While meditation is well known as a technique to reduce stress and anxiety, it may also help enhance your mood, promote healthy sleep patterns, and boost cognitive skills.
Meditation is the habitual process of training your mind to focus and redirect your thoughts.
The popularity of meditation is increasing as more people discover its many health benefits.
You can use it to increase awareness of yourself and your surroundings. Many think of it as a way to reduce stress and develop concentration.
People also use the practice to develop other beneficial habits and feelings, such as a positive mood and outlook, self-discipline, healthy sleep patterns, and even increased pain tolerance.
This article reviews 12 health benefits of meditation.
Stress reduction is one of the most common reasons people try meditation.
Over time, physiological markers of stress, like increased cortisol and heart rate, can have wide-ranging impacts on everything from sleep to blood pressure.
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Other research suggests that meditation may also improve symptoms of certain conditions that are impacted by stress, including:
- irritable bowel syndrome
- post-traumatic stress disorder
fibromyalgia
Meditation can reduce stress levels, which translates to less anxiety.
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Meditation may also help control job-related anxiety.
Some forms of meditation can lead to improved self-image and a more positive outlook on life.
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Some forms of meditation may help you develop a stronger understanding of yourself, helping you grow into your best self.
For example, self-inquiry meditation aims to help you develop a greater understanding of yourself and how you relate to those around you.
Other forms teach you to recognize harmful or self-defeating thoughts. The idea is that as you gain greater awareness of your thought habits, you can steer them toward more constructive patterns.
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Focused attention meditation is like weightlifting for your attention span. It helps increase your attention span’s strength and endurance.
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Even meditating for a short period each day may benefit you.
Improvements in attention and clarity of thinking may help keep your mind young.
Kirtan Kriya is a method of meditation that combines a mantra or chant with repetitive finger motions to focus your thoughts.
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Some types of meditation may particularly increase positive feelings and actions toward yourself and others.
Metta meditation, a type of meditation also known as loving-kindness meditation, begins with developing kind thoughts and feelings toward yourself.
Through practice, people learn to extend this kindness and forgiveness externally, first to friends, then acquaintances, and ultimately enemies.
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The mental discipline you can develop through meditation
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Meditation may also help you control food cravings. An
An older 2014 study compared mindfulness-based meditation programs and found that people who meditated stayed asleep longer and had improved insomnia severity, compared with those who had an unmedicated control condition.
Becoming skilled in meditation may help you control or redirect the racing or runaway thoughts that often lead to insomnia.
Additionally, it can help relax your body, release tension, and ease you into a peaceful state in which you’re more likely to fall asleep.
Some research suggests that incorporating meditation into your routine could be beneficial for controlling pain.
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Meditation can also improve physical health by reducing strain on the heart.
Over time, high blood pressure makes the heart work harder to pump blood, leading to poor heart function.
High blood pressure also contributes to atherosclerosis, or a narrowing of the arteries, which can lead to heart attack and stroke.
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People practice many different forms of meditation, most of which don’t require specialized equipment or space. You can practice with just a few minutes daily.
If you want to start meditating, try choosing a form of meditation based on what you want to get out of it.
There are two major styles of meditation:
- Focused-attention meditation. This style concentrates attention on a single object, thought, sound, or visualization. It emphasizes ridding your mind of distractions. Meditation may focus on breathing, a mantra, or a calming sound.
- Open-monitoring meditation. This style encourages broadened awareness of all aspects of your environment, train of thought, and sense of self. It may include becoming aware of suppressed thoughts, feelings, or impulses.
If your regular work and home environments do not allow for consistent, quiet alone time, consider participating in a class. This can also improve your chances of success by providing a supportive community.
Alternatively, consider setting your alarm a few minutes early to take advantage of quiet time in the morning. This may help you develop a consistent habit and allow you to start the day positively.
Meditation is something everyone can do to improve their mental and emotional health without special equipment or costly memberships.
Trying out a style of meditation suited to your goals is a great way to improve your quality of life, even if you only have a few minutes to do it daily.