The Health Benefits of Meditation

Brain imaging technology suggests meditation actually changes your brain in a number of beneficial ways.

MRI scans have shown that long-term meditation can alter the structure of your cerebral cortex, the outer layer of your brain.

Brain regions associated with attention and sensory processing have been shown to be thicker in those who meditate.

Previous studies have linked meditation to benefits such as improved attention, memory, processing speed, creativity and more.

Recent research also suggests that meditation helps counteract age-related loss of brain volume.

Meditation can be used to treat depression.

Meditation can be viewed as a form of brain exercise that strengthens the brain and keeps it "younger" longer.

Other studies reveal the benefits of meditation are not limited to your brain. Meditation also has anti-inflammatory effects and affects gene expression. All of this can help to boost your overall physical health and longevity.

Meditating for 20 minutes also equates to taking a 1.5 hour nap, but you won't have that "sleep hangover" afterward. Instead, you'll feel awake and refreshed.

Meditation de-excites your nervous system rather than exciting it further. This makes it more orderly, thereby making it easier for your system to release pent-up stress. It also makes you more productive.

Meditation has been known to help:

1. High blood pressure

2. Sleep disturbances and fatigue

3. Chronic pain

4. Gastrointestinal distress and irritable bowel syndrome

5. Headaches

6. Skin disorders

7. Respiratory problems such as emphysema and asthma

8. Mild depression and premenstrual syndrome (PMS)

Styles of Meditation:

1. Mindfulness, a directed-attention, waking state practice in which you keep bringing your attention back to the now. It's a practice of single-tasking, originally developed for monks, who remain focused on the present moment in all activities.

Besides improving your focus and boosting your mental cognition, mindfulness training has also been found to reduce levels of stress-induced inflammation, which could benefit people suffering from chronic inflammatory conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and asthma. It also helps relieve feelings of stress and anxiety.

2. Self-induced transcendence is a non-directed style of meditation, in which you access a fourth state of consciousness that is different from waking, sleeping, and dreaming. Transcendence style meditation, can strengthen your corpus callosum, the bridge between your two brain hemispheres.

Your left brain is in charge of the past and the future, language, math, and critical thought, while your right brain is in charge of "right now," intuition, inspiration, connectedness, creativity, and problem solving.

By strengthening the connection between your right and left hemispheres, you gain access to more creative problem solving and increase your productivity without adding stress.

Why not give meditation a try?

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