Mental Benefits
There are numerous mental benefits that are associated with regular meditation. Here are just a few of the mental benefits that you can gain by practicing mindfulness through meditation on a regular basis.
Reduces Stress, Anxiety, and Depression
One of the main reasons why people engage in meditation is to find relief from stress, depression, and anxiety. They have determined that meditation helps to reduce stress levels and depression, both mentally and physically.
When the body experiences a sudden threat or increased stress, it immediately triggers the fight or flight response. This leads to a sudden rush of adrenaline due to the release of epinephrine hormones.
These hormones cause your pulse rate and blood pressure to rise, and increases blood flow to your muscles, and results in faster breathing. The relaxation process that occurs during meditation helps relieve stress and the symptoms associated with stress.
After just eight weeks of consistent meditation practice, the benefits you gain are enormous and may even last for years.
Mindful meditation, when combined with breathing techniques has the potential for dramatically reducing or in some cases, eliminating cases of stress, anxiety, and depression that occur when the daily pressures of life and other unpleasant situations become greater than you can cope with.
Stress and depression don't occur because the situation at hand is valid or not. It is influenced more by how you respond to the situation. Practicing meditation gives you the opportunity to analyze the stressors and determine if they are valid or not.
Meditation creates a level of awareness where youare able to see things from another perspective. Training the mind through various meditation techniques will increase the mental resources that are used to help you in addressing stress and depression.
With consistent meditation practice, you can improve the clarity, focus, and calm in your mind, which leads to a reduction of stress. All that is required to be free from stress and depression is practicing meditation for about 10 minutes a day.
Recovery from Addiction
It has been proven that regularmeditation practice can be extremely useful in helping with recovery from addiction.
Meditation helps change how the brain is able to process information. This helps to enable addicts to evaluate cases of addiction and allows them to act appropriately without the use of drugs. Mindful meditation helps to induce the state of relaxation, giving addicts the ability to monitor their breathing as they stay calm.
Being in this kind of state helps them to reduce negative feelings and the cravings that cause addicts to seek out the drugs or substances that they are addicted to. Anyone can learn the process of meditation for recovery from addiction.
Engaging in meditation helps those recovering from addiction to clearly observe their desires and thoughts without being compelled to act on them. It allows them to come to the understanding that they aren't responsible for the thoughts that come into their minds, but that they are responsible for how they ultimately react to those thoughts.
With the clarity of mind that meditation brings, addicts can make healthier choices that help in the recovery process.
During the early stages of the recovery process, addicts often experience severe mood swings. By engaging in meditation, their mind is forced to focus on one thing, such as breathing, a mantra, or an object that can help them to focus on overcoming addiction.
Reduces Pain
There have been various clinical settings that have used meditation to help patients that deal with chronic pain.
Numerous studies have discoveredthat if you are capable of focusing and calming your mind and body that you are equally capable of controlling pain.
The practice of meditation makes it possible to face muscle tension, irritability, and sweating that is often associated with chronic pain.
When you practice mindfulness through meditation, you are better able to come to terms with the pain that you are
experiencing instead of running away from it or masking it with medication.
Increase Happiness
You can significantly increase your level of happiness and good feelings by engaging in mindfulness through meditation.
Participating in regular practice will allow your brain to better focus on positive emotions.
Just like when you train your muscles and exercise for better performance, you can also work on your feelings of happiness. Engaging in meditation regularly increases your feelings of joy and happiness.
Mindful meditation helps to improve the psychological function of the brain, leading to the release of the hormones that are responsiblefor feelings of joy.
Meditation for the beginner - Chapter 1 – Benefits of Meditation (part 3)