You can read about the benefits and effects of meditation in Magadalena Mola's book "Meditation is easier than you think". An experienced instructor answers the most frequently asked questions - is it worth meditating and what does meditation help?
If you have never experienced meditation before, it is possible that you may be wondering why meditate at all, what benefit it will bring you. Meditation may seem like an activity for women who do not want wrinkles, for those who are stressed out, or for those who are looking for spiritual development. In fact, however, it has many specific benefits. While exploring them, you will surely find an area related to your own needs.
Worth knowingYou can meditate to:
- improve physical he alth;
- free yourself from addictions;
- get rid of stress;
- free yourself from depression;
- achieve peace;
- learn concentration and focus;
- soothe the feeling of emptiness or undefined anxiety;
- find a deeper meaning in life;
- know your own inner value;
- understand your spiritual nature and relationship with God;
- satisfy curiosity.
The proper opening of the Western world to meditation and hatha-yoga took place in the 1960s. The massive influx of Oriental teachers - mainly to the United States and England - initiated much research on the physical and mental states achieved by yogis while practicing asanas and meditation. The more publications on this subject appeared, the more agitated the world of science became. Scientists discovered the previously unknown effects of yoga practices, observed while recording various psychophysiological processes.
Benefits of regular meditation
A number of positive effects have been found in detailed studies of meditation. Here are some of them:
1. Jon Kabat-Zinn of Massachusetts General Hospital: Patients with psoriasis who listened to recordings of meditation music while exposed to UV rays recovered four times faster than others.
Source: Claudia Kalb, Meditations for suppers, Newsweek Polska, No. 42/2004, p. 77.
2. Massachusetts General Hospital microsurgeon team: meditation improves brain function. A group of people who had long practiced deep meditation for a long time were subjected to brain studiesby magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Structural changes in the cerebral cortex were noted: it turned out to be thicker in the areas responsible for mental effort than in the non-meditating control group. A thicker cerebral cortex in these places offers a real chance of delaying natural changes in the brain over the years, impaired perception and problems with memory.
Source: Based on: http://www.racjonalista.pl/index.php/s.38/t.39161
3. Sara Lazar of Harvard Medical School: A study of a group of volunteers who practice meditation has confirmed that their cerebral cortex - this time in regions responsible for memory and ability to concentrate - is thicker than that of people who have never meditated. So practice allows you to stay intellectually fit longer.
Source: Based on: www.scienedaily.com/releases/2011/01/110121144007.htm
4. Researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin: People with coronary artery disease who began meditating regularly had a nearly half their risk of heart attack, stroke and premature death.
Source: Based on: www.focus.pl/czlowiek/moc-medytacji-9131
5. Bruce O'Hara of the University of Kentucky: A short meditation regenerates much better than an after-dinner nap. It lowers the level of arousal, increases control over the body and the ability to rest after exercise.
Source: Adapted from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2919439/
6. In many treatment centers in the West, meditation is included in the addiction treatment program. It allows, among others to control the tendency to use alcohol in problematic situations. With meditation practice, an increase in abstinence attitudes is observed in average drinkers - after two years, 60% of meditators stop consuming alcohol.
Source: Tadeusz Doktór, oriental techniques of relaxation and meditation, Iskry, Warsaw 1993, p. 80.
7. As shown by studies on the influence of meditation on smoking marijuana, after three months, the group treated and rehabilitated with traditional methods reduced the use of marijuana by only 15%, while in the group using meditation, as many as 50-75% of people were gradually released from the addiction. It was found that the longer the subjects used meditation, the less they became addicted to the drug. Positive therapeutic effects have also been observed in addicts using hard drugs. After a year of daily meditation practice, there was a significant decrease in the frequency of drug use: amphetamines and barbiturates by 96%, hallucinogens by 91% and opiates by 78%.
Source: Tadeusz Doktór, oriental techniques of relaxation and meditation, Iskry, Warsaw1993, p. 80.
8. Meditation is increasingly used in therapeutic and rehabilitation work regarding prisoners. The use of such a program results in the improvement of the prisoner's contacts with the staff and a reduction in the level of aggression and internal tension. Inmates become more reflective and distanced from their own emotional impulses, they develop empathy and a sense of responsibility. Thanks to meditation, they often find a new model of life that they decide to implement after the end of the punishment.
Source: http://przebudzeni.org/
9. Clinical trials in 165 patients diagnosed with anxiety showed that 68% of the patients improved after using yoga and meditation for six weeks. For depression, it was 71% and for hysteria - 67%. Meditating patients with depression experience relapses twice as often as those treated with cognitive therapy alone.
Source: Tadeusz Doktór, oriental techniques of relaxation and meditation, Iskry, Warsaw 1993, p. 72.
10. According to studies on personality development, meditators are characterized by a lower level of narcissism and egocentrism. They are also characterized by: a higher level of meaning in life, the ability to empathize with the experiences of others, an increase in openness to experience and the ability to realize one's own potential.
Source: Tadeusz Doktór, oriental techniques of relaxation and meditation, Iskry, Warsaw 1993, p. 75.
The excerpt comes from the book "Meditation easier than you think" by Magdalena Mol(published by the very essence, Warsaw 2022). Thanks to the guidelines contained in this guide, you will find that meditation helps you achieve a harmonized life and strive for self-realization and full self-experience.
In the book you will find descriptions of various meditation paths, including silent meditation, meditation in motion or meditation with a mantra. This allows you to choose the one that is the most effective and the easiest to apply in your life. The content of the guide is enriched with inspiring quotes, numerous life stories and photos presenting, among others, relaxation asanas. An integral part of the book is a CD with mantra meditation techniques.
