Meditation is an ancient practice used to help focus the mind and remove stress, and is being more and more recognised as a beneficial way to promote  peace and calm in our ever-increasing modern life. Meditation is also known to positively impact on physical health challenges too, such as lowering cholesterol levels and decreasing blood pressure.

Other scientifically supported health benefits of meditating include:

Lessening the ageing process – the International Journal of Neuroscience conducted a study where meditators (those who had been practising for five years or more) proved to be physiologically twelve years younger than their chronological age, after having their blood pressure, vision and hearing checked.

Minimising depression and stress – the practice of mindfulness meditation is most commonly associated with alleviation of depression symptoms and the NHS and NICE have even suggested that it could halve depression relapse rates. Some hospitals suggest Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) as part of a treatment programme for stress and anxiety, as well as for chronic pain and other bodily symptoms caused by chronic illness. Read our blog on mindfulness to find out more.

Alleviating pain – various studies have shown that because meditation is able to reduce cortisol, the ‘stress hormone’, it is able to help ease chronic pain. A study conducted by the General Hospital of Psychiatry revealed that a majority of a group of patients had reported their physical pain as being reduced by a third or more after a meditation programme.

Improving sleep – studies have shown that insomnia is greatly reduced through the practice of meditation before going to bed or after waking up in the night. One study, as reported by the Harvard Medical School, was conducted where half the participants completed a meditation programme and the other half completed a sleep education class. After meeting six times, those from the meditation group had less insomnia, fatigue and depression, as those from the sleep education group.

Increasing brain function – recent studies have identified the link between meditation and changes in the brain. Through meditation our minds are trained to become more focused, therefore greatly enhancing our learning capabilities and academic skills, as well as our memory function and ability to perform better at work. In addition to this, practising meditation actually helps build dense grey matters in the parts of our brain that are associated with learning, memory and emotion control.

There is a lot of information on the internet about meditation and mindfulness and it can be difficult to manoeuvre through it and find trusted information. We would highly recommend firstly visiting the Headspace website and downloading their app, and also taking a look at the Be Mindful website where you can find more information about Mindfulness courses. The Meditation Foundation is also a useful resource and you can sign up to their newsletter to receive updates.

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