The Benefits of Meditation

At Inward Bound we are presenting a series on meditation, what it is, why it is beneficial and suggestions on how to do it. This series of blog articles will focus on the benefits of meditation. We have selected a few examples among the many hundreds, if not thousands, that have been written on this subject.

Still, meditation remains as an area of intense interest and the fields of science and psychology have contributed greatly to our knowledge about meditation and have fueled our passion for it. We invite you to read and enjoy the first in this series…

How Meditation Affects the Brain

Research on how meditation affects the brain has been going on for some time and new studies are regularly being published and presented. Some of the exciting revelations to emerge are:

• Meditation results in a number of neurological benefits like changes in the volume of “grey matter”.

• Reduces the activity in the centres of the brain that focus on “me” or the tendency we have to make up “scenarios” and “wander”.

• Meditation practice increases the connectivity between different regions of the brain, improving overall efficiency.

• The evidence is strong that meditation reduces anxiety and depression.

BrainFacts.org has an interesting article about how meditation affects the brain, and possibly improves our emotions, memory and attention. Although scientists believe meditation confers some benefit, they are not quite sure of the mechanism. It also contains a cute 3-minute video on the subject:

Read Full Article ->

Here are a couple of excerpts from a Forbes article “7 Ways Meditation Can Actually Change the Brain”. Please look over this comprehensive article for all the fascinating insights brain research and psychology has discovered about the benefits of meditation.

"If you have a few minutes in the morning or evening (or both), rather than turning on your phone or going online, see what happens if you try quieting down your mind, or at least paying attention to your thoughts and letting them go without reacting to them. If the research is right, just a few minutes of meditation may make a big difference.”

“Meditation Can Help with Addiction - A growing number of studies has shown that, given its effects on the self-control regions of the brain, meditation can be very effective in helping people recover from various types of addiction. One study, for example, pitted mindfulness training against the American Lung Association's freedom from smoking (FFS) program, and found that people who learned mindfulness were many times more likely to have quit smoking by the end of the training, and at 17 weeks follow-up, than those in the conventional treatment. This may be because meditation helps people “decouple” the state of craving from the act of smoking, so the one doesn’t always have to lead to the other, but rather you fully experience and ride out the “wave” of craving, until it passes. Other research has found that mindfulness training, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), and mindfulness-based relapse prevention (MBRP) can be helpful in treating other forms of addiction."

Read Full Article ->

How Does Meditation Change You?

Here is a YouTube video on how meditation can change your life and mind. Offering tremendous insights into the practice of mindfulness, uncovering some of the common misconceptions around mindfulness and meditation. It also goes into great detail about research that has been done in relation to the impact of meditation upon the brain, our emotions and our health and wellbeing. It also offers some of the neuroscience around meditation. There was a study out of Harvard that shows that daily doses of meditation can literally grow the grey matter in key areas of your brain having to do with self-awareness and compassion and shrink the grey matter in the area associated with stress. We encourage you to set aside some time to watch this video:

An insightul video on how meditation changes you.

What the Science Says About Safety and Side Effects of Meditation

We should also be aware of any side effects of meditation and always err on the side of caution knowing your own personal sensitivities and constitution. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health concludes:

• Meditation is generally considered to be safe for healthy people.

• People with physical limitations may not be able to participate in certain meditative practices involving movement. People with physical health conditions should speak with their health care providers before starting a meditative practice and make their meditation instructor aware of their condition.

• There have been rare reports that meditation could cause or worsen symptoms in people with certain psychiatric problems like anxiety and depression. People with existing mental health conditions should speak with their health care providers before starting a meditative practice and make their meditation instructor aware of their condition.

More to Consider

· Don’t use meditation to replace conventional care or as a reason to postpone seeing a health care provider about a medical problem.

· Ask about the training and experience of the meditation instructor you are considering.

· Tell all your health care providers about any complementary or integrative health approaches you use. Give them a full picture of what you do to manage your health. This will help ensure coordinated and safe care."