The Magic and Power of Meditation!
By:
Sayantika Chatterjee
People have been practicing meditation for intellectual, mental, and physical well-being for hundreds of years. But how does meditation affect your body from a scientific perspective? The answer is, everything begins in the brain. In areas that are directly correlated with reduced anxiety and depression and with increased pain and tolerance, brain scans see increased activity during meditation. In particular, the Default Mode Network is activated while you are at rest rather than focusing on the external world and it is found to increase memory, self-awareness, and target setting.
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Adding to the list of goodness, meditation also affects us physically; it changes the size and shape of the brain. Studies found that after 8 weeks of meditation program, the gray matter was denser in areas associated with learning, memory processing, and emotion regulation.
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Hence, today we have decided to discuss the benefits of meditation so that you are convinced to include the same in your daily routine, to bring a change to your lifestyle.
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1. Fewer Worries, Slow Aging
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As you age with time, your body gets tired and slower and you eventually start to lose your age. But meditation can actually slow down the aging process in your brain. This comes from a 2015 research which concluded that long-term meditators had healthier brains than non-meditators. This was quite a shocking fact to find. They even found significant changes in brain volume when compared to both parties. By meditating regularly, people do increase the gray matter and brain volume stays far more consistent. All in all, meditation held back many of the detrimental effects of aging in the brain, awarding them a more healthier and productive mind for years and to come.
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2.Meditation Brings Structural Changes
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As said before, meditation can change the physical shape of your brain, especially two structures in the brain: the Hippocampus and Amygdala. The former plays a major role in critical cognitive functions, like memory and learning. Intensive meditation can result in faster learning and efficient memory. The latter is the emotional center of your brain, which processes fundamental emotions like fear and anxiety. Therefore, with more meditation, you can actually bring a change to your brain’s functions significantly.
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3. Reduction of Mental Pain
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Meditation is more than just a mental process. If you practice meditation on a regular basis, you can reduce both mental and physical pain. The exercise directly impacts the pain mechanisms since pain in many ways is a mental process. While the injury isn’t something you can control, your experience of that injury takes place in your brain. So if you can control your mental state, you may be able to control your pain too.
4. Finding Your Flow State
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Have you been ever so exhausted in your brain that you forgot the outside world? This condition is known as a flow state, where you are 100% focussed on any given task. Most people cannot break out of this flow state whenever they want but meditation makes that transition easier. By practicing mindfulness, you can isolate yourself in any environment and you can focus entirely on small tasks. This in turn boosts your concentration and performance over time.
5. Inflow of Unexpected Happiness
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Many people who indulge in meditation regularly see random small boosts in their mood. It's one of the reliable ways to increase well-being and quality of life. Meditation can also help you find happiness in the world around you. They see people and places with a new perspective. They even find joy in small events and learn to appreciate everything that life has rendered.
So in conclusion, we can gather that a short stint of meditation can have lasting effects on your attitude, your anxiety, and most importantly, your confidence. What are you waiting for? By now, you already can understand how much of a blessing meditation is. Start your journey today and see the magical effects within weeks.
