How is meditation helpful?
Meditation is practiced to get inner peace, a sense of freedom from anxiety, depression, and stress. However, the effects of meditation have gone beyond the usual and have been beneficial for other mental and physical shortcomings. Meditation can improve sleep quality, help in reducing substance use, is effective in reducing high blood pressure, and also helps in greater processing of memory and emotions.
Mindfulness meditation
Mindfulness meditation, also known as present-focused awareness, is the art of focusing on body and breath sensations. This is usually practiced by concentrating on an internal or external stimulus, such as a visual scene, breathing, or a particular word or phrase.
This ancient practice promotes tranquility, improves mental balance, accelerates recovery during any kind of ailment, and enriches mental and physical well-being. Additionally, meditation, as an alternative therapy, encourages a positive interaction between the mind and body, which assists in understanding the reasons behind one’s unpredictable behavior.
Efficacy of mindfulness meditation
Even though numerous studies have endorsed the productiveness of meditation in promoting mental and physical health, most of them have focused only on addressing the symptoms of mental health conditions rather than addressing the underlying cause. However, researchers from Johns Hopkins University probed roughly 19,000 studies on meditation to find 47 trials that met the requirement of a well-designed study. The findings, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, suggested that meditation programs can assist in reducing a multitude of small and moderate psychological afflictions, such as stress, anxiety, depression, and chronic pain.
Another study, which delved into the effect of meditation on the brain and the specific mechanisms responsible for alleviating anxiety, suggested that meditation reduced anxiety at the neural level. After scanning the brains of the participants using brain imaging, the researchers found that meditation activated the regions of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), and anterior insula. These brain regions control worrying, thinking, and emotions and they displayed symptomatic relief following meditation sessions.
In addition, other studies have discovered that mindfulness meditation can assist individuals with conditions like high blood pressure, ulcerative colitis, certain psychological disorders, symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, and insomnia, improving overall mental and physical health.
Mindfulness meditation is considered as a complementary practice that assists in alleviating anxiety. Due to the involvement of the body and physical movement, some individuals with physical restrictions may not be able to take part in some forms of mindfulness meditation. Therefore, individuals with physical limitations and health conditions are advised to inform their health care providers about their condition before engaging in meditative activities.