Meditation Benefits the Mind and the Body

Meditation has been used to treat a wide variety of physical and emotional problems and is a powerful technique to calm the mind.

While some of the physical benefits of meditation include reduced blood pressure, lower cholesterol and lower levels of stress hormones, numerous studies show that there are a number of psychological benefits of meditation.

Some other benefits of meditation include:

• Less anxiousness. For example, school children who learnt meditation for 18 weeks scored less on measures of anxiety (Hjelle, 1974).
• Greater feelings of internal control and self-actualization.
• Less self-criticism.
• Increased objectivity and an increased ability to view situations in a non-judgmental manner.
• Increased feelings of happiness and emotional stability.
• Increased self-esteem.
• Prevent the relapse of depression.

In short, the benefits of meditation are both physical and mental.

Regardless of what meditation your do, from breathing meditation to transcendental meditation, or Japa meditation to mindfulness meditation, you can reap the benefits of meditation.

Meditation has been shown to lead to better sleep behavior, relief of headaches and decreased cigarette smoking.

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