Why Meditate? 9 Incredible Health Benefits to Know
Are you wondering why meditate? If yes, you can check out our list of benefits and reasons for meditating by clicking here.
Oprah Winfrey, Madonna, and Paul McCartney. These are some celebrities who meditate. Then you also have super successful people like Jeff Weiner, the CEO of LinkedIn, and Marc Benioff, the Chairman, and CEO of Salesforce.
They don’t do it as a mere hobby. In one way or the other, meditation helped them get to where they are now. It helped them get through the stresses of their careers.
But why meditate?
They’ll most likely answer one of the 9 health benefits of meditation below.
- Reduces Stress and Anxiety
Why should you meditate?
If you ask this question to random people, their number one reason would be the build-up of stress in their lives. This isn’t the sole purpose of meditation, but even science can’t deny how effective it is in that regard.
In a large study of 47 trials with 3,515 participants, the researchers found that mindfulness meditation programs affected both stress and anxiety levels in men and women. Even at only 8 weeks of practice, they already showed a significant decrease in stress.
Scientists found that the cortisol level, which produces the feelings of stress, is lower in those who meditate.
- Promotes Emotional Health
Stress isn’t the only response we have when problems arise. We can also end up depressed or having mood-related issues. This can affect our perspective on life and ourselves, making us feel worthless.
If you’re familiar with this feeling, you may try meditating to improve your daily mood, as it clears your negative thoughts and emotions, leading to a more optimistic view of life.
After a few sessions, you’ll feel refreshed enough to tackle your problems. Keep it up and it will improve your overall emotional health in the long run.
- Promotes Physical Well-Being
It’s not only your mind and emotions that benefit from a good meditation session. Your physical health benefits too.
For one, it helps control pain. The study we mentioned earlier is one of the many that have found evidence of this benefit.
Another study found that it bypasses opioid receptors while providing pain relief. Meditation continues to activate the brain areas that modulate pain, the same ones mediated by pain medications, even when the scientists blocked the receptors.
This can mean that you can ditch the medications for dealing with low pain. For chronic pain, it’s a strong technique for use in conjunction with your prescriptions.
- Enhances Attention Span
Every time you meditate, you exercise your attention span. It’s like a workout for your brain, which means you can improve your focus the more you practice.
With regular practice, you’ll be able to stay on your tasks for longer. Even a few sessions can help you. Individuals who have only meditated for a few days still have a better attention span than those who don’t.
No matter the type of meditation you practice, be it vipassana, Hindu, or Transcendental, you can experience an increase in focus.
- Why Meditate? It Improves Self-Control
When you learn how to meditate, you also learn self-control. This doesn’t only make you more immune to the temptation of having another slice of cake. This is also useful when you're battling addictions.
You may be less inclined to grab a smoke or buy a bottle of alcohol when you make meditation a habit. If you’re recovering from addictive behaviors, meditation will help you avoid harmful urges.
Not only that, but it can also help you know when you’re slipping back to your old behaviors.
- Improves Sleeping Patterns
Meditation helps prevent your mind from wandering when you’re working on a task. It chases away your rambling thoughts, which is also why it’s effective for improving sleep.
Since meditation puts you in a peaceful state, it allows you to fall asleep faster. It relaxes both your mind and body, making you sleep for longer.
- Boosts Creativity
As you’ve learned earlier, celebrities like to meditate, too, and most of them do it to improve their craft. Singers may do it to find inspiration for their next song. Actors do it to internalize their roles.
When your mind is clear, there are fewer barriers for you to get into any activity. Try meditation the next time you’re in a slump. And to make sure you get those creative juices flowing, do it on a regular basis.
- Increases Productivity
A lot of factors play into the level of your productivity, and most of it you can improve through meditation. In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve already mentioned all the benefits that lead to an increase in productivity.
Because you get to sleep like a baby, you wake up feeling refreshed and full of energy. This helps you become more productive in your waking hours.
The decrease in distractions also helps you do more. As you become more able to focus on your tasks, your productivity improves.
When you’re less stressed, you’re more inclined to finish your work and move onto the next one without much delay. The rush in creativity allows you to do something instead of lying in wait for inspiration to strike.
- Develops Your Empathy
Meditation helps you develop positive thoughts and emotions. Among those are kindness and empathy.
Think of it as a rinse of your soul. The less negativity in your mind, the easier it is to be kinder to other people.
Certain types of meditation are more effective than others. For example, Metta meditation results in increased feelings of social connectedness. When you feel more connected toward a person, it’s easier for you to put yourself in their shoes.
Start Meditating Now!
Why meditate?
We hope we provided some answers to your question. Meditation can improve your life in multiple ways, from improving your mental and physical health to boosting your productivity at work.
If you need more tips on how to live a better life, keep tabs on our blog.
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