The Benefits of Meditation

Meditation helps us to become more connected with ourselves.  It teaches us present moment awareness.

We become more aware of our bodies, our thought processes, our feelings and our emotions. 

We learn how to not become so distracted by our thoughts. 

There are approximately 600 thoughts a day that run through our minds, and about 90% of those are repeat thoughts, habitual looping dialogues about all sorts of things, some meaningful, many not, and we tend to default to playing out over and over again – past events, our anxieties, having  arguments or conversations in our heads, most of which have not yet happened, and maybe, never will happen! 

 Learning to tame the mind and developing the skill of how to know what is a helpful or unhelpful thought, what is a positive versus a negative reaction to an event/happening in our daily life can be incredibly helpful. 

The saying “neurons that fire together, wire together’ says it all.  Whatever we think the most reinforces that thing/thought pattern.  This can be great (learning a new skill) or it can be not so great, (constant rumination and repetitive thinking about something we simply cannot change). 

Meditation can help you reinforce the good and useful thoughts, phase out (or learn how to mostly ignore), the unhelpful thoughts, and help you discern between the two.

One of the innumerable gifts of a regular meditation practice is that it enables us to be able to work with our mind, instead of our mind working us!  

Meditation 

• Helps reduce stress, anxiety and depression
• Improves our sense of emotional well-being
• Improves sleep
• Improves memory and focus
• Helps us to become more self aware
• Lowers blood pressure
• Can reduce chronic pain
• Lead to positive changes in brain structure
• Supports healthy aging of the brain
• Improves immune function
• The list just keeps going on the positive effects of a regular meditation practice, and it is all backed up by scientific research.  Below are links to some article I feel give a great overview of how meditation can benefit you and your life.

Matthew Sockolov –  29 Scientific Benefits of Meditation

“There are many benefits of meditation practice. In recent decades, quite a bit of research has come forth to suggest mindfulness and loving-kindness meditation can help us in a number of ways. From physical benefits like reducing heart rate to cognitive benefits like increasing working memory, there are many ways in which mindfulness practice can help us in our lives.”  Matthew Sockolov

Jo Maltby – Meditation for Creatives.“A consistent meditation practice infuses and informs everything life, offering you a creative freedom quite unmatched by any other practice. Through stilling your mind and relocating your centre, in as little as five minutes a day, meditation offers a plethora of benefits to both your life and creativity.” – Jo Maltby

Tara Brach – How to Meditate.     “Stepping out of the busyness, stopping our endless pursuit of getting somewhere else, is perhaps the most beautiful offering we can make to our spirit.” ~ Tara Brach True Refuge (2013)

Emmy Lymn – How Yoga Changes Your Brain “When it comes to your brain, the meditation aspect plays a large role as it is connected to increasing the number of folds in your brain (5). According to a study done by UCLA researchers, MRI brain scans showed that long-term meditators had more gyrification of their brain’s cortex.” – Emmy Lymn

Note – Increased gyrification results in better cognitive functioning and increased brain efficiency.  More info on this here:  https://www.uclahealth.org/news/release/evidence-builds-that-meditation-strengthens-the-brain

Very Big Brain – How Many Thoughts Do You Have Per Day, and Do Any of Them Really Matter?