The English word “meditation” stems from meditatum, a Latin term meaning “to ponder.” The earliest records of meditation practice date from 1500 years BCE (Before Common Era). It seems to have been an integral part of the earliest forms of the Vedic, or early Hindu, schools in India. Now, there are many varieties of meditation techniques all over the world but the idea behind them is basically the same: to take charge of our mind and connect with our most innermost self.
Here are some of the benefits that will convince you to make meditation a daily habit:
1) Reduces Stress and Anxiety:
A lot of people start meditating for its benefits in stress reduction, and there’s lots of good evidence to support this rationale. It lowers the level of cortisol- the stress hormone and hence makes you more relaxed. Repeating a mantra (a word or phrase) can also have calming effects!
2) Control Addiction:
A growing number of studies have shown that, given its effects on the self-control regions of the brain, meditation can be very effective in helping people recover from various types of addiction. By having more self-control, you can fight against cravings, and by having more self-awareness, it will be easier to manage these cravings.
3) Meditation Can Help Kids in School
For developing brains, meditation has as much as or perhaps even more promise than it has for adults. There’s been increasing interest from educators and researchers in bringing meditation and yoga to school kids, who are dealing with the usual stressors inside the school, and oftentimes additional stress and trauma outside school.
4) Spiritual benefits
Meditation can bring about a true personal transformation. In a meditative state, you are in a space of vastness, calmness, and joy and this is what you emit into the environment, bringing harmony to the Creation/planet. You discover more about yourself and form an understanding of yourself. People who get angry or anxious easily calm down. Meditation puts things into perspective and you start to love yourself more.
5) Mental Benefits:
As we realize the vastness of the universe, our problems start to become smaller and smaller. We become mindful of our surroundings and as we tune in to ourselves, we develop an intuition that helps us in making better decisions. We gain clarity and peace of mind which in turn helps to sharpen our concentration and focus.
6) Control Pain:
Many doctors recommend mindful meditation practices as part of a comprehensive pain management plan. Not because it reduces pain but rather helps you to cope up with the pain. It essentially changes your reaction to pain and makes you more tolerant of it. For example, a 2020 study of more than 6,400 participants across 60 trials found that meditation could reduce pain in those who suffered from post-surgical, acute, or chronic pain.
7) Enhances Empathy:
Loving-kindness or compassion meditation strengthens circuits in the brain that pick up on other people’s emotions, promotes understanding behavior, and decrease the implicit or unconscious bias responsible for creating harmful stereotypes. It fires neural connections to brain sites that regulate positive emotions like empathy and kindness. The deep state of flow that meditation induces builds social connectedness and makes us more affectionate and amicable as a person.
Conclusion: The benefits of meditation are extensive — and backed by science. Meditation can have many health benefits, from physical to mental and emotional. If you’d like to improve your focus & concentration, reduce stress, or deal with addiction, depression, or chronic pain, doing meditation will be very beneficial for you.
