The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines health as ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ (WHO, 1948). ‘Wellbeing’ refers to happy and healthy.
Meditation has been around for thousands of years. Some people may only think of meditation as a spiritual practice and therefore not realise the benefits to our health and wellbeing. Much of the meditation today isn’t linked to religion and meditation isn’t just about being connected with oneself, spiritually. It can also benefit our body and mind too.
Stress Management
The 2018 survey by the Mental Health Foundation (MHF), found that 74% of the UK adults have felt so stressed at some point over the last year, they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope. MHF also states that some research links long term stress to IBS, stomach ulcers and heart disease.
When stressed, our body produces stress hormones in our body called cortisol and adrenaline. This in turn increases our heart rate and tenses the muscles. If it’s a short term stressful event, then things go back to normal but it raises an alarm when stress is constant. Long term stress can cause anything from heart disease, anxiety, depression, and high blood pressure and obesity.
Meditation is a healthy option to dealing with stress, rather than the unhealthy options such as an increase or the introduction of alcohol, smoking and drugs etc.
Meditation leads and guides you to focus on the present, whether this is focusing on your breath, a word, known as a mantra or an object. This reduces stress by slowing our breathing rate, relaxing our muscles, and reducing blood pressure. This is known as the ‘relaxation response’ and was discovered by Dr Herbert Benson in the 1960’s. Meditation teaches your brain to be in the present moment and be more alert to what’s going on in our body, instead of catastrophising. Meditation isn’t going to stop all negative thoughts, but the meditation practice will stop you getting too caught up in the thoughts and instead, allow you to observe them without attaching meaning to them. It’s like being at the theatre. You allow yourself to be the observer on the play (your thoughts), rather than the actor.
Sleep
In Aviva’s 2017 Wellbeing Report, it revealed: ‘As many as 16 million UK adults are suffering from sleepless nights as a third (31%) say they have insomnia’.
A lot of insomnia is due to stress. Stress can cause anxiety. Anxiety and stress cause racing thoughts and the meditation quietens the mind.
Mindfulness meditations can block out external distractions. A person can be focused on their breath or be guided through a body scan. During the body scan, progressive muscle relaxation exercises can be incorporated too. This is when, on the inhale, you can tense up certain parts of your body, one at a time. Starting at the forehead, then down to the jaw, the shoulders etc. Tensing up as much as you can on the inhale and then, on the exhale, release the tensed area.
Positive affirmations can be added into your meditation. Words or sentences, such as “I am in control and calm” or even just using the word “Calm’ on its own. Imagining a scene which conveys these thoughts can also help.
In summary, the focusing on the breath, muscle relation and the mantras within a meditation, can all better equip you to deal with the stress, train your brain to be more in the now, day by day, instead of spiralling out of context, release tension in your muscles and slow down the heart rate.
Improved concentration
Over the years, there has been some myth that women are so much better at multi-tasking then men and women seem to be quite proud of it. But, in fact, multiskilling becomes a habit due to the external stress of things around us which need to be done/completed. Multitasking isn’t recommended, as we are not giving our full attention to each individual task.
The meditation calms you, allows you to observe the busy negative thoughts in a non-judgemental way and therefore, clearing the fog and giving clarity. The mindfulness meditation and the Sa Ta Na Ma meditation is also beneficial for concentration and memory. Both these meditations are training your brain to be in the now. We spend so much time thinking of our past or worrying about the days ahead of us which hasn’t even happened yet. It’s like going to the gym. If you want to build up your biceps, then you won’t get results from only going once a week. It needs to be a regular visit/practice. Each time you pick up that dumbbell in the gym, your muscle will slowly grow stronger each time. Same with meditation. You’re focused on your breath but then your mind wanders, and you are thinking about what to cook for tea. But, you then realise you’re thinking of tea, so you simply take your attention back to your breath again. This could happen multiple times during a meditation but each time you recognise your mind had wandered and you bring yourself back into the present, this is just like doing a bicep curl. Your brain in becoming stronger at living in the present moment.
Freedom from addictions
Addictions do not serve us. They are damaging to our lives. Whether this be an addiction to alcohol and drugs, to things we incorrectly assume is less harming, such as cigarettes, sex and shopping. All these addictions distract people from the problems they should be facing.
A 2003 study was conducted at Maharishi University of Management on the effectiveness of TM (Transcendental Meditation) in the treatment and prevention of Substance Abuse. The emotions that underlie this abuse is generally anxiety and depression. TM was found to reduce these negative emotions and reduce the substance abuse. Also, findings reported people’s thoughts and perceptions were more positive, their blood pressure dropped and their digestion improved. These changes were recorded as being long term and although some did relapse, these relapse rates were significantly lower.
Pain
Jon Kabat-Zinn, the creator of the MBSR (Mindfulness based stress reduction) programme, took part in a YouTube livestream in 2020 to talk about headaches and migraines. He stated that very often, headaches were metaphorical. People would realise they were saying things such as “My whole life is a headache” and they would experience one headache after another. Mindfulness meditation heightens your self-awareness of what you’re saying and not just what you’re doing. Thoughts become things! When we are aware what we have been thinking and how this could manifest into our body, we can change our thoughts. We become more positive. We look at what’s right in our lives, instead of what’s wrong. This is turn then changes our blood flow and brain activity and hence headaches are not created.
After the eight-week MBSR programme, patients reported headaches to disappear altogether or at least being greatly reduced.
Conclusion of benefits.
I conclude that Meditation offers a wide range of benefits. Whether it’s relaxation, decreasing stress, dealing with anxiety to giving us a better nights sleep. As more people are reaping the benefits of meditation, the practice is becoming further popular. Society is having a growing awareness of how our negative thoughts impact us and people are reaching out to meditation to improve one’s health and well-being.
