20+ More Reasons You Should Meditate

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Physical and health benefits of meditation

'As meditation has become more well-known in the West, scientists have begun to quantify its physical benefits in hundreds of studies.

Significant benefits have been found for many health conditions, including heart disease, cholesterol, high blood pressure, insomnia, chronic pain, cancer, and immunity. Because meditation is a low-cost intervention with no side-effects, it shows promise for relief of a wide range of societal and health problems.'

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The Science Behind Good Vibes: How Mindfulness Actually Works

Photo Credit:Seeds of Mindfulness



'Achieving mindfulness through meditation has helped people maintain a healthy mind by quelling negative emotions and thoughts, such as desire, anger and anxiety, and encouraging more positive dispositions such as compassion, empathy and forgiveness. Those who have reaped the benefits of mindfulness know that it works. But how exactly does it work?'


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Meditation Success Relies on Techniques That Are Comfortable Rather Than Popular

'New to meditation and already thinking about quitting? You may have simply chosen the wrong method. A new study published online July 7 inExplore: The Journal of Science and Healing highlights the importance of ensuring that new meditators select methods with which they are most comfortable, rather than those that are most popular.


If they do, they are likely to stick with it, says Adam Burke, the author of the study. If not, there is a higher chance they may abandon meditation altogether, losing out on its myriad personal and medical benefits. Burke is a professor of Health Education at SF State and the director of SF State's Institute for Holistic Health Studies.'




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Meditation technique repairs the brain processes that aspartame destroys

'Research has shown that with as few as 11 hours of mindful meditation, the white matter of the brain that aspartame destroys, can begin to grow back. Research into the brain damage that aspartame causes, has revealed lesions to the nerve fibers known as white matter. This is due to the by-products created when aspartame is ingested, namely methanol and formaldehyde. The effects of ingesting these chemicals are so serious that they cause symptoms often mistaken for multiple sclerosis. Other artificial sweeteners such as neotame, which have the same by-products, have the same effects.'


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Discover the art of meditation and supercharge your mental abilities

 

'Results of ongoing research shed new light on the mechanisms of meditation. Recent studies now confirm that you don't have to be a monk to enjoy deep relaxation, increased attention span, better cognition and other health benefits meditation is offering.

Until recently, it was believed that one has to spend many years training in meditation in order to see any real and lasting improvements in health. However, both everyday experience and psychology research are now starting to agree that our mind may be easier to cognitively train than we previously thought. In fact, just four days of practicing mindfulness meditation for 20 minutes might be enough to boost your mental abilities.'

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Zen Meditation Can Help Bring Pain Under Control

 

 "Using functional magnetic resonance imaging [MRI], we demonstrated that although the meditators were aware of the pain, this sensation wasn't processed in the part of their brains responsible for appraisal, reasoning or memory formation," Rainville noted. "We think that they feel the sensations, but cut the process short, refraining from interpretation or labeling of the stimuli as painful."


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Meditation really does work

Meditation really does work because it rewires parts of the brain which regulate emotions and behaviour, researchers have found.

'Just 11 hours learning a meditation technique called integrative body-mind training (IBMT) produced dramatic changes in the brains of volunteers.

Scans revealed that neuron connectivity was boosted in a part of the brain important for regulating emotional behaviour and dealing with conflict.

Previous work by the same team has shown that meditation reduces levels of anxiety, depression, anger and fatigue.

The new study involved 45 students at the University of Oregon in the US.

Half were given IBMT training while the rest were taught relaxation techniques.

A type of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to examine brain connectivity in the volunteers before and after training.

''The importance of our findings relates to the ability to make structural changes in a brain network related to self-regulation,'' said Prof Posner, from the University of Oregon.

The research is reported today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

IBMT, adapted from traditional Chinese medicine in the 1990s, is practised by thousands of people in China.

Based on Taoist and Confucian concepts of harmony with nature, it combines different mind-body techniques including body relaxation, breath control, mental imagery, and ''mindfulness'' - calmly paying attention to moment-to-moment feelings and experiences.'

Source: London Telegraph

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