Benefits of Meditation

What is Meditation ?

    Meditation is an innate way, which we can use to get in touch with the love, tranquility, and inner calm that we already hold within us. Meditation is a practice that essentially means moving our attention towards the inner being and away from the external world which is the path to experiencing Divine Love. When we do this, we become able to break free from the mayhem that surrounds us and feel the bond with love and joy—God which is quite natural. It is known as the most profound form of prayer that is the gateway to the enormous hidden love that we are maintaining inside.

Meditation’s effects on the brain

    It is, in essence, the application of meditation to control the brain waves responsible for coordination behind neurons communicating in the brain.

    I attended a master class on brain waves given within Dave Asprey's 40 Years of Zen program.

    Brain wave science in a nutshell: there are five main states of brain waves; and at any time, a mix of them is always going to be operating within us. Brain waves vary from high-amplitude, low-frequency delta waves to low-amplitude, high-frequency gamma waves.

    Most meditation practices stimulate alpha brain waves, which run at eight to twelve cycles per second. Alpha is an inner-focused state where we are aware of our surroundings yet do not respond to them. This alpha state is relaxed and restorative, giving one feelings of peacefulness and calm.

    At the Zen lab, I got to study the effects of over 20 years of meditation on my own brain wave organization. I learned to willfully move into and out of the alpha state and other states of brain waves. During that week, I also witnessed the giant leaps that meditation beginners take in organizing their brain waves.

    If you have the means, neurofeedback, such as that offered at facilities like 40 Years of Zen, can accelerate your meditation advantages. Without the time and money to engage in these programs, though, regular practice of simple meditation techniques eventually brings positive effects.

Which areas of the brain are switched on and off during meditation? 

    Matt Dixon, a research scholar in Stanford's psychology department puts it like this: Meditation produces two significant changes in brain pathways. The first involves the default mode network, an area of the brain responsible for rumination and reflections of the past and future, which often gives way to anxiety. In meditators, this network is less active. By contrast, the insula—a mid-brain region involved in body awareness—becomes more active in meditators, who are thus more attuned to feelings and bodily sensations. "When done properly, meditation shifts your focus away from self-judgment and self-referential thoughts," Dixon observes. "It helps you become more present in the moment.

Meditation’s effects on your DNA

    In their 2017 book, Altered Traits, Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson present scientifically-justified research that meditation not only induces pleasant states but leads to enduring traits through epigenetic changes.

    These changed traits remain beyond the real meditation sessions. Positive qualities like selflessness, equanimity, loving presence, and impartial compassion turn out to be some of the significant results.

    During mind observing, one cultivates greater self-awareness characterized by authenticity, humility, gratitude, and compassion. Through meditation, the practice moves you away from personal stories and the stories of others into what is real. This practice shifts your focus away from personal stories and other people's stories as you dive deeper into meditation.

The process of meditation

 1. Physical Body: First, one needs to refer to what the Vedas say about human beings to understand the very idea of meditation. Vedic sciences explain that a human being has been made up of three constituents performing different functions:

2. Inner Faculty: Which includes the ever-changing working consciousness, comprising the following: Mind: Distributes and exhibits the qualities of duality to the senses; thus showing the pairs of opposites-pleasure and pain, good and bad.

• Intellect: It analyzes, discriminates, decides, and judges.
• Ego: It acts as the doer and experiencer.
• Chitta: It stores all memories and life impressions within.

Deep Inner Self: This is unchanging pure consciousness, uniform, and a witness to the activities of the inner faculty. It is the source of all knowledge, intelligence, creativity, and the laws of nature that preside over the universe.

·         Deep Inner Self: This is unchanging pure consciousness, uniform, and a witness to the activities of the inner faculty. It is the source of all knowledge, intelligence, creativity, and the laws of nature that preside over the universe.

    Vedic science says that the deep inner Self stimulates the inner faculty and it then controls the physical body. Meditation simply involves a feedback loop to set up a conscious link with the deep inner Self.

    These ideas are in line with current scientific thinking on DNA-the gene-that controls activities of the cells. At the cellular level, DNA sends signals for RNA synthesis, which finally results in production of proteins and induction of cycles that perpetuate cellular functions. This feedback in meditation serves to connect with the deep inner Self, something akin to the DNA, leading to inner peace and bliss. It diffuses the accumulated life stresses and improves general health. Human beings normally go through three states of consciousness: Waking Dreaming Deep Sleep

    In the waking state, it operates through the physical body and the outer world. In the dream state, it plays within an inner landscape of dreams, disengaging from physical awareness. During deep sleep, the inner faculty is inert and does not know anything; hence, all dualities-like pleasure and pain-do not exist. It contains nothing but peace and bliss, and that is why good sleep is refreshing.

    It is the deep inner Self that always stands as a witness to this working inner faculty, first by being the awareness of the thoughts during the waking life, then the observation of the dreams during dreaming, but in deep sleep, it is only a sense of unity without duality.

    Meditation comes in many forms that are put forward for the realization of its aims as stated in ancient Vedic literature. It is the process of guiding the mind away from distractions, drawing it from outside to an internal awareness-to the mind, intellect, ego, and Chitta-and then beyond both outer and inner fields to the deep inner Self. A non-changing pure consciousness witnesses the changing activities of the inner faculty. It moves beyond this changing aspect into unchanging consciousness and brings inner peace and bliss, relieving life stresses and hence energizing the body, which further improves health.

    There is unity with the deep inner Self during deep sleep, and through meditation, there is this unity when one is awake. This awareness of peace and bliss influences the inner faculty positively. As qualities from the deep inner Self permeate into the inner faculty-and since this Self embodies all knowledge-just as DNA does-the benefits spill over into all aspects of life: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

Meditation and emotional and physical well-being

    Meditation may relieve you from the information overload you consume every day, which eventually becomes your primary reason for feeling stressed. The benefits of meditation are mostly emotional and physical and may involve:

• Busting the stress by looking at things from another angle.
• Enhancing the ability to stress management.
• Enhancing self-knowledge.
• Increasing attention to the now.
• Getting rid of negative thoughts.
• Bringing diverse ideas.
• Being more patient.
• Decrease resting heart rate.
• Lowering the level of resting pressure.
• Getting enough quality sleep.

10 health benefits of meditation and how to focus on mindfulness

    Research has found out the many benefits that meditation regularly practice associates with health. Here are ten of them:

1. Reduced Stress: Meditation can lessen stress levels and caring for the symptoms of stress by the conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and fibromyalgia
2. Improved Memory: Regular meditation increases our focus which allows us to memorize exactly in our relationship the first time well, the last time well. This could as well help in dealing with age-related memory decline and dementia.
3. Increased Attention: Meditation works on one's attention span and as a result, one can concentrate for long periods
4. Enhanced Willpower: The practice of meditation enhances mental discipline which is essential to resist unproductive habits.
5. Better Sleep: It is due to meditation that one needs less time to fall asleep and gets a greatly improved sleep quality.
6. Less Pain: Meditation is a way to lessen pain and improve emotional regulation, which, together with medical treatment, may help with chronic pain control.
7. Lower Blood Pressure: The regular practice of meditation is related to abatement in blood pressure during session and over time that is the same to lower stress on the heart and blood vessels people to keep away from the development of heart disease.
8. Less Anxiety: Meditation practiced consistently is able to minimize the levels of anxiety and to deal with issues like social anxiety, phobias, and obsessive-compulsive behaviors.
9. Less Depression: Meditation has been found out to lessen the frequency of depressive episodes.
10. Great Empathy: Focusing your attention on meditation will not contribute only to the better understanding of yourself, faster mastery and growth but will also result in more positive emotions that will undoubtedly increase your affectionate behavior towards others.

Conclusion

    The article sheds light on the health benefits of meditation which impact the functioning of the immune system and its genetic features. Mindfulness meditation has been connected to decreased inflammation and slower aging due to the regulation of telomerase. In addition, the positive aspects to both physical conditions are seen here. Nevertheless, in-depth studies with larger individuals will likely be needed to determine the extent of these effects. Nevertheless, the current studies are quite promising in their results and meditation treatment should be encouraged. To worsen the health advantages of poor mental and physical diseases, the use of various diseases ought to be investigated and medical personnel should be better trained to properly facilitate meditation. Still, there are no side effects in mind; hence, the therapy is very safe. However, there is still the need for future studies to definitively confirm more benefits in meditation treatment.