10 health benefits of meditation and how to focus on mindfulness

With meditation finding its way into the mainstream, the discussion about its benefits is also gaining momentum. If you are interested in meditation and mindfulness exercises, you would have also wondered about their positive outcomes.

In this article, we will familiarize you with the key health benefits of meditation and help you get started with some mindfulness techniques.

The terms meditation and mindfulness are quite often used together or even interchangeably, which makes it important to grasp what they exactly mean.

Meditation is a practice through which you learn to concentrate on an object or thought in order to attain mental clarity and calmness. Mindfulness, on the other hand, is a quality that is linked to an objective awareness of the present moment and your surroundings by intentionally focusing your attention on them.

Though mindfulness and meditation are interconnected in ways that make them consistent with each other, they are not completely dependent on each other. They can be practiced in isolation from each other. Let us gain more clarity on this through an example: You can practice mindfulness meditation, where a heightened awareness of the present is the tool, but you may also choose transcendental meditation, which frees the mind from thoughts. Similarly, mindfulness can be adopted into daily life by doing mundane tasks (eating, walking, showering, etc.) with increased awareness without the need to sit down and meditate formally.

Having gained some perspective on the connectedness and separation between mindfulness and meditation, let us now get to the main part—the health benefits of meditation.

Here are some major benefits of meditation that can help you meet your wellness goals:

High blood pressure is a major factor behind heart disease and stroke, two prominent causes of mortality in the US. Prescription medicines and lifestyle modifications are two effective tools for keeping high blood pressure under control. Lifestyle modification can involve meditation along with physical exercise and dietary restriction?

Transcendental meditation can be effective at lowering both systolic and diastolic blood pressure in a clinically significant manner, according to a scientific analysis of studies published on the subject. Here, changes of about 4.7 and 3.2 mm Hg in systolic and diastolic blood pressures were observed as a result of the transcendental meditation practice.

Regular meditation may help reduce anxiety, as per a literature review of relevant scientific studies. Mindfulness meditation may help you deal with anxiety as it lets you acknowledge your worries without trying to suppress them, understand the actual causes behind them, and eventually make peace with them.

About 30% of American adults experience insomnia, and more than one-third of them sleep for fewer than 7 hours a day. The need to consider insomnia as a serious issue stems from the fact that quality sleep is essential for good cognitive performance and mood, besides lowering the risk for:

• Obesity
• Type-2 diabetes
• Stroke
• Heart disease
• Dementia
• Mental illness

Mindfulness meditation has the potential to be employed as an alternative treatment option for chronic insomnia, according to a controlled trial of 54 adults experiencing the symptoms of chronic insomnia.

Mindfulness-based interventions, including mindfulness meditation, may help improve the symptoms of depression by promoting enhanced awareness, attention, and a sense of acceptance.

Mindfulness meditation can be effective when dealing with chronic pain, as it positively influences aspects such as:

• A sense of control over the pain
• Pain acceptance
• General health perceptions
• Vitality
• Mental health

A controlled clinical trial with 109 participants looking at the effects of mindfulness meditation on chronic pain established this.

According to a 6-month study involving 21 patients, transcendental meditation can be helpful in the treatment of bronchial asthma. Here, the positive effects were evident through self-maintained diary entries related to symptoms and medications, physical evaluation, lung function testing, and questionnaires at the end of and following the study period.

A study focusing on breast cancer survivors aged 50 or younger highlighted the health advantages of meditation for cancer survivors' self-care practices. Mindfulness meditation was linked to a reduction in perceived stress, symptoms of depression, and fatigue. It also had a positive effect on menopausal symptoms and psychological health.

Meditation may be a cost-effective and safe complementary practice to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases in addition to conventional medical treatment. However, further research is required to establish the benefits of meditation in the context of cardiovascular health.

A 1-year follow-up study on the subject showed that relaxation-response meditation can be effective against the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. Here, significant improvements in terms of abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, and flatulence were reported. This makes relaxation response meditation an effective treatment option for irritable bowel syndrome, both in the short and long term.

Spiritual meditation has been found to be useful for those dealing with migraines, as it is linked to a reduction in the frequency of migraines and an enhanced pain-tolerating capacity and overall well-being.

Next, we will list some of the general benefits of mindfulness exercises.

As we have gone through some of the health-related benefits of mindfulness meditation, let us now have a quick look at the general benefits of mindfulness. These include:

• Reduced obsessive thinking
• Improved working memory
• Enhanced focus
• Emotional regulation
• Better cognitive flexibility
• Relationship satisfaction
• Enhanced sense of intuition
• Greater self-awareness
• Greater empathy and compassion toward others
• Improved overall quality of life

Having appreciated the benefits of mindfulness, it is time that we have a look at some mindfulness exercises that you can try.

Here are some easy mindfulness techniques that you can choose from to develop an enhanced and non-judgemental awareness of the present.

This deceptively simple mindfulness technique engages your senses using a single object (here a raisin) and trains the mind to be more aware of the resulting sensory responses. Pick a single raisin and focus on how it looks, how it feels to the touch, and how it smells. Chew it and concentrate your attention on its taste, smell, and sound that result from the act of eating it. You may replace the raisin with some other fruit or food item of your choice, keeping the basic mindfulness exercise the same.

Here, you lie down comfortably on a mat and mentally scan your entire body, starting from the head to the toes. Take note of any sensations or discomfort that you may feel in a certain body part during the process. It may be a sign of an energy blockage or accumulated tension in that specific area that you can attempt to heal.

Sit down by a window that looks out to an open area, a road, or other buildings. Observe the activities going on through this frame—the slowly moving clouds, the movement of vehicles, birds perched on the trees, or people going about their business. Take care to maintain a neutral stance regarding what you see through this window to the world without getting emotionally involved with your observations.

When you listen mindfully, you not only pay attention to what others have to say but also to your own words and thoughts. Inculcating this quality helps you get better at communication and retaining information more effectively.

Similar to the raisin exercise, the five senses exercise expands your sphere of sensory observation from a single raisin to your entire surroundings. Pay attention to what you see, hear, feel, or smell in your surroundings, as well as the taste in your mouth.

Meditation and mindfulness exercises can help you achieve better physical and mental health while being inexpensive and risk-free at the same time. You can easily integrate them into your lifestyle and avail of their benefits.