The Science of Meditation and Its Benefit
Everybody is talking about meditation to feel great and to be well mentally and physically both. Techniques and benefits of meditation is well known. But the quest remains. How does it work? What is the science behind this process?
Human brain is a very complex structure of nerves processing huge amount of information and controls and regulates our body. Emotions, thoughts and memory and all physical sensations like motor skills, vision, hunger etc, all are all dependant on brain functioning.
Meditation works on your brain nerves to optimize and strengthen it and that results into your relaxation and decluttering of junk from your mind. This is a servicing act of different parts of brain to equip you better in handling emotional and physical issues.
The process has numerous benefits on your physical and mental state. Let us see some of them.
- Stress Reduction
Consistent practice of meditation induces heightened level of relaxation eliminating stream of unnecessary jumbled thoughts. It has been found lowering cortisol level in your body to reduce response to emotions causing stress. Also, it has been found working on amygdala, part of your brain responsible for emotional response to surrounding conditions bringing brain to a calmer state reducing stress.
- Improved Emotional Well-Being
Meditation helps you in developing positive outlook on life and release negative thought process which ultimately results is a better regulation and reduced symptoms of your negative emotions such as stress, depression, anxiety, fear etc.
- Enhanced Focus and Concentration
Consistent practice of meditation helps you concentrate better on your task. The reason is simple, it helps to declutter your mind from distractions. It increases your awareness.
- Mind-Body Connection
Wellness of mind and body both are dependent on each other. Our mental state affects our physical state and vice versa. That’s why our mind and body both need to be in harmony and this can be achieved through meditation. Through this our mind can be established in present moment.
- Lower Blood Pressure
Meditation has been found to lower blood pressure moderately. The reason is simple. Stress has been known to cause hypertension as body at the time of stress releases chemicals constricting blood vessels raising blood pressure while meditation works for lowering of stress.
- Enhanced Sleep Quality
Meditation induces inner peace and deep relaxation, a good condition for a good sleep reducing insomnia and sleep difficulties. There are many meditation methods to help you get good sleep like mindfulness, progressive muscle relaxation and guided meditations.
- Impact on Brain Health and Cognitive Benefits
Processing of information signals by brain for mental activities like auditory and visual processing, logic and reasoning, processing speed, focussing on a task, long and short-term memory all fall into the category of cognitive functioning by brain. Regular long-term practice of mindfulness meditation has been found effective on improving cognitive skills.
- Impact of meditation on overall health
Practising meditation regularly improves our mental and physical health condition in many ways. Though people start meditation to be stress free and to develop a positive attitude, they find it better for many additional conditions.
Some of them are listed below.
- Stress
- Anxiety and depression
- High blood pressure
- Addictions
- post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Sexual dysfunction
- Chronic pain
- Problems with heart
- Attention seeking problems
- Weight management
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Brain Health and Cognitive Benefits