Meditation began as an ancient tradition and has now become a trend in the modern world. People are waking up to the possibilities for their mental and physical health by using meditation. Meditation is often seen as a mystical process however it is just a natural ability that we all have. It helps us to increase the level of focus that we have on what is working for us in a positive way and taps in the the human body’s natural ability to heal itself.
Benefits of Meditation according to research:
A study was published by the Journal of Clinical Psychology where 21 golfers and 11 archers were placed in a Mindful Sports Performance Enhancement program that ran for 4 weeks. The experiment was to examine the effects of being in a “state of flow” which is that state musicians, artists and top athletes report they experience when they are at peak performance and focus. The subjects were asked to perform yoga, walking meditation and traditional meditations. They reported a decrease in anxiety, less negative automatic thoughts and less pressure to perform as a result were able to perform beyond their normal abilities as they were more energized, focused and confident.
Another study reported by JAMA Internal Medicine did a group study of 50 middle aged men. They were separated in half. 25 did a class on sleeping better and 25 did Mindfulness classes. The group that did the mindfulness classes experienced significantly less insomnia, depression and fatigue than the group that were simply taught “better sleeping habits”.
The Journal of Pain published the results of a study involving 89 Patients who were suffering from chronic neck pain and placed in to a meditation group for 8 weeks. They all experienced a tremendous reduction in pain during their every day lives along with less depression and stress.
Are you currently having problems with stress? Then you will love this part. Carnegie Mellon University’s research team did a 3 day experiment on two groups of 33 healthy men and women between the ages of 18 and 30 years old. One group focused on strengthening cognitive abilities by working on poetry and problem solving skills and the second group did meditation for 25 minutes every day. After the 3 days, the participants of both groups were gathered and asked to perform math and speech related exercises in front of an evaluation team. The levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, in the team who only did cognitive training was higher than those who meditated.
Meditation is a wonderful tool and a natural way of handling all that life throws at us. There is significant research to validate that Meditation relieves stress, improves mental and physical health, reduces pain and contributes to better sleep.
What are you waiting for? Sign up for meditation classes here.