Here we’ll list some of the basic scientifically-proven benefits of meditation, as well as the traditional reasons for meditating.
Watch my video on this topic here.
The real benefits of meditation can be summed up as follows: to pacify and direct your mind.
In the classic yoga text, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, we find the ultimate definition of meditation: to focus the mind on one point. One mind: one focus. That’s the idea.
The rate in which your mind flips through different points impacts on your wellbeing. The more mental agitation, the more your mind is changing its focus, the more anxious and unsettled you feel. You’ll perform worse and feel worse. Meditation will help you train your mind to fight back the urge to do mental channel surfing.
Secondly, meditation will train your mind to pick your focus. The entire yoga path is centered on this concept: learn the options and effects of different mental focusses and learn to pick the best one for you. Develop the ability to decide what you’ll focus on, as opposed to being dragged around by your untethered mind into places of anxiety, fear, confusion and general distraction.
These the real benefits of meditation. They have the power to bless you with a life of mental clarity, peace, and joy.
But here are some of the lesser, but already scientifically-proven, side benefits of meditation, which can stimulate you to take your meditation seriously.
- Reduces Stress
- Lowers Anxiety
These two happen precisely because your mind is not so out of control anymore. Less mental agitation, less stress, less anxiety.
- Increases emotional health
As your mind is more pacified, it works better, and you can process your thoughts and emotions more effectively.
- Increases Self-Awareness
In the yoga path, we hear this language of “looking inside”, as opposed to looking outside. As you direct your mind in, observing your thoughts, you develop increasing self-awareness.
- Increases Attention Span
Meditation means learning to direct your mind and choosing where it remains.
- Improves memory
With less mental noise and more mental clarity, you can perceive things past and present more precisely.
- Makes you kinder
As you become more self-aware and more in control of your emotions, compassion and empathy naturally arise.
- Helps fights addictive behavior
This is a well-known effect and all addictive treatments should include mindfulness and meditation techniques.
- Helps you sleep better
Less anxiety, less stress, and better emotional health are key allies to good sleep.
- Lowers blood pressure
Having less anxiety and stress clearly help in having lower blood pressure.
- Helps you control pain
Studies show that mindfulness techniques and the ability to direct your mind away from the pain are highly effective ways to feel less pain.
I hope these benefits can stimulate you to begin or to increase your practice of meditation. If you want to learn how to meditate, check out this video.
Learn more about how the mind works and how meditation acts on your consciousness directly from the 2000-year old text, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, with my new book, “Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras Revolution: How Timeless Yoga Wisdom Can Revolutionize Our Lives Today”.
Look what they’re saying about my new book, Yoga Sutras Revolution: “The Yoga Sutras by Giridhari Das is perhaps the most entertaining and easy to read version of this classic text, among the dozens I’ve seen. Even the book’s layout and illustrations make the journey painless, like watching some really good movies on a long flight. The profound core message of the Yoga Sutras is indeed timeless, as relevant and needed today as ever. And Giridhari Das has shown, to quote Mary Poppins, that a little bit of sugar makes the medicine go down.” – Hridayananda Das Goswami Acharyadeva, renowned spiritual master and PhD in Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University