According to those who practice it, and the American Psychological Association, the benefits of meditation are anything but a “placebo effect”. When it comes to tackling stress, easing anxiety, and looking after your well-being, there are science backed benefits to investing time and effort into daily meditations. Learning how to meditate has its benefits, and you’ll see why when you learn just what happens in your brain during a meditative session.
While meditating, you’re concentrating on the present. You’re focusing on the breath, observing the here and now, and experiencing oneness with the self. All of this does require quite a bit of regular concentration. Your brain physically responds to these activities, developing new neural connections and pathways, strengthening the brain and its ability to work at its best. According to the University of Washington, this can lead to greater gray matter density in critical areas of the brain, like the hippocampus and the frontal brain region, as well as increasing cortical thickness.
“Good chemicals” in your brain also respond to meditation. According to Stanford University, the brain will respond during a meditation session by releasing dopamine, serotonin, and GABA, leading to that serene, calm, and happy feeling. This doesn’t stop when the meditation session does; as the brain gets worked further during meditation sessions, it becomes easier for the brain to release these good chemicals on a day-to-day basis. Simply, as your brain gets used to releasing these neurochemicals, it becomes better at it and will do so more often.
What are the results of these changes? Investing time and effort in meditation leads to a brain that is better at calming itself, better at finding joy in the moment, better at maintaining focus, and with a better memory. Even with regular short sessions, you’re making a positive lasting impact that will benefit every area of your everyday life.
At Technalink we have the benefit of seeing what meditation can do by encouraging mindful meditation as a regular part of professional self-care. With each session these benefits grow stronger, your skills grow more effortless, and you begin to see in an unignorable way just what meditation is doing for your own well-being. Mala prayer beads can make guiding your early meditations easier, as you count each mantra as you pass the beads through your fingers. Even without tools, however, any meditative practice kickstarts these positive changes.
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