Online and across the world, everybody is hearing statements and people exclaiming how good meditation is for the mind, body and soul and there are countless sources claiming that meditation has been scientifically proven to help the brain in several ways, contributing a ton of advantages that allow you to help live a happier, healthy lifestyle.
But what are these advantages and how could meditation help you? Today, we will explore five ways where the practice of meditation can change your brain for the better.
Fight Depression & Anxiety
In recent studies, it was proven that meditation had an ‘effect size’ on the brain of 0.3. This means that meditation and the art of being aware and mindful has the ability to reduce the signs and feelings of depression and anxiety. This may sound relatively ineffective but it’s worth noting that artificial and prescribed anti-depressants had the exact same level of effect.
As we know, there is no quick-fix or direct cure to these negative conditions but being able to manage the symptoms in such a way is ground-breaking.
Increase Focus Levels
As you practise meditation, you are constantly in the process of training your brain to become aware and present. The more you practise, the more you’ll start to notice the effects throughout your everyday life. By being present and in the moment, your concentration levels, your focus levels and your attention will automatically increase, enabling you to become more productive as well as having the ability to manage your time better and produce better quality results in your day to day life.
Combating Addiction
There is ever-increasing data that shows that meditation can even help combat conditions experienced whilst trying to combat addiction. This is thanks to the development in the self-help areas of the brain due to practised meditation. Even other kinds of meditation such as MBCT (Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy) and MBRP (Mindfulness-based relapse prevention) have been proven to help treat some kinds of addiction.
Becoming More Balanced
A 2011 study showed that mindfulness meditation can physically alter the structural makeup of the brain. The study went on to show that brain structure also decreased, specifically the amygdala, the part of the brain that is responsible for anxieties such as fear and stress. A related study also went on to prove that mental wellbeing could be increased through meditation, enabling individuals to control their moods and emotion with much more independence.
Physical Benefits
As well as mental and emotional properties, meditation can also improve your physical being in several ways. These include; slower, more relaxed breathing, increased healthy blood flow, more controlled heart rate, lower blood pressure, reduction in anxiety attacks, lowers levels of muscle pressure, reduced level of PTS symptoms and increased immune system activity to name a few.
Meditation is one of the easiest ways we can add a habit to our lives to make a positive change. When you put your mind to it, everybody has five minutes a day they can put aside to practice. Even such a small amount of time is such an insignificant starting point, especially once you start to build up, improve your skills and really start to feel the positive change.
