Woman meditating in front of a large body of water

Benefits of meditation

Meditation is one of the most powerful activities that you can do.

Everyone knows about it but not everyone does it. Only some people practice meditation regularly.

The current population is roughly around 7.8 billion. Only 200 to 500 million people meditate. This means that only 2-6% of people in the world practice meditation.

There are a lot of benefits of doing meditation.

Through meditation, a person can control the world’s powerful tool. That is nothing but their brain.

You are not controlling your brain. Your brain is controlling you.

You can do anything with your belief system.

Mental benefits of meditation

1. Slows down the aging process

2. Relieves stress and chronic anxiety

3. Builds self-esteem

4. Treats and prevents depression

5. Increases attention span

Mediation is good for your brain.

1. Mediation slows the aging process

As you age, your body gets slower and you start to lose your edge.

Meditation can actually slow down the aging process in your brain.

This comes from a 2015 study from UCLA that found that people who meditate have healthier and younger brains than people who don't.

Even the researchers were shocked by their findings!

They expected a small difference, if any, in the size of their brains.

Instead, they found significant changes in brain volume.

By meditating regularly, these people developed more gray matter. Their brain volume stayed far more consistent.

In other words, meditation held back many of the most detrimental effects of aging in the brain.

This awarded them a healthier and more productive mind for years to come.

Studies find that meditation prevents age related mental decline.

Meditation keeps your brain young.

2. Meditation relieves stress and chronic anxiety

By learning how to meditate, you significantly reduce your stress without having to make any other major changes to your lifestyle.

The more positive lifestyle changes that you make, the better. The point is that meditation on its own is a very powerful tool.

Sitting in silence for 10 or 15 minutes has such a huge impact on your life.

When we're stressed about repaying student loans or giving a big presentation, our bodies produce a hormone called cortisol.

Cortisol is responsible for most of the common negative side effects associated with stress.

Cortisol can impair your memory and increase your blood pressure. It can disrupt your sleep. These things make you feel fatigued and unmotivated.

Cortisol can also lead to depression and chronic anxiety. This can bring your productive lifestyle to a crashing halt.

Luckily, a 2013 study found that meditation (specifically mindfulness meditation) effectively deals with stress by decreasing the negative side effects of cortisol production.

Another study that examined over 1,200 participants found that regular meditation lowered stress more than any medical treatment on the market.

In both of these studies the results were consistent for people of all ages and experience levels.

No matter whom you are or how much you know about meditation, it can be an incredibly effective way to reduce your stress.

Studies find that meditation lowers stress more than any medication on the market.

Mediation reduces stress and anxiety.

3. Meditation builds self-esteem

Self-confidence is something that almost everyone struggles with on a daily basis.

In a world filled with critics and bullies, it can be really difficult to develop and maintain a lasting positive self-image.

Without a strong self-image, you may be struggling every day just to avoid another period of depression.

If this sounds like you, mindfulness meditation can help you build a kind of self-esteem that won't fall apart the next time that something doesn't go your way.

Mindfulness meditation is actually a pretty simple concept. To practice mindfulness all you need to do is bring your complete attention to the present moment.

By focusing exclusively on where you are and who you are; mindfulness can help you stay calm, relaxed and aware.

It can also reduce your anxiety while allowing you to think clearly and rationally.

The ultimate goal of mindfulness meditation is to get you in touch with your senses and emotions. This gives you a deeper understanding of yourself.

A 2005 study showed that this deeper understanding results in the development of positive self-esteem.

In this study researchers had a group of individuals diagnosed with breast cancer practice mindfulness meditation exercises for 12 weeks.

At the start of the study, each participant was tested and showed very low levels of self-esteem but after 12 weeks of meditation, the entire group showed dramatic improvements despite their chronic illness.

While mindfulness meditation does help build self-esteem it's even more effective at stopping your self-esteem from decreasing.

When you experience failure or social rejection you might start having cyclical negative thoughts which can quickly destroy all of the self-esteem that you built up.

These harmful thoughts discourage you from doing the things that make you happy so it's incredibly important to address them before they get out of control.

Mindfulness meditation is a great way to do just that because it offers you the opportunity to bring your attention to the negative thoughts or habits and find ways to correct them.

Mindfulness exercises improve your sense of self-worth.

Improve your self-image.

4. Meditation helps you to avoid depression

Mindfulness meditation has been used as a form of therapy for individuals struggling with depression.

Not only does it reduce the production of chemicals in our brains associated with depression, but meditation also fosters a more stable emotional mindset by decreasing the presence of unhealthy behaviors.

Brooding, for example, is common among individuals with depression allowing for negative emotions like sadness, anger and self-criticism.

A study by the University of Exeter looked for this kind of behavior in two groups of people who were recovering from depression.

The first group used only depression medication while the second group practiced mindfulness meditation at least once every day.

The researchers found that about half of the medication group ended up relapsing because of unhealthy behaviors like brooding which prevented the medication from doing its job.

On the other hand, those who practiced meditation were significantly less likely to relapse because they were less likely to engage in any of these depressive behaviors.

If you're hoping to improve your emotional health, mindfulness meditation can be a safe and effective way to cut depression off at the source.

Studies find mindfulness as effective as medication for treating depression.

Meditation helps with depression.

5. Meditation increases your attention span

Most people are not able to concentrate on their work for a long amount of time without drifting off.

Mindfulness meditation can help you to build your attention span.

At first, you will find it harder to concentrate while meditating.

As soon as you have learnt this important skill, you’ll find it so much easier to concentrate on any type of mental work.

The hardest thing about meditation is keeping your mind from wandering.

You're so used to constantly thinking about your work and all of your responsibilities that it can be hard to focus on something simple like your breath or the present moment.

But by practicing this kind of concentration, you're actually increasing your attention span so that you'll be more clear-headed and productive.