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source: Why Meditate?: Five Benefits of Practicing Meditation
Why Meditate?
Five Benefits of Practicing Meditation
Martin Bohn
A regular meditation practice can have many beneficial results on different levels such as health, well-being, mind, brain and spirit.
Meditation is one of the most important techniques for spiritual development. However, it offers even more than that.
Why Should I Meditate?
Here are the five most important reasons why you should consider practicing meditation.
After decades of serious meditation research by scientists such as Benson and Kabat-Zinn, the following health benefits of meditation have become generally accepted by the scientific community: Meditation helps the body to rest and regenerate by decreasing the metabolic rate and lowering the heart rate. It also reduces stress and helps with high blood pressure.
Furthermore, meditation has been found to have an array of health benefits. Meditation can help asthma patients, making breathing easier for them. And finally, as Sara Lazar, psychologist at the Harvard Medical School found out, meditation seems to slow down the aging process of the brain and improve the grey matter of the brain.
Meditation is Pleasant
Another important reason why you should consider meditation is that it can be extremely pleasant. Not only does meditation help to calm and relax the mind, it can even lead a peaceful, even blissful state of mind.
Beginners, however, may find that meditation can also be boring, exhausting and even frustrating. But once the initial steps have been taken, most people find meditation to be both relaxing and enjoyable.
Meditation and Therapy
As mentioned before, meditation helps to reduce stress by triggering the so called relaxation response. While practically all meditation techniques calm the mind, many also help to develop an attitude of mindfulness towards one’s own thoughts, feelings and body.
This mindfulness can help one see through negative patterns of behavior and thus change them. It also helps reduce negative emotions such as anger, fear, anxiety, greed and depression. Thus, mindfulness and a calm mind can be of great help to anyone with psychological problems or disorders such as depression, anxiety and anger control.
While the positive effects of meditation can be so strong that some people may find they don’t need psychotherapy anymore, it can never be a substitute for proper psychotherapy treatment. A psychological disorder cannot and should not be treated with meditation. However, meditation can be a wonderful supplement. Ideally, meditation should be used in combination with formal psychotherapy treatment.
Meditation Makes the Mind More Efficient
According to Richard Davidson, neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin’s Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior, the EEG of experienced meditators shows high-frequency gamma waves, a brain wave pattern associated with higher mental activity, perception and consciousness. Thus, the subjective feeling of calm and relaxed concentration often experienced during meditation can be objectified in the actual brain waves documented in the EEG.
Meditation as a Path to Spiritual Ecstasy and Enlightenment
Meditation has always been regarded as a primary tool for self-awareness and spiritual realization. It is common to all the major religions. In fact, all mystical traditions such as yoga, Christian mysticism, Sufism and most forms of Buddhism rely heavily on meditative practices. In the yoga sutras of Patanjali, for example, meditation or dhyana is regarded as the seventh of eight steps leading to the blissful absorption into the self or God or samadhi.
Meditation for Body, Mind and Spirit
Meditation has many beneficial effects if practiced regularly and correctly. It is healthy to the body, pleasant to the mind and healing to the psyche. It sharpens the intellect and enlightens the mind.
Why Meditate?
Five Benefits of Practicing Meditation
Martin Bohn
A regular meditation practice can have many beneficial results on different levels such as health, well-being, mind, brain and spirit.
Meditation is one of the most important techniques for spiritual development. However, it offers even more than that.
Why Should I Meditate?
Here are the five most important reasons why you should consider practicing meditation.
- Meditation is healthy.
- Meditation is pleasant.
- Meditation can assist conventional therapy.
- Meditation makes the brain function more efficiently.
- Meditation can lead to spiritual fulfillment.
After decades of serious meditation research by scientists such as Benson and Kabat-Zinn, the following health benefits of meditation have become generally accepted by the scientific community: Meditation helps the body to rest and regenerate by decreasing the metabolic rate and lowering the heart rate. It also reduces stress and helps with high blood pressure.
Furthermore, meditation has been found to have an array of health benefits. Meditation can help asthma patients, making breathing easier for them. And finally, as Sara Lazar, psychologist at the Harvard Medical School found out, meditation seems to slow down the aging process of the brain and improve the grey matter of the brain.
Meditation is Pleasant
Another important reason why you should consider meditation is that it can be extremely pleasant. Not only does meditation help to calm and relax the mind, it can even lead a peaceful, even blissful state of mind.
Beginners, however, may find that meditation can also be boring, exhausting and even frustrating. But once the initial steps have been taken, most people find meditation to be both relaxing and enjoyable.
Meditation and Therapy
As mentioned before, meditation helps to reduce stress by triggering the so called relaxation response. While practically all meditation techniques calm the mind, many also help to develop an attitude of mindfulness towards one’s own thoughts, feelings and body.
This mindfulness can help one see through negative patterns of behavior and thus change them. It also helps reduce negative emotions such as anger, fear, anxiety, greed and depression. Thus, mindfulness and a calm mind can be of great help to anyone with psychological problems or disorders such as depression, anxiety and anger control.
While the positive effects of meditation can be so strong that some people may find they don’t need psychotherapy anymore, it can never be a substitute for proper psychotherapy treatment. A psychological disorder cannot and should not be treated with meditation. However, meditation can be a wonderful supplement. Ideally, meditation should be used in combination with formal psychotherapy treatment.
Meditation Makes the Mind More Efficient
According to Richard Davidson, neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin’s Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior, the EEG of experienced meditators shows high-frequency gamma waves, a brain wave pattern associated with higher mental activity, perception and consciousness. Thus, the subjective feeling of calm and relaxed concentration often experienced during meditation can be objectified in the actual brain waves documented in the EEG.
Meditation as a Path to Spiritual Ecstasy and Enlightenment
Meditation has always been regarded as a primary tool for self-awareness and spiritual realization. It is common to all the major religions. In fact, all mystical traditions such as yoga, Christian mysticism, Sufism and most forms of Buddhism rely heavily on meditative practices. In the yoga sutras of Patanjali, for example, meditation or dhyana is regarded as the seventh of eight steps leading to the blissful absorption into the self or God or samadhi.
Meditation for Body, Mind and Spirit
Meditation has many beneficial effects if practiced regularly and correctly. It is healthy to the body, pleasant to the mind and healing to the psyche. It sharpens the intellect and enlightens the mind.
