An age-old practice for the mind and body, meditation is a cornerstone for wellness and being. Here’s how the practice really affects our brain.
Over the years, numerous studies have come to light and peeked in to the many benefits of meditation. From improving immune system, alleviating depression, to an overall health and wellbeing, Meditation does have numerous benefits. It is a form of mind and body practice that uses a technique, such as mindfulness, or concentrating on a specific thought or action, to attain awareness and attention, and achieve a clear, quiet, and stable state. As it is already linked with positive outcomes, new researches have incorporated one more to its long list of uses: it helps us learn faster and better.
Researchers at the University of Surrey, United Kingdom, focused on one specific type of meditation called “focused attention meditation” which is often used as a gateway for exploring other higher forms of practice. It involves the person focusing on a particular object or set of words and maintaining that focus for a long period of time. Take for example, a candle or a mantra. This research proved that people who meditated, performed better when compared to the ones who do not meditate. The researchers also linked the practice of meditation with the release of dopamine. Regular meditation may impact levels of dopamine which is a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in mood of regulation and physical agility, among other things.
Meditation also affects the way we react to a negative feedback. Meditators are less responsive to negative feedback, and they tend to learn from positive outcomes while non-meditators do the same from negative outcomes.
MINDFULLNESS – A FORM OF MEDITATION
Mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing one’s attention to experiences occurring in the present moment, which one can develop through the practice of meditation and through other training. This form of meditation has given tremendous results that has helped Alzheimer patients as well. People tend to suffer from losing some of their cognitive flexibility and experience short term memory loss as they age. But, practicing mindfulness may be able to slow this cognitive decline even in people with Alzheimer.
Further in to this study, focusing on present experiences and acknowledging them without judgements, definitely makes on happier. Mindfulness affects many aspects of our psychological wellbeing- improving our mood, increasing positive feelings, and decreasing our anxiety, and emotional response. Different researchers further delved to learn about how meditation influences the body just as much as the brain.
- An interview published by the American Heart Association concluded that they’ve gained enough evidence to suggest mindfulness meditation can serve as an alternative for coronary diseases and their prevention.
- Several studies have backed the increased levels of T-cells or T-cell activity in patients with HIV or breast cancer, suggesting that mindfulness plays a role in fighting cancer and other immune cell related diseases.
Knowing that meditation and its forms are more than just what they do for the mind is truly so. Sure, they bring focus and discipline to the most vital part of our being yet it works wonders for the ailing body. Though research is still preliminary, enough evidence is already present to convince why we need meditation as part of our lives.
