Meditation is becoming more known for all of its benefits- including mental health. I have been meditating for over a decade and love the benefits I receive from meditating. Even still, I love to research and see for myself the benefits that science is finding now.
One of the main reasons why people practice the art of meditation is to find relief from depression, stress, and anxiety. However, meditation has many more benefits, including physical health, emotional and mental health, and spiritual connection.
Here are the top three mental health benefits of practicing meditation regularly.
Preserves the Aging Brain
Various studies over the last several years have revealed that your brain begins to decline in your 20s. This reduction in volume and weight continues throughout your life. Practicing meditation daily can help prevent many neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and dementia. It can also help to stave off the cognitive decline that comes with age.
Meditating regularly can also help to increase the protective tissues in your brain. When you engage in meditation, you’re introduced to states of intense relaxation and concentration, which leads to the growth of new cells. This helps to protect against the shrinkage of your grey matter.
Recent research in the Journal of Cognitive Enhancement suggests that mindfulness meditation may help keep aging brains fit and functional.
Reduces Stress
Over the last several years, more and more people have started practicing meditation as a way to stave off stress and health problems related to stress. When you start practicing meditation on a regular basis, your brain’s physiology changes. This mental shift helps to decrease the harmful effects of stress, mild depression, and anxiety.
Regular meditation practice helps to reduce the levels of stress and depression, both physically and mentally. When you experience stress or a sudden threat, your body enters into flight or fight mode. This leads to an immediate rush of adrenaline, which can cause an increase in your blood pressure, pulse rate, and increase blood flow. Meditation helps to relieve these symptoms of stress.
Training your mind through various meditation techniques increases the mental resources that can help you address stress and depression-related symptoms. The mind becomes clearer, more focused, and calmer, automatically reducing stress.
Researchers reviewed more than 200 studies of mindfulness among healthy people and found mindfulness-based therapy was especially effective for reducing stress, anxiety and depression.
I love how studies like this show how effective meditation is in reducing stress.
Improves Attention
Researchers have measured a decline in our average attention span in just over a decade, from 12 seconds to only eight seconds. That’s a whopping 33 percent decrease!
Practicing meditation can help improve your attention span by optimizing the flow of sensory information that your brain takes in. Meditation helps to make your brain much more efficient at processing information.
In this case study, researchers found that even brief mindfulness meditation improves attention in beginners.
A brief 10-min guided mindfulness meditation instruction period can improve executive attentional control even in naïve, inexperienced meditators. This is a novel and important finding, suggesting that individuals who are merely initiating a meditation practice may reap benefits after a single brief session.
To me, this is so exciting! Even a short 10 meditation can improve your attention even if you are a beginner! Who doesn’t want to have improved attention?
Meditation Improves Mental Health
If the hectic pace of today’s 24/7 society has your mind reeling, starting a regular meditation practice can help. With just ten minutes a day, you can start seeing a reduction in your stress levels and increase your overall attention span while keeping your brain young too!
Knowing the three top mental health benefits of meditation makes me want to stop writing about meditation and start meditating right now. Meditation is so important; it will improve your mental health by investing just a few minutes daily. Start meditating today if you want to protect your aging brain, reduce stress, and enhance your attention. You are worth it!
If you are interested in learning how to meditate, I can help you. I teach a meditation course and have created some guided meditations.
