The Different Types of Benefits from Meditation

Meditation offers you an escape from reality, yielding so many amazing and miraculous benefits (EOC Institute, 2018). Meditation has been practiced for many years by almost all religions. While meditation can be used for religious reason, it is also practiced independently by many people as a psychotherapeutic technique. Psychotherapy uses psychological methods to help people overcome problems. There are two main types of meditation: concentrative, which involves focusing on a specific object, and Mindfulness meditation, which involve being aware of and involved in the present and being more open, aware, and accepting (Cherry, 2017).

Meditation is used by many people because of its wide array of psychological benefits. Meditation has many different health, physical, and emotional benefits.

The benefits of meditation on health are numerous. One important benefit is that meditation helps to manage stress, anxiety, and depression. One study found that meditation is helpful in relieving the symptoms of anxiety and depression (Mindworks Team, 2018). Meditating causes the amount of cortisol, a hormone released during stress, to decrease tremendously. Another large health benefit that comes from meditation is lower blood pressure. A study in the British Medical Journal showed that patients that meditated had much lower blood pressure than those that practiced no meditation (Mindworks Team, 2018). Increased virus immunity is another great advantage that comes from meditation. A study conducted at Ohio State observed the effects that meditation had on elderly patients (Mindworks Team, 2018). It was found that meditation helps to boost the patients' lymphocytes. Lymphocytes the killer cells in the immune system that protect against different viruses and tumors (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2018). Much like the benefits on health, meditation also has many benefits physically.

There are also many physical benefits that derive from meditation. One benefit of meditation is a healthier heart. Continual meditation is able to help the heart by improving blood circulation in the body, and lowering heart rate (Mindworks Team, 2018). Another great benefit that comes from meditation is that it improves memory retention. The study by the University of California found that meditation caused the students' scores on the Graduate Record Examination to increase from 460 to 520 in a span of two weeks (Hamblin, 2013). It was also found that the group of participants who undertook mindfulness mediation did better on tests that analyzed working memory and focus. A third advantage gained from meditation is better sleep quality. A study conducted in the Netherlands found that a small amount of meditation can help improve sleep (Hoffman, 2015). The participants in the study were asked to meditate for ten minutes every day before and after work for two weeks. At the end of the two weeks were up, the people who meditated found improvements to sleep duration and sleep quality, while the people who did as normal found no noticeable changes (Hoffman, 2015). Just like mental and physical improvements, mediation also has lots of great emotional benefits.

Meditation also has many great emotional benefits. Mindfulness has been found to improve happiness. A study conducted by the University of Utah shows that people who describe themselves as mindful have higher emotional stability (Dowell, Rau, Williams, 2018). The same people in the study also describe themselves as having better control of their mood and behavior. Another emotional benefit of meditation is increased compassion. A study conducted in 2015 found that yoga and compassion meditation practiced together about three times a week for eight weeks is able to improve the quality of life, attention, and self-compassion among the family caregivers of Alzheimer's disease patients (Colino, 2016). A study conducted by many researchers from many institutions found that teachers who did meditation in a short intensive program were calmer and more compassionate that those who did not (Fernandez, 2012). Meditating often can also reduces depression. In an experiment on meditation it was found that rigorous group meditation can be helpful in treating anxiety disorders.

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