. I am curious about how it affects different mental challenges like depression, bi-polar, attention deficit, and certainly autism. I have always believed that the word incurable means to be cured within. Meditation covers the “within” aspect.
40. Increase in well-adjusted social behavior.
41. Increase in motor performance.
42. Increased job satisfaction. This is important for these times because few people like the job they are in due to the economy. Workloads are drastically increased to compensate for the employees that have been laid off and the employees in many cases are taking some massive pay-cuts.
43. Sleep deprivation will become a thing of your past.
44. Insomnia will become a thing of your past.
45. Brain functions like restless thinking, tendency to worry, and road rage will be dramatically reduced with regular practice of meditation.
46. It opens your heart to compassion and empathy. These are the doorways to forgiveness. We learn to forgive others for ourselves so that our hearts and souls are free to continue in growth.
47. Greater tolerance of others.
48. Creates a pathway for a more balanced persona.
49. Develops emotional stability.
50. Helps keep things in perspective.
51. Encourages peace of mind and happiness. With time and practice this will be a normal state of mind.
52. Draws you closer to your Higher Power (no matter what religion or spiritual practice you choose to follow. Your Higher Power could even be in a group support system), which in turn helps you to discover your true path in life.
53. Brings balance and harmony to your physiological, mind, and spiritual aspects of your life.
54. Opens the doorway to learning how to love and accept yourself.
55. Helps you live more in the present and to stop projecting into the future or hanging on to your past.
56. Improve your ability to recognize an inner-knowing. Inner knowing is very comforting. We will be discussing this later.
57. Discovery of the power and consciousness beyond the ego. At some point we have to leave the ego at the front door (as my sensei used to say) and just be. With meditation you can give your ego a much needed rest!
58. With practice it can help you experience a sense of “Oneness”. You hear people talk about having a sense of where they fit in with the universe and how they feel connected to everyone and everything. Feeling that connection is a natural with a regular practice of meditation and is quite profoundly one of the most amazing awarenesses I have ever experienced. I know that I am a tiny piece of sand compared to the vastness of the universe, but I know that I am an essential part of the chain of existence. This is something else that we can discuss later.
These are but a sampling of the many benefits of meditation. There are many ways to meditate and we will be covering this soon. I would like to suggest that you set aside even just 3 minutes first thing in the morning to meditate. If anything, you can try it for 30 days just to prove me wrong! With a little bit of time, you will likely want to increase the amount of time that you want to devote to meditation.
I would like to acknowledge the websites that I have gathered information from. www.abc-of-yoga.com, www.stress.about.com, http://www.trans4mind.com, and http://www.ineedmotivation.com. Also, for additional information please refer to the research paper that I wrote on this website. I have tried to keep the list within a nuts-and bolts approach. When claims are made that can’t be backed by science, I hesitate on sharing those until scientific proof can verify the claims.
