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You know you need to meditate. We have all heard it a million times from various personal development teachers, self-help gurus, psychologists, and basically everyone else. It is one of those things that is just “good for you”.
But if you’re anything like me, it is hard to really stick to a new habit if you don’t know the WHY. Hence, I have researched like crazy, studied research papers from Yale University and Johns Hopkins University, so that I can tell you, in simple words, WHY Meditation is good for you – scientifically.
Note: A lot of the benefits are interlinked, so it has been a challenge organizing it into a list. It’s more of a circle. What comes first, the chicken or the egg? Nevertheless, keep reading for why meditation is good for you.
Table of Contents
Physical Benefits of Meditation
I am not going to go into the WHY behind the physical benefits because then it would become a biology post, but these are all facts and studies have proven them.
Why Meditation is Good for You Physically:
– Lowers blood pressure
– Strengthens immunity
– Slows down the aging process
– Better cardiovascular system
– Reduces pain
– Decreases cholesterol
– Decreases the physical tension
– Reduces stress
– Reduces muscle tension
– Rejuvenates and re-energizes the body
The Top Psychological Benefits of Meditation
Why Meditation is Good for You? – Mentally?
1. Enhances Productivity by Improving Concentration and Attention Span
2. Improves Memory
3. Fights Depression
4. Reduces Anxiety
5. Promotes Emotional Regulation
6. Helps You Live in the Moment
7. Makes You a Nicer Human
8. Improves Sleep Quality and Battles Insomnia
9. Increases Emotional Intelligence
10. Reduces Anger
11. Boosts Creativity and Brain Power
12. Increases Self-Awareness and Intuition
Now, let’s dive into WHY meditation is good for your mental health.
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1. Improves Concentration and Attention Span
When you meditate, you train your mind to focus on one thing. This can be your breath, or just a light inside or above you. This is a great practice on helping cultivate concentration and increasing your attention span. If you can work on a task with more focus and concentration, you will definitely be more productive. So by taking a few minutes out of your day to meditate, you can actually save time in the long run!
Why?
But there is a scientific reasoning to this. In your brain, there is a brain network that is responsible for mind-wandering and self-referential thoughts. Basically, it is responsible for your “monkey mind”. This network is called your Default Mode Network. Meditation has been proven to decrease activity in your DNS. This means, your mind wanders less, which will increase your focus and concentration levels.
Proof:
“Meditation has been associated with relatively reduced activity in the default mode network” according to this study.
2. Improves Memory
A cool reason why meditation is good for you is because it activates our hippocampus – no not the hippopotamus.
Now, why does this matter?
The hippocampus is basically the center of memory!
So, by meditating, you can improve your memory! Imagine not forgetting your boss’s wife’s name! You might just get that promotion!
Proof:
Harvard University’s Dr. Sara Lazar and her team found that mindfulness meditation can actually change the structure of the brain. Eight weeks of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) was found to increase the thickness of the hippocampus, which governs learning and memory.
According to this study, just a couple of weeks of meditation, helped students’ focus and memory during the verbal reasoning section of the GRE. Their increase in score was equivalent to 16 percentile points!
3. Fights Depression
Negative Bias
Your brain’s default tendency is to focus on the negative. This is called Negative Bias. And there is a reason for it.
- When we were hunters and gatherers, we needed to be suspicious of the berries we ate, because they could be poisonous. We needed to be careful about any sound in the jungle, because that might mean a tiger is about to eat us. So, the brain evolved to focus on things that can hurt us. This negative bias helped us survive. But not anymore. Now it just leads to depression.
- So when your DNS is active, basically when you ‘zone out’ and your mind is just wandering, most likely it will come up with negative thoughts.
- According to this study, “Rumination is repetitive and distressful form of thinking that can be symptomatic of depression.”
- How do you stop rumination? Decreasing activity in your DNS, which is done by meditating.
Increases size of hippocampus
- A Washington University School of Medicine study, showed through MRI imaging, that depression showed a decrease in the size of your hippocampus. So if you can find a way to grow your hippocampus, you could combat depression – essentially meditation.
Proof:
Meditation decreases DNS activity (see point 1)
A 2008 study found that, after only 8 weeks of meditation, the left and right “hippocampi” of participants had significantly grown in neural thickness, density, and overall size.
Similarly, in Dr. Lazar’s study, she also found meditation to increase the size of the hippocampus.
4. Reduces Anxiety
If there is one clear reason why meditation is good for you, it would be this: it makes you calmer and less anxious.
Instead of focusing on your mind’s chatter, you are focusing on your breath.
It helps because you focus on the present moment, not worrying about the past or the future. It gives your brain a breather and relax, without having to process any emotion, make judgements, or deal with triggers.
Why?
Stress is caused by an increased release of cortisol, the stress hormone. Meditation reduces cortisol.
It also quiets an overactive brain which by reducing activity of the DNS.
Proof:
This study shows that meditation reduces the production of cortisol.
Meditation decreases DNS activity (see point 1)
5. Promotes Emotional Regulation
Emotional regulation is the ability to reduce negative and increase positive emotions.
Meditation helps because it decreases activity in the amygdala and activates the prefrontal cortex. Your amygdala is the emotional center of your brain that detects stress around you. Your prefrontal cortex tells you whether the alarm is justified.
Proof:
In another study, people who practiced mindful meditation showed a less intense emotions to negative stimuli, and less negative bias. They also had fewer negative moods.
6. Helps You Live in the Moment
Another reason why meditation is good for you because it helps you be more present rather than think about the past or future. As you practice sitting still, focusing on your breath, and quieting the mind helps quiet the monkey mind and focus on the present moment. And when you do accidentally start wandering off, you are able to snap out faster.
This is also in part because it slows down your DNS (mentioned above) and improves your attention on the present moment.
Proof:
Meditation decreases DNS activity (see point 1)
7. Makes You a Nicer Human
Do you feel guilty when some people go out of their way to be nice to others? Maybe they will get up their seat on the subway, or offer the last bite of their brownie… while you hog your piece and eye a second. And then you just wonder: why am I such a selfish evil monster?
Well, I have good news.
You can easily be nicer by just meditating.
How?
- Meditation activates the insula, which is the same area responsible for empathy, compassion, and kindness.
- Secondly, if you are more calm, not anxious and depressed, and can be more productive, you are probably less frustrated in general. And I’m sure the last time you were frustrated with yourself and life you probably didn’t feel like being nice to anyone.
Proof:
A UCLA School of Medicine study found that people who meditated had a highly active “right anterior dorsal insula”, which is the same area responsible for empathy, compassion, and kindness.
8. Improves Sleep Quality and Battles Insomnia
Another major reason why meditation is good for you is how it positively affects your sleep.
Reduced Stress
- Meditation helps you sleep better by reducing stress.
- Because your brain is wandering less, your brain is more calm and less aroused, it improves insomnia symptoms.
- Dr. Herbert Benson says “Mindfulness meditation is just one of a smorgasbord of techniques that evoke the relaxation response.”
- The relaxation response is a physiological shift in the body that’s the opposite of the stress response.
- Stress, however, inhibits melatonin production causing problems to your seep. So, by calming you down and decreasing DNS activity, you feel less stressed and can produce more melatonin.
Boosts Melatonin
- Meditation boosts melatonin levels. Melatonin is the sleep hormone that makes sure you get a deep, restful sleep.
Meditation builds up the “Pons.”
- The Pons regulates melatonin, the chemical that helps you sleep, and basically acts as the on/off switch to the REM stage of sleep.
- The most important sleep level is REM, which just occurs about 20% of your sleep time. During REM sleep, your body detoxifies, renews, repairs, heals, and grows.
Proof:
- Rutgers University researchers found that mediation helped boost melatonin levels by an average of 98%.
- According to this study, mindfulness meditation resulted in less insomnia and fatigue after six weeks.
9. Increases Emotional Intelligence
Did you know that the more you meditate, the stronger your emotional intelligence (EQ)? Gone are the days where you just need a high IQ to succeed. With a high EQ, comes self-awareness, self-motivation, emotional balance, and so much more – basically the ingredients of a great person.
Proof:
In 2016, a team of Spanish and German researchers found that meditation helped increase “internal consistency” of “temporoparietal junction” (TPJ), which is the command center for Emotional Intelligence.
10. Reduces Anger
Another reason why meditation is good for you is because it can help you reduce anger.
How?
- By combating fear (amygdala) and reducing stress (cortisol), two key factors in eliciting anger, meditation helps you be more calm.
- Meditation teaches you how to focus on intentionally responding rather than reacting.
Proof:
This study found that just one session of meditation reduced the physical signs of anger, such as blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing rate. On the other hand, people who meditated regularly barely showed any signs of anger in the first place.
11. Boosts Creativity and Brain Power
What is the secret sauce of all the smart, super successful creative thinkers of the world (including Einstein)?
A strong connection between their right and left brain hemispheres.
Your right brain and left brain have different strengths – one is more objective thinking (logical) and the other is more subjective (emotional, intuitive). But, by using the power of both sides, you basically unlock a magical vortex of super creativity, amazing memory, deeper focus, and smarter brains.
Now, what does that have to do with meditation?
By meditating, you can actually strengthen the bond between both hemispheres, and start using both sides of your brain in a more balanced way!
Proof:
A 2012 UCLA School of Medicine study found that the “corpus callosum,” the network of that link the two sides of your brain, was much stronger, thicker, and more well connected in people who meditated.
12. Increases Self-Awareness and Intuition
Because meditation quiets the chatter in your mind, it helps you connect with yourself. In the stillness, you can connect with your subconscious mind and your intuition. By detaching from the material world, emotional rollercoasters, anxiety, and noise, you can hear yourself more clearly.
Here, you will find answers you are looking for. You will become more confident as you learn to trust your own guidance increasingly. As you learn to manage your emotions, you will learn more about what triggers you and why.
And by learning so much about yourself, you will grow deeper and faster than through any other means.
Conclusion
It is clear why meditation is good for you. Countless studies have shown that a regular meditation practice has tremendous benefits to your brain. If you want to be a superhuman, basically you should meditate. You can be smarter, more productive, kinder, happier, sleep better, basically be AWESOME. Not to mention, you will be healthier! So what are you waiting for? Just get going!
Oh, and if you aren’t sure how to fit meditation into your routine, just comment below or use this Free routine planner workbook that helps you create the most optimal routine for you!
Common Questions
Why is meditation not working for me?
Meditation is meant to be a practice. Hence, its effects will be much more enhanced if you practice consistently. Try to take out some time each day, even if it is just 5 minutes.
Don’t judge yourself. And don’t give up. Something magical won’t happen immediately. But over time you will realize you have much more control over your mind, you will have greater focus, less anxiety, and better mental health.
Remember, there is no right and wrong in meditation. Just still your mind and focus on your breath.
Why is meditation so difficult?
It seems difficult because your mind is used to so much noise. Think about it… every time you have a minute to zone out you probably pick up your phone or think of something you need to do. Your brain is constantly thinking and chatting and doing something. But, with practice, meditation will get easier. Start small – even just one minute a day can do. After a few days, increase it to 3 minutes.
Why is meditation so powerful?
Meditation is so powerful because it can actually change the structure of your brain. This has been shown in all the studies I have linked in this site. In addition to improving our mental health and increasing your brain capacity, it also has many physical benefits like lowering blood pressure, increasing immunity, reducing physical tension, and more.
The reason meditation is so powerful is because it helps you master your mind, which is the coolest superpower to have.
Save this list for later! 🙂
Great read! I did find with mediation my brain was able to slow down and I could concentrate more. The benefits are amazing.
Yes they really are!
The addition on the common questions section is great!
thanks 🙂
Wonderful article and so detailed. Meditation
is helping me so much for the body and the
spirit..
thank you! so glad to hear you are reaping its benefits!
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