benefits of meditation

The practise of meditation has numerous proven advantages. Although it is most known as a method for relieving stress and anxiety, studies show that it also has the potential to improve your mood, facilitate restful sleep, and sharpen your mind.

Meditation is the practise of developing the mental discipline to control and direct one's attention and awareness.

More and more people are realising the health benefits of meditation, which has led to a rise in its popularity.

It can help you become more self-conscious and aware of your environment. A lot of people do it because they believe it would help them focus and relax.

In addition to these physical benefits, many report improved sleep, higher pain tolerance, and a more optimistic outlook as a result of regular practise.

This article discusses 12 ways in which meditation is good for your health.

One of the most common draws of meditation is the promise of stress relief.

The stress-relieving effects of meditation are real, according to one study (1Reliable Source).

Increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol are a common response to both mental and physical stress. Many of stress's negative consequences, such as the production of cytokines, an inflammatory molecule, result from this.

These side effects may include trouble sleeping, feelings of melancholy or anxiety, elevated blood pressure, and a haze of tiredness and foggy thinking.

An 8-week study found that a specific type of meditation termed "mindfulness meditation" mitigated the body's inflammatory response to stress (2).

Irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, and fibromyalgia are among diseases that may benefit from meditation, according to the available evidence.

Stress and anxiety can both be reduced by meditative practise.

Anxiety may be reduced with meditation, according to a meta-analysis including nearly 1,300 adults. Anxious people, in particular, were found to benefit the most from this (6Trustworthy Source).

Furthermore, one study indicated that 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation helped reduce anxiety symptoms, increase positive self-statements, and improve stress reactivity and coping in persons with generalised anxiety disorder (7 Trusted Source).

A year after finishing an 8-week meditation programme, persons with chronic pain reported significant reductions in sadness, anxiety, and pain (8 Trusted Source).

Furthermore, a number of studies have shown that practising mindfulness and meditation might help lessen anxiety (9Trustworthy Source).

Anxiety can be alleviated with practises like yoga. This is probably due to the positive effects of both meditation and exercise (10 Trusted Sources).

Anxiety on the job could be reduced with meditation. One study indicated that after 8 weeks of using a mindfulness meditation app, workers reported greater happiness and less stress at work compared to those in the control group.

Some techniques of meditation have been shown to boost self-esteem and general happiness.

A study of almost 3,500 participants indicated that mindfulness meditation reduced depressive symptoms (12Reliable Source).

Similarly, a meta-analysis of 18 research discovered that persons who received meditation therapy had fewer depressive symptoms than the control group (13Trustworthy Source).

Another study indicated that compared to a control group, participants in the meditation group had fewer negative thoughts after viewing unfavourable images.

Mood can be affected by inflammatory substances called cytokines that are generated in reaction to stress. Several research analysed together imply that meditation may alleviate depression by lowering inflammatory chemical levels.

You can learn more about yourself and maybe even become a better person by practising some types of meditation.

Self-inquiry meditation, for instance, is designed to help you learn more about yourself and your relationships with others.

Some help you learn to identify negative or destructive thoughts. The notion is that by becoming more self-aware, you would be better able to direct your thoughts towards more beneficial patterns (16Trustworthy Sources, 17Trustworthy Sources, 18Trustworthy Sources).

Self-efficacy is a phrase used to express a person's belief in their own capacity or ability to overcome obstacles (19Trustworthy Source), and a review of 27 studies suggested that tai chi practise may be connected with greater self-efficacy.

Another study found that after two weeks of using a mindfulness meditation app, participants in the study of 153 adults (20 Trusted Source) reported less loneliness and more social interaction.

In addition, meditating regularly has been shown to improve creative problem-solving abilities.

Meditation with concentration is like exercising your attention. Your ability to focus for longer periods of time will improve.

One study indicated that compared to a control group, participants who listened to a guided meditation CD performed better on a task that required focus and precision.

A comparable study found that frequent meditators outperformed non-meditators on a visual task and had a longer attention span (23Reliable Source).

In addition, one analysis found that meditating may actually reverse brain processes that cause daydreaming, anxiety, and lack of focus (24 Trusted Source).

Daily meditation, even if only for a few minutes, may help. After 8 weeks of practise, one study indicated that even 13 minutes a day of meditation improved focus and memory.

Strengthening your ability to focus and think clearly may help you maintain a youthful mental state.

Kirtan Kriya is a form of meditation that involves reciting a mantra or chant while moving your fingers in a particular pattern. Results on neuropsychological tests have improved in studies of persons with age-related memory loss (26Trustworthy Source).

In addition, a meta-analysis discovered promising evidence that different types of meditation can improve cognition in older participants (27Trustworthy Source).

The cognitive benefits of meditation extend beyond protecting against the memory loss that comes with ageing to also aiding those with dementia. Carers of people with dementia can also benefit from its stress-reducing and coping-enhancing properties.

Some forms of meditation may be especially effective at fostering more helpful attitudes and behaviours towards oneself and others.

The practise of Metta, also called Loving-Kindness Meditation, begins with cultivating self-compassion.

Over time, those who practise compassion and forgiveness are able to extend it beyond themselves, first to loved ones, then to strangers, and last even their enemies.

The ability to feel more compassion for oneself and others was revealed in a meta-analysis of 22 studies (30).

These benefits were found to be dose-dependent in a study of 100 persons randomly assigned to a programme that included loving-kindness meditation.

That is to say, the more time people spent in metta meditation each week, the greater joy they felt.

After 4 weeks of practise, metta meditation boosted pleasant emotions, social connections, and empathy in a group of 50 college students (32Reliable Source).

Loving-kindness meditation appears to have these effects and more over time.

The self-control and knowledge of triggers for addictive behaviours that can be gained via meditation may be useful in overcoming addictions (34).

Meditation has been demonstrated to help people learn to focus on certain tasks, control their emotions and impulses, and gain insight into the root causes of their problems (35Trustworthy Source, 36Trustworthy Source).

The stress, psychological distress, alcohol cravings, and alcohol use of 60 patients in treatment for alcohol use disorder were all reported to decrease following 3 months of transcendental meditation practise (37).

There's some evidence that meditation can help curb hunger. A meta-analysis of 14 studies indicated that practising mindfulness can help people control their emotional and binge eating.

Approximately half of all people have trouble sleeping at some point.

People who participated in mindfulness-based meditation programmes slept for longer and experienced less severe insomnia than those in the unmedicated control condition, according to a study comparing these two groups (39).

Learning to meditate may help you calm the racing or wandering thoughts that cause sleeplessness.

It can also help you unwind physically, allowing you to feel less anxious and better prepared for sleep.

Your emotional state has a direct impact on your pain threshold, and stress can increase it.

There's some evidence that regular meditation can help you manage pain more effectively.

One meta-analysis of 38 research found that mindfulness meditation helped persons with chronic pain feel less pain, have a better quality of life, and have less depressive symptoms (40).

Meditation has been linked to less pain, according to a major meta-analysis including over 3,500 people (41Reliable Source).

Both meditators and non-meditators were exposed to the identical painful stimuli, but the former shown higher resilience in the face of pain and even reported feeling less discomfort overall.