8 Ways Meditation Can Improve Your Life

“A good traveler is one who knows how to travel with the mind.” ― Michael Bassey Johnson

Meditation was once thought of as an obscure practice or an activity only for hippies. But this is no longer. Meditation has taken on the western world and shows the tremendous benefits it can have for your health and happiness. We all have heard that “meditation is good for you”. But good in what terms?

Meditation focuses on the interaction between your body, brain, soul, and behavior. There are many types of meditation practices that can be based on compassion, mindfulness, and yoga among others. While their aims are different, they share many common physical and mental health benefits. There are various scientific studies and personal anecdotes that cover the wide range of benefits of meditation.

Here are just eight ways that meditation can improve your life. While there are many others, these will hopefully inspire you to test out meditation and reap the benefits it has.

Increased Self-Awareness

Meditation requires you to take a large dive inside of yourself to understand who you are. When you take the time to do this, you can learn to understand what causes many of your negative emotions such as anger and sadness. Meditation can teach you to recognize these emotions and become detached from them. It helps to clear your mind and keep you calm while analyzing various parts of your life. An overall increased awareness of self can flourish out of regular meditation practices. This helps to make you more comfortable in your own skin and show off who you really are. You learn how to better accept yourself for who you are, despite external factors in your life. It changes how you feel about yourself and your life for the better, making living a more pleasant experience.

Encourages a Healthy Lifestyle

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Meditation at its core is trying to help people become connected to their bodies. Many meditation courses start with the oath “first, do no harm” to others and to yourself. In order to do this, many have found that meditation has helped them eat healthier, workout more, and even quit smoking. Anecdotes from people who have practiced meditation say they are less likely to want to put junk food, coffee or alcohol into their bodies, as it’s not something good for their health. Instead they are replacing these things with fruits and veggies, tea and other more natural options. In addition, meditation promotes better sleep quantity and quality. Having a better and more consistent sleep routine helps in typical day-to-day activities.

Strengthens Relationships

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It’s part of human nature to seek out community and connection. Yet handling and managing relationships with friends, coworkers, and loved ones can be difficult and cause stress. We are wired to react in a “fight or flight” pattern, and we sometimes are reactive to our relationships which causes them harm. Through meditation, we are able to strengthen the pathways in the brain that allow us to be less reactive to problems. We can begin to feel greater compassion towards others, listen better, and communicate more effectively because we are gaining higher brain functions. Meditation also helps to boost our mood, leaving us able to connect with others better. This helps our relationships long-term and allows them to grow.

Reduced Depression and Anxiety Symptoms

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Meditation decreases anxiety levels and alleviates depression symptoms in those who practice it regularly. Meditation allows people to take charge of their own nervous system and emotions. “Studies have shown improved ability to [permanently] regulate emotions in the brain,” says Emma Seppälä, a Stanford University researcher. When meditating, we begin to loosen the connections of certain neural pathways. By weakening these connections in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, our brains are able to react different to the same situations. Another added benefit to weakening this connection is gaining strength in the Assessment Center of your brain, which is known for its reasoning. Thus, you will be better able to respond calmly to nerve-wracking situations.

Keeps Your Brain Strong

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“Cognition seems to be preserved in meditators,” says Sara Lazar, a researcher at Harvard University. Lazar adds that meditators also have more gray matter – literally, more brain cells. It has been proven that meditation has the ability to improve your concentration, memory and productivity. A recent study by University of Washington researchers found that meditation training helped workers concentrate better, remember more of their work details, and stay energized and experience less negative moods. In general, those who practice meditation are better at filtering out distractions, which leads to an increase in overall productivity. Being able to concentrate better by ignoring background distractions helps one quickly memorize and use new facts. Greater concentration is related to the increased energy meditation provides. “It connects you with your real source of energy,” Shrimati Bhanu Narasimhan, a meditation teacher, states.

Reduced Blood Pressure

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Many studies have shown that by meditating you may be able to decrease your blood pressure (if you suffer from hypertension). Meditation induces relaxation, which increases the compound nitric oxide that causes blood vessels to open up and subsequently, blood pressure to drop. One study, published in 2008 in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, showed that 40 of 60 high blood pressure patients who started meditating could stop taking their blood pressure medication. It can aid in other health conditions, too, as it has a positive effect on the immune system. For example, those with respiratory illnesses such as the flu have recovered quicker than those who did not meditate.