Mind & Spiritual Benefits of Meditation

Meditation Changes BRAIN in GOOD WAYS

  -   Meditation practiced by Monks who had evidence of significantly greater brain activity, called gamma wave activity, in areas associated with learning and happiness compared with those who didn't practice meditation, according to a recent study.
  -    Gamma waves involve mental processes including attention, memory, learning, and conscious perception. The monks also showed higher activity in areas associated with positive emotions, like happiness.
  -    "There's no doubt from the standpoint of research and my own clinical experience that meditation can reduce both the experience of pain and help people manage stress resulting from having pain," Chapman tells. It is a therapy offered in all comprehensive pain centers, he says.
  -    How do we know if meditation is "working" - if our body is actually getting that relaxation response? If we get feelings of warmth, heaviness, and calm when we meditate, it mean that we've gone deep enough, says Chapman. It we just can't reach that level, enroll in a class, he suggests.
  -    "Sometimes it helps to have someone guide us, to help us know when we're making progress." If meditation just doesn't seem to work, move on to another relaxation method, Benson advises.
  -    "Any practice that can evoke the relaxation response is of benefit, be it meditation, yoga, breathing, or repetitive prayer. There is no reason to believe that one is better than the other. The key is repetition, but the repetition can be a word, sound, mantra, prayer, breathing, or movement."
  >    Increases Gray Matter
Meditation may just be exercise for the brain. In fact, a 2009 study from UCLA researchers showed that MRI scans of long-time meditators revealed that certain parts of their brains were larger than those of a control group, particularly in regions known for emotion regulation. Another small study published in 2011 in the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuro-imaging showed that an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction program resulted in increases in gray matter in the hippocampus and areas of the brain tied to compassion and self-awareness, U.S. News reported at the time.
  >    Cultivates Willpower
Stanford health psychologist Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D. told Stanford Medicine's SCOPE blog in 2011 that both physical exercise and meditation can help train the brain for willpower.
Meditation training improves a wide range of willpower skills, including attention, focus, stress management, impulse control and self-awareness. It changes both the function and structure of the brain to support self-control. For example, regular meditators have more gray matter in the prefrontal cortex. And it doesn’t take a lifetime of practice -- brain changes have been observed after eight weeks of brief daily meditation training.
  >    Enhances Self-Awareness
Some forms of meditation may help us develop a stronger understanding of ourselves, helping us grow into our best self. For example, self-inquiry meditation explicitly aims to help us develop a greater understanding of ourselves and how we relate to those around us. Other forms teach us to recognize thoughts that may be harmful or self-defeating. The idea is that as we gain greater awareness of our thought habits, we can steer them toward more constructive patterns.
A study of 21 women fighting breast cancer found that when they took part in a tai chi program, their self-esteem improved more than it did than in those who received social support sessions. In another study, 40 senior men and women who took a mindfulness meditation program experienced reduced feelings of loneliness, compared to a control group that had been placed on a wait list for the program. Also, experience in meditation may cultivate more creative problem solving.
  >    Lengthens Attention Span
Focused-attention meditation is like weight lifting for our attention span. It helps increase the strength and endurance of our attention. For example, a study looked at the effects of an eight-week mindfulness meditation course and found it improved participants' ability to reorient and maintain their attention.
A similar study showed that human resource workers who regularly practiced mindfulness meditation stayed focused on a task for longer. These workers also remembered details of their tasks better than their peers who did not practice meditation. Moreover, one review concluded that meditation may even reverse patterns in the brain that contribute to mind-wandering, worrying and poor attention. Even meditating for a short period may benefit you. One study found that four days of practicing meditation may be enough to increase attention span.
  >    Builds Focus and Concentration
A 2010 study published in Psychological Science showed that Buddhist meditation improved focus and attention on a task that was designed to be both boring and demanding. "People may think meditation is something that makes us feel good and going on a meditation retreat is like going on vacation, and we get to be at peace with ourselves," study author Katherine MacLean, who worked on the research as a graduate student at the University of California Davis, said in a statement. "That's what people think until they try it. Then we realize how challenging it is to just sit and observe something without being distracted."
  >    Physically Changes the Brain
University of Oregon Research released in 2012 suggested that one type of Chinese mindfulness meditation could be associated with physical changes in the brain -- ones that might help stave off mental illness.
  >    Boosts Cognitive Function
Another Psychological Science study identified a link between mindfulness training and increased standardized test scores, as well as improvements in working memory. What's more, Dr. Sara Lazar, a neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital who studies mindfulness meditation, previously told that regular meditation may stave off the thinning of the brain's prefrontal cortex, and in turn declines in cognitive function, later in life.

SPIRITURAL BENEFITS of Meditation

  >    Generate Kindness
Some types of meditation may particularly increase positive feelings and actions toward ourselves and others. Metta, a type of meditation also known as loving-kindness meditation, begins with developing kind thoughts and feelings toward ourselves. Through practice, people learn to extend this kindness and forgiveness externally, first to friends, then acquaintances and ultimately enemies.
Twenty-two studies of this form of meditation have demonstrated its ability to increase peoples' compassion toward themselves and others. One study of 100 adults randomly assigned to a program that included loving-kindness meditation found that these benefits were dose-dependent. In other words, the more effort people put into Metta meditation, the more positive feelings they experienced. Another group of studies showed the positive feelings people develop through Metta meditation can improve social anxiety, reduce marriage conflict and help anger management. These benefits also appear to accumulate over time with the practice of loving-kindness meditation.
  >    Promotes Emotional Health
Some forms of meditation can also lead to an improved self-image and more positive outlook on life. Two studies of mindfulness meditation found decreased depression in over 4,600 adults. One study followed 18 volunteers as they practiced meditation over three years. The study found that participants experienced long-term decreases in depression. Inflammatory chemicals called cytokines, which are released in response to stress, can affect mood, leading to depression. A review of several studies suggests meditation may reduce depression by decreasing these inflammatory chemicals.
Another controlled study compared electrical activity between the brains of people who practiced mindfulness meditation and the brains of others who did not. Those who meditated showed measurable changes in activity in areas related to positive thinking and optimism.
  >    Builds Self - Knowledge
According to a 2013 article published in Perspectives on Psychological Science, mindfulness (defined as "paying attention to one's current experience in a non-judgmental way") can help people to understand their own personalities. "For example, one who overestimates the positivity of his or her personality or status is often disliked by others, whereas having insight into how others perceive the self and acknowledging one's flaws seems to attenuate the negativity of others' impressions," the researchers wrote in the study.
  >    Helps Relationship Satisfaction
As the American Psychological Association reports: Several studies find that a person's ability to be mindful can help predict relationship satisfaction — the ability to respond well to relationship stress and the skill in communicating one's emotions to a partner. Empirical evidence suggests that mindfulness protects against the emotionally stressful effects of relationship conflict, is positively associated with the ability to express oneself in various social situations and predicts relationship satisfaction.
  >    Improves Empathy
A small study from Emory University showed that a compassion-based meditation program, called Cognitively-Based Compassion Training (CBCT), might help people to read others' facial expressions. "These findings raise the intriguing possibility that CBCT may have enhanced empathic abilities by increasing activity in parts of the brain that are of central importance for our ability to recognize the emotional states of others," senior author Charles Raison said in a statement.
  >    Reduces Loneliness
At least among older people. A 2012 Brain, Behavior and Immunity study of 40 adults between the ages of 55 and 85 showed that a two-month mindfulness meditation program was linked with reduced loneliness. "While this was a small sample, the results were very encouraging," Dr. Michael Irwin, a professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and director of the Cousins Center, said in a statement when the findings were released. "It adds to a growing body of research that is showing the positive benefits of a variety of meditative techniques, including tai chi and yoga."
  >    Cuts Emotional Reactivity
The American Psychological Association reports: Research also supports the notion that mindfulness meditation decreases emotional reactivity. In a study of people who had anywhere from one month to 29 years of mindfulness meditation practice, researchers found that mindfulness meditation practice helped people disengage from emotionally upsetting pictures and enabled them to focus better on a cognitive task as compared with people who saw the pictures but did not meditate. Like pain, researchers have suggested that mindfulness meditation helps the brain to have better control over sensations, including negative emotions.
 >    May Reduce Age-Related Memory Loss
Improvements in attention and clarity of thinking may help keep your mind young. Kirtan Kriya is a method of meditation that combines a mantra or chant with repetitive motion of the fingers to focus thoughts. It improved participants' ability to perform memory tasks in multiple studies of age-related memory loss. Furthermore, a review of 12 studies found that multiple meditation styles increased attention, memory and mental quickness in older volunteers. In addition to fighting normal age-related memory loss, meditation can at least partially improve memory in patients with dementia. It can also help control stress and improve coping in those caring for family members with dementia.

You can relax yourself by listening to this video by Sri Sri Ravishankar ji
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRmEOC2czyI 

Also read our other articles related to meditation

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 Relaxation Benefits of MEDITATION for Us