© Namita AzadMeditation is excellent method to maintain our physical and emotional health and well-being
The Challenge: Stress, work and life challenges can get the best of us.
The Science: Research shows that meditation is linked to a host of benefits from happiness to health!
The Solution: Meditate to feel calmer, happier, healthier, more productive and more in charge.
Trying to find a New Year's Resolution that's really worth it? How about one that will boost your resilience?
This coming New Year will hopefully be full of wonderful surprises, but undoubtedly - like every year - will also throw some challenges at us. I started meditating soon after 9/11. I was living in Manhattan, an already chaotic place, at an extremely chaotic time. I realized I had no control over my external environment. And I realized this would always be the case. No matter what we do, we never have full control over our jobs, partners, health, or environment.
However,
there is one place we can have a say over: the state of our mind. As a friend once said to me "When my mind is ok, then everything is ok." This statement is so simple yet also so profound. When I started meditating, I realized I was clamer despite any situations I encountered. What I didn't realize, was that it would also make me healthier, happier, and more successful. Having witnessed the benefits, I devoted my PhD research at Stanford to studying the impact of meditation. I saw people from diverse backgrounds from college students to combat veterans benefit. In the last 10 years, hundreds of studies have been released.
Here are 20 scientifically-validated reasons you might want to get on the bandwagon come Jan 1 (if not today!)
During meditation we process the deep tracks of our unconscious mind that will lead into better self-understanding
It Boosts Your HEALTH1 - Increases immune function (See
here and
here)
2 - Decreases Pain (see
here)
3 - Decreases Inflammation at the Cellular Level (See
here and
here and
here)
It Boosts Your HAPPINESS4 - Increases Positive Emotion (
here and
here)
5 - Decreases Depression (see
here)
6 - Decreases Anxiety (see
here and
here and
here)
7 - Decreases Stress (see
here and
here)
It Boosts Your SOCIAL LIFEThink meditation is a solitary activity? It may be (unless you meditate in a group which many do!) but it actually increases your sense of connection to others:
8 - Increases social connection & emotional intelligence (see
here and - by yours truly -
here)
9 - Makes you more compassionate (see
here and
here and
here)
10 - Makes you feel less lonely (see
here)
It Boosts Your SELF-CONTROL11 - Improves your ability to regulate your emotions (see
here) (Ever flown off the handle or not been able to quiet your mind? Here's the key)
12 - Improves your ability to introspect (see
here & for why this is crucial see
this post)
It Changes Your BRAIN (for the better)13 - Increases grey matter (see
here)
14 - Increases volume in areas related to emotion regulation, positive emotions & self-control (see
here and
here)
15 - Increases cortical thickness in areas related to paying attention (see
here)
It Improves Your PRODUCTIVITY (yup, by doing nothing)16 - Increases your focus & attention (see
here and
here and
here and
here)
17 - Improves your ability to multitask (see
here)
18 - Improves your memory (see
here)
19 - Improves your ability to be creative & think outside the box (see research by
J. Schooler)
It Makes You WISE(R)It gives you perspective: By observing your mind, you realize you don't have to be slave to it. You realize it throws tantrums, gets grumpy, jealous, happy and sad but that it doesn't have to run you.
Meditation is quite simply mental hygiene: clear out the junk, tune your talents, and get in touch with yourself. Think about it, you shower every day and clean your body, but have you ever showered your mind? As a consequence, you'll feel more clear and see thing with greater perspective. "The quality of our life depends on the quality of our mind," writes Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. We can't control what happens on the outside but we do have a say over the quality of our mind. No matter what's going on, if your mind is ok, everything is ok. Right now.
It Keeps You REALOnce you get to know your mind, you start to own your stuff and become more authentic, maybe even humble. You realize the stories and soap operas your mind puts you through and you gain some perspective on them.
You realize most of us are caught up in a mind-drama and become more compassionate towards others.And...
the more you meditate, the more you seem to benefit, research studies
such as this one suggest.
© UnknownWorking our own psychological traumas through meditation will increase our compassion towards others
Myths about MeditationHaving an empty mind - nope, in fact, when you start meditating, you'll find its quite the opposite
Sitting in lotus position - nope, you can sit on the couch (just don't lie down, you'll fall asleep)
Sitting for an hour a day - nope, small doses work just fine, (see
here and - by yours truly -
here)
Chanting in a language I don't understand - nope, not unless that floats your boat
Buddhist, Hindu or religious - nope, not unless you make it so
Weird - what's so weird about sitting and breathing? Besides,
US congressmen,
NFL football leagues and the
US Marine Corps are doing it, how weird can it be?
Wearing robes - what?
"I can't meditate" because...I tried it once or twice and it didn't work for me - did you know there are many different ways to meditate? There are so many techniques (Mindfulness, Transcendental Meditation, Loving-Kindness Meditation, Compassion, Yoga Nidra, Sudarshan Kriya, Vipassana), you have to find the shoe that fits.
I can't clear my mind - no worries, while you're sitting there you'll experience the noisy chaos of a wound up mind that's unwinding: tons of thoughts, feelings and emotions.
Don't worry about how you feel during, notice how you feel after and throughout the rest of the dayI can't sit still - that's ok, just sit comfortably, fidget if you need to
I get anxious - that's also normal, all the junk's coming up, learn some breathing practices to calm yourself down, exercise or do yoga before meditating
I hate sitting still - that's fine, then go for a walk without your earphones, phone etc; or start with yoga; or do breathing exercises...give yourself time to just "be" without constantly "doing" something
I don't have time -
if you have time to read an article about meditation all the way through, you have time to meditate. Think of all those minutes you waste every day on the internet or otherwise, you can definitely fit in 20 minutes here or there to give your life a boost! Gandhi is quoted as saying "I'm so busy today, that... I'm going to meditate 2 hours instead of 1."
Comment: Carl Jung once said that "There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."
These meditation studies show that when we process our minds we can have better health and more understanding of ourselves. Meditation is not about imagining figures of light, but making the darkness -the unconscious mind- more conscious. These studies show that when we increase our understanding of ourselves we'll have more compassion towards others too; we learn to think with our hearts. Try out our meditation program Éiriú Eolas to get the full benefits of meditation.