1. Better Concentration And Focus
Mindfulness meditation is a great way to help you focus on the present moment which can increase your levels of concentration when doing activities throughout the day.
Harvard Medical School presented a study not too long ago that showed that mindful meditation is a great way of processing new information and becoming more mindful of your surroundings.
There were 17 people that were part of this research, in an eight week meditation program. Gray matter was analyzed through brain scans and they were tested for emotional, memory, and learning capabilities.
Back in 2016, the Carnegie Mellon University also showed that decision-making and concentration improve through mindful meditation.
35 unemployed adults were tested. There was one group that was part of a relaxation program that lasted for three days that did not use any type of mindful meditation, whereas the other did have this capability. There was an increase in connectivity after looking at the brain scans with those that were part of the designated meditation group.
Referenced as meta-awareness, the research clearly showed that we can train our brain to become more focused which is a learnable skill. This is information that came from a PhD out of the University of Wisconsin Madison, and who is also the founder of the Center for Healthy Minds.
2. Improve Self-Awareness And Self-Esteem
Mindfulness meditation allows you to have an easier time with self reflection, plus you will start to slow down and discover more about yourself.
According to a PhD from the website JourneyPure, mindfulness is a great way to identify your own feelings and thoughts without judging yourself while doing so.
Stanford University also did research on mindful meditation, specifically on how it affected people with social anxiety. There was a study back in 2009 that was published in the prestigious Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, in which they were able to study, for two months, 14 participants that used meditation training to improve their self-esteem and decrease anxiety levels significantly.
3. Reduce Stress Levels
The use of mindfulness meditation was also shown to reduce the stress hormone cortisol in the body.
In 2013, 200 studies or more were done on mindfulness meditation and they discovered that levels of stress were greatly reduced among healthy people that participated.
There was a particular mantra that was involved during the meditation, which is simply a phrase or word that is repeated, which seemed to have a calming effect and also increased their concentration levels by distracting their thoughts and shifting their focus away from themselves.
In the studies of transcendental meditation, this was also recognized, by specifically using a word, or even a sound, that would help you focus and at the same time improve stability levels in a state of complete stillness according to David Foley who is the founder of a meditation center in Oklahoma called Unified Cosmos.
In 2019, support staff and teachers that were tested for psychological distress also participated in a transcendental meditation study.
They were able to use stress scales on all of the participants, measuring them for levels of stress, depression, or just overall burnout. When participating in the seven step transcendental meditation course, which they did up to 20 minutes a day, over a period of four months, lower levels of stress, in the absence of burnout, were present once they had learned the techniques.
Meditation is a great way to help manage anxiety however there is still a place for gabapentin for anxiety if it is impacting upon your life. Always speak to a professional if you are struggling with anxiety.
4. Manage Depression And Anxiety
Mindfulness meditation is a fantastic way of training your mind, making you less anxious and less likely to embrace a full on depression.
In 2014, JAMA Internal Medicine was able to determine that anxiety and depression could be reduced significantly with mindful meditation, and could be used effectively with a mental health treatment program that was comprehensive.
There has also been significant research done into the many benefits associated with MBSR, or mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy – which is simply a therapy program that uses mindfulness meditation. According to the studies, anxiety was reduced in the minds and bodies of those that often suffered from negative moods, loss of appetite, problems sleeping, and those that were suffering from bouts of depression.
