What meditation gives a person - the effects of practice. What gives us meditation in life? What is it for? Possibilities of Meditation

IN modern world it is difficult to find a person who has not heard about meditation.

But it can be equally difficult to find someone who can explain what is meditation.

People who do not practice it do not know what meditation can reveal in them and what meditation does.

But the paradox is that even people who practice can hardly describe what this condition is.

After all, meditation is beyond words and definitions - this is a state when the mind is silent, and yet we describe what is happening with the help of the mind.

Yes, and “coming out” of meditation – which masters practically do not even during ordinary life and communication – it is difficult to explain what meditation is – simply because it is wider than meager logical explanations.

What comes out?

No one is able to explain what meditation is, can it only be practiced to be felt, not described? Not certainly in that way.

In the history of mankind there are people who have visited both sides of the mind and spoke about the connection of both worlds - spiritual and material.

Who are they? Meditation masters, spiritual teachers, to whom we turn for clarification.

Sri Chinmoy: the heart is limitless in every direction

Meditation silently speaks, it reveals that spirit and matter are one, quantity and quality are one, permanent and temporary are one.

Meditation reveals that 70 or 80 years of life from birth to death is not just existence, but Eternity. After birth, life lives in the body, and after death - in the spirit.

Meditation:

• helps to discover your true "I";
• leads to conscious identification with the Higher Self;
• helps to leave behind limitations and dependencies;
• leads to changes on the inner planes of consciousness;
• brings to the surface wealth that was previously stored in a part of our being deeply hidden in us;
• teaches to aspire to something and, at the same time, to achieve it.

Meditation leads the practitioner upward - to the Highest, to the divine and at the same time inward - into the depths of oneself, one's own being.

Both directions lead to God.

When enough has been passed, they merge into one path: knowing ourselves, we know the world, and knowing the world, we know ourselves, because there is no depth without height, as well as height without depth.

And everything is part of a single whole - the Infinite Reality, the Absolute Reality, the Divine Reality.

But in order to understand that everything in the world is one, you need to go beyond the mind and enter the sphere of your spiritual heart because it connects us to everything in the world.

The heart is boundless in any direction, therefore, within it there is both the deepest depth and the highest height.

The secret of meditation is in conscious and constant union with God, with the Divine within us and with all that exists.

And the more we practice meditation, the longer we are able to feel the presence of God in our lives, until this feeling becomes permanent and inseparable from us.

Meditation teaches us to live from moment to moment, and the more we meditate, the more we are present in the here and now.

We begin to live in the Eternal Now, and our heart leads us to the understanding that every moment of life is Eternity.

Anxiety and fuss disappear, and our human "I", our personality merges with the Higher "I" - we know our true nature, and our life becomes happier and more fulfilling.

Osho: Meditation is centering, it is wholeness

Osho calls meditation the greatest adventure the human mind is capable of.

To meditate means simply to be, without generating anything - no action, no thought, no emotion. You just are, and it is pure delight.

Where does the delight in meditation come from? The master claims that - nowhere. Or - from everywhere! Because existence is made of joy.

And the inner essence of a person is the sky itself, through which clouds float, stars are born and die, but whatever happens in the inner sky, it is unchanged, spotless and eternal.

The sky within a person is a witness, and to enter the inner sky and become an observer is the goal of meditation.

Gradually, the "clouds" - thoughts, desires, emotions, memories, ideas will disappear and only the essence itself will remain - the meditator will completely turn into an observer, into a witness, and will no longer identify with himself anything that is not really him.

Osho believes that meditation is impossible to learn, but you can grow up to it.

Meditation is a growth that arises from being itself. Meditation is not something that is taught, it is already in everyone!

To learn meditation, you have to go through change, through transformation.

Meditation is like love. Meditation is wholeness, centering. This is not adding something to a person, this is extracting the truth from his nature.

When you understand, feel, having made countless attempts, what meditation is, “find” such a state when your essence, your nature will simply be in being, gradually you will be able to stretch your meditation, at least for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week !

This requires awareness. And then you can do any simple action while remaining meditative: washing the dishes, sweeping the floor, taking a shower.

…meditation is not against action. It does not require you to flee from life. It only teaches a new way of life: you become the center of the cyclone.

When meditation appears in your life, life does not stop, does not freeze, on the contrary, it becomes more alive, clear, bright, joyful and creative.

During meditation, the mind is cleared of debris, superficial and unnecessary thoughts, desires, beliefs, empty worries, like a mirror from which a thick layer of dust is erased.

With the advent of meditation in your life, you will be able to more fully feel and feel everything that happens, but at the same time you will remain in the state of the observer: as if you are standing on a hill, and observe events and your reactions to them from the side.

At the same time, you can act at any level, do what is necessary for life and communication, but at the same time remain centered, whole,

You meditate when you switch your attention from outside world to internal. You meditate every time when you do something with awareness.

If you are alert and observant, if you are aware of what is happening even while listening to the noise of your own mind, you are meditating!

This is what constitutes the awareness that leads to meditation:

• Attentive, vigilant attitude towards your body

A person gradually learns to pay attention to his every movement, every gesture. Over time, restless, fussy movements disappear, the body becomes more harmonious and relaxed.

There is a deep calmness in him. The conscious body knows pleasure.

• Awareness of your thoughts

By becoming aware of your thoughts, you will find the mind chattering incessantly within you.

Gradually, thanks to your attention and increasing awareness, your thoughts will cease to be chaotic, they will have more consistency, smoothness, harmony.

You will begin to notice stretches of non-thinking between the ideas that excite you and the responsibilities that used to be constantly spinning in your head.

When your thoughts become calm, you will notice the consistency between the body and mind - now they will work together, in a single rhythm, and not jump in different directions, as it was before. The conscious mind experiences happiness.

• Awareness of your feelings, emotions and moods

A little more awareness, and your feelings, emotions and moods will become subject to you.

No, they do not need to be suppressed - just noticed and manifested or let go.

A little practice and you will become an observer of your feelings, you will be able to manage them, and not be led and obey momentary mood swings or “explosive” emotions.

A conscious heart radiates joy.

• Ultimate awareness - awareness of one's awareness

The fourth stage of awareness comes as a gift, as a gift for working on the previous ones.

By merging awareness of the body, thoughts, as well as feelings, emotions and moods, a person is aware of his awareness. In this state, a person attains bliss.

Now you are observing yourself - the observer.

Unconditional love and bliss will become the atmosphere around you. It will not be directed at anyone in particular, love will become your fragrance, you will become love.

Some effects from the practice of meditation are noticeable after a few minutes of practice. Here is what meditation gives a person immediately after practice:

• Feeling better
• Calms the mind
• Thoughts become clear
• The mood rises

But many of the benefits of meditation are not so obvious, and appear in the long term after regular daily practice. As with diet or exercise, you won't see results after your first run or one day without sugar. But we know that after some time of persistent practice, we will definitely get the desired effect.

We no longer doubt the benefits of a low-carb diet and jogging for improving physical fitness. Their action has been studied by scientists and confirmed by many people. The scientific approach to meditation is not yet so popular in Russia. And while not very many people know that the effect of meditation is also studied by science.

Therefore, in this article, I have collected various scientific discoveries about the benefits of meditation and the effects of the practice.

I have collected information (mostly from the English language internet) on hundreds of scientific studies, some of which are analyzes of hundreds of other studies.

Well, below I will list the most interesting of what I managed to find. You will be surprised to learn about some of the effects of meditation practice.

Mindfulness meditation reduces depression

Professor Philippe Raes conducted a study among 400 students in five secondary schools in Belgium. As a result, he concluded that rates of anxiety and depression decreased after 6 months in meditating students.

Some scholars argue that most meditation research has been poorly designed. To address this issue, Johns Hopkins University researchers carefully reviewed published clinical trials. They found that while the results show a reduction in depression and stress, better work is needed to evaluate the effects of meditation on other illnesses.

Madhav Goyal, assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, criticized 47 clinical trials conducted up to 2012. He designed the study to fairly compare meditation with other treatments for depression. Participants were randomly assigned to different treatment groups. Some were prescribed meditation, others cognitive behavioral therapy and medication.

Madhav Goyal stated that his research proved that meditation relieves depression and anxiety to the same extent as drug therapy.

Meditation increases the concentration of gray matter in the brain

A group of Harvard neurologists conducted an experiment in which 16 people completed an 8-week meditation course.

The results of the study were presented by Sarah Lazar, Ph.D.

An MRI showed that gray matter concentration increased in areas of the brain involved in learning and memory, emotion control, self-esteem, and planning for the future.

Other studies have also confirmed an increase in hippocampal and frontal gray matter volumes in experienced meditators.

Meditation dramatically increases psychomotor activity and reduces the need for sleep.

In a study conducted by the University of Kentucky, participants were divided into four groups with different conditions: control group, sleep reduction, meditation, meditation + sleep deprivation.

The experiment involved people who are not familiar with meditation, novice meditators and experienced practitioners.

The results show that meditation causes at least a short-term improvement in performance, even for novice meditators. Experienced practitioners experience a significant reduction in total sleep time compared to people of the same gender and age who did not meditate.

Whether meditation can replace several hours of daily sleep is not yet clear. Research is ongoing.

Prolonged meditation boosts the brain's ability to generate gamma waves

Neuroscientist Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin conducted a study with Tibetan Buddhist monks. He found that most of the monks showed extremely high gamma wave activity in the brain. This has never been reported before in the neuroscience literature, Richard Davidson stated.

Meditation improves focus and ability to work under stress

A study by Katherine McLean of the University of California found that during and after a meditation training course, subjects were more effective at completing repetitive and boring tasks.

In fact, there is evidence that meditators have a thicker prefrontal cortex, and that meditation can compensate for the loss of cognitive ability with old age.

Twenty meditation participants were recruited for the experiment. The participants were not monks, but rather typical Western meditation practitioners who had integrated the practice into their everyday life away from career, family, friends.

Two participants were full-time meditation teachers. Three participants were meditation instructors who were teaching part-time. The rest meditated for an average of 40 minutes once a day.

Also, 15 participants who did not practice meditation were taken into the experiment.

All subjects were mentally and physically healthy. The experiment took into account gender, age and nationality. Two participants were left-handed. Their exclusion from the results of the experiment did not lead to significant changes.

The present study method used a well-founded computational approach to measure the thickness of the cerebral cortex.

The results showed that regular meditation practice was associated with an increase in thickness in a subset of cortical regions associated with somatosensory, auditory, visual, and interoceptive processing. In addition, regular meditation practice can slow the depletion of the frontal cortex with aging.

Meditation relieves pain better than morphine

In an experiment conducted by the Baktista Wake Forest Medical Center, 15 healthy volunteers who were new to meditation attended four 20-minute sessions to learn mindfulness meditation. Both before and after the meditation training, participants' brain activity was analyzed using ASL MRI while they were in pain from burns.

Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., lead author of the study, explains that this is the first experiment showing a reduction in both pain sensation and pain-related brain activity from just an hour of meditation practice. “We found a significant effect - about 40% reduction in pain intensity. Meditation resulted in greater pain relief than even morphine or other pain medications, which typically reduce pain by about 25 percent.”

Meditation helps control ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder))

In a study of 50 adult patients diagnosed with ADHD, the mindfulness meditation group showed reduced hyperactivity, decreased impulsivity, and increased ability to "act with awareness," which contributed to an overall improvement in symptoms of inattention.

What does meditation do?What is meditation for? modern man? If you want to start meditating, you need to knowwhat is meditation for and what does it do.

Answers to these questions are necessary for many people who have heard about meditation, and even would like to start meditating, but cannot, for unknown reasons. Not understanding, what does meditation do, the brain resists and finds excuses: I can’t visualize, I can’t stop the continuous running of thoughts, I don’t have time, I don’t have the opportunity to retire, my relatives won’t understand me, etc ...

Currently, millions of people of all ages and different faiths in many countries practice meditation daily, both in ashrams or special centers, in group seminars under the guidance of an instructor, and on their own at home or in cars, while fishing or washing dishes, waking up in the morning or rocking the baby. And those who have never practiced meditation, as a rule, treat with understanding and interest, and even want to try it one day too, in order to learn firsthand, but from their own experience what meditation is ...

What is meditation for??

The answer to this question has been given by great meditation masters such as Osho, Sri Aurobindo and others.

Meditation, an ancient spiritual practice originally available only to initiates, is one of the ways spiritual development and has existed in the East for many centuries as the art of connecting with the Divine, realizing the Divine nature of one's soul, one's true "I". In the West, the art of meditation began to gain popularity around the 60s of the XX century, as a practice of changing consciousness, allowing you to be happy here and now, regardless of life circumstances.

Nowadays, with the help of meditation, they get rid of stress, chronic fatigue syndrome, excess weight, from a financial or creative crisis, etc., achieve happiness, peace,.

Today, it is no longer necessary to prove that stress is the cause of many human diseases and premature aging, and meditation is one of the best healthy ways to relax, eliminate nervous tension, prevent the effects of stress, and increase stress resistance. Getting rid of tension and irritation, calming the mind with the help of meditation, we allow the body to direct the released vital energy to the treatment and restoration of physical, mental and mental reserves.

Meditation is needed to free the mind from unnecessary information, opening up opportunities for development and creativity. Many people, when practicing meditation, notice an increase in the ability to concentrate, an improvement in memory and speed of thinking, an improvement in mental balance, and even a decrease in sensitivity to pain (increased pain threshold).

What does meditation give?

This question can be answered by the results of scientific research.

Since the second half of the 20th century, when Eastern practices began to spread in the West, scientists began to study the effect of meditation on human health. As a result of these studies*, a positive effect of meditation in general on the general state of human health and in particular on the following functions of the body was revealed:

• metabolism,
• blood pressure,
• brain activity and memory,
• mental processes,
• cardiovascular activity,
• disease resistance.

For example, as a result of an experiment by American researchers led by Herbert Benson, Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Harvard University, it was proved that during meditation, the brain of Tibetan monks plunges into a special “altered” state, which gives a feeling of complete peace and unity with the world and allows you to redistribute forces in a few minutes. and energy in such a way that they are enough for the whole day *.

In the course of research by other American scientists from the Medical College of Wisconsin (USA), it was found that transcendental meditation, namely meditation on the Om mantra or another mantra, helps to reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases. In the group of patients with cardiovascular diseases, practicing transcendental meditation twice a day for 20 minutes, mortality from stroke, heart attack, or any other cause was 48% lower compared with the control group, following the traditional recommendations (healthy diet and exercise). In the group of meditators, a decrease in the level of stress and irritability was noted, and a decrease in pressure was recorded. According to the head of the study, Robert Schneider, meditation turns on the hidden resources of the body, and it begins to heal itself. The researcher claims that the more a person meditates, the lower the risk of cardiovascular disease *.

It is also worth mentioning the studies that have established how meditation affects the health of older people. It turned out that meditation helps a person manage his stress and cope with loneliness - such a conclusion was made by American experts led by Dr. David Cresswell based on the results of a survey of men and women aged 55 to 85 years. After a medical examination, a group of elderly people began to learn meditation and yoga under the guidance of an instructor. After two months of regular meditative practice, the participants of the experiment were re-examined, the results of which were compared with the initial data. As it turned out, meditation had a beneficial effect on the health of the participants in the experiment. According to the results of the survey, the activity of substances that provoke inflammatory processes in the blood of meditating people decreased. In addition, the general well-being of older people improved, they did not feel calmer and coped more easily with feelings of loneliness*.

Thus, the data of scientific studies allow us to reasonably state that meditation gives a positive trend:

• mental balance,
• mental development at almost any age,
• physical health,youth and beauty, and consequently:
• financial well-being (just imagine how much you can save on medicines and treatment),
• quality and life expectancy.

Be persistent!

All beginners have difficulty concentrating, the tireless brain does not allow them to concentrate and stop the “inner chatter”. In this case, images (for example, a picture, photograph, flower, stone, candle flame or other object) help very well. But if you know why do you need meditation, difficulties will not prevent you from reaching your goal. If you know, what does meditation do Are you ready for change.

Currently, of course, it is ideal to start practicing meditation in a special center under the guidance of an experienced master, and then move on to independent practices. But if you are ready for self-knowledge and work on yourself, then the absence of such an opportunity will not be able to stop you. I myself began to practice meditation at the age of 17 after reading several books. Then in the city of my childhood there were no centers, and I did not have mentors. Then, of course, there were classes with an individual mentor and group trainings and meditations in the ashrams of India. But that very first experience of meditation left an indelible impression, because it was new and unusually vivid sensations, a different reality and a different awareness of oneself and one's life.

There are many types and techniques of meditation. Some you can master on your own, others need the help of a teacher to comprehend. It's better to start with meditation practices given by famous masters, for example, from Osho's meditation.

For beginners to practice meditation, especially for those who have difficulty with visualization, it is very suitable. . And for those who find it difficult to retire fit And.

What is meditation for? This question is asked by everyone who is just starting to engage in spiritual self-development. And rightly so - you must understand what result you will achieve in the end, and what you need to strive for.

Benefits of Regular Meditation

Do not expect colossal results from the very first session of meditation. Success comes with regular practice. If you are determined to introduce such spiritual methods into your life, you need to understand why this is needed at all.

The benefits of regular meditation are as follows:

1. You clear your mind of everything superfluous and unnecessary. Get rid of the negative programs laid down by society, parents, educators and teachers, the environment. This is a colossal liberation from someone else's opinion and concentration on your real thoughts.
2. You learn to hear the desires of your own soul. Understand your true purpose. You can gradually find the work of your life, your favorite, bringing pleasure and good money
3. You become invulnerable to other people's manipulations, because your consciousness is no longer blinded by other people's attitudes and opinions, but reflects only your own desires, intentions, aspirations
4. There is a taste for life. Thoughts clear up, you finally understand what you really want and direct all your energy towards achieving goals that are meaningful to you
5. You are training mindfulness. This means that you learn to fully control your thoughts and feelings and at any moment you can abstract from emotions, keeping your head cold and your mind sober.
6. You shift the focus of attention to things that are truly important to you, abstracting away from what does not deserve your time and thoughts
7. You build relationships with others, calmly react to any manifestations of negative emotions, become able not only to receive love and happiness from external sources, but also to share them with the world and people
8. you discover in yourself Creative skills and talents that were previously unknown. Absolutely every person has creative potential, but it is so much hidden that it is impossible to see it.
9. You get rid of fears, phobias, complexes and insecurities, filled with self-love and self-esteem

Regular meditation teaches you to constantly be in a state of "just being" and live in the moment, enjoying the present. The past fades into the background and no longer disturbs you, and the future ceases to frighten and disturb you. You are just happy, live in harmony, rejoice in what you have and are sure that everything will be fine forever.

Now you know what meditation gives a person. But in order to get similar results, it is important to follow some rules.

Benefits of meditation for the body

According to psychosomatics, the cause of any disease lies in the subconscious of a person. Therefore, regular meditative practices, due to relaxation and harmonization of consciousness, have a positive effect on the health of the physical body.

What are the health benefits of:

• The energy balance is normalized in subtle body person. As a result, you will always feel filled with energy, vitality. Stress resistance is strengthened, the psycho-emotional state is always stable
• "Energy holes" in the aura are eliminated. Each of the seven chakras comes into harmony. It is known that the chakras are responsible for the health of certain organs. Therefore, you can even achieve complete healing. But, of course, you should not neglect the methods of official medicine.
• Your body is sensitive to external circumstances, and you learn to hear its signals. Therefore, you can easily determine the onset of the disease and quickly cure it using available methods.

The sincere practice of meditation brings the body and spirit into balance, so a person is not afraid of any diseases.

The role of meditation in spiritual development

The main goal of meditation practices is spiritual self-development. As a result, you can achieve the following:

• Develop self-discipline and awareness. Take control own life and build it the way you want. No external circumstances can exacerbate your problems
• You understand and realize in what rhythm it is most comfortable for you to live and interact with people, work and develop. The fuss disappears, you no longer waste energy on empty things and actions
• You develop your creative potential, discover new talents in yourself and clearly see what abilities you have. This helps to concentrate and direct energy in the right direction to achieve all sorts of goals.
• Develop morality, observe moral standards, not because they are imposed by society, but because you gain your own dignity
• More time appears because you stop wasting energy on unnecessary goals and deeds

And most importantly - you return to yourself, become a truly whole and free, independent person.

Watch a video about what meditation is for and what its benefits are:

In different spiritual schools you can find many meditative techniques. Try everything and find what suits you best, resonates in your soul. Nobody but you knows which method is ideal for you.

Gradually, you will begin to feel how happiness and harmony fill you. You will learn to enjoy life in all its manifestations, gain meaning and purpose. You will follow the dictates of only your soul, and not adapt to the surrounding space.

And remember that meditation is constant and hard work. Working with the subconscious is not as simple as it seems at first glance. But if you take the first step on the path to spiritual self-development, you will begin to change, and the world around you will change after you.

The whirlpool of life drives you into stress, the avalanche of information brings thoughts into chaos? Are you looking for a "safe haven" and opportunity to relax? Try practicing meditation.

The benefits of meditation for the human body have been proven by scientists.

Meditation practitioners:

• become more conscious,
• calm,
• less anxious;
• their mind is disciplined,
• thoughts become confused
• health is restored
• life is in order.

In this article, you will find the answer to the question of why to practice meditation regularly, and find proven and scientifically based reasons for this.

10 Reasons to Practice Meditation Every Day

1. Restores brain cells

Harvard scientists led by Sarah Lazar conducted a sensational study on mindful meditation in 2011. They asked the question: “Does meditation restore brain cells?”

Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Harvard researchers found that meditation affects changes in the gray matter of the brain.

The physical changes in the brain brought about by meditation have been documented. To do this, scientists have collected test and control groups of subjects.

The first group practiced meditation on average 27 minutes a day, and the second group did not listen to recordings with meditation and did not practice it.

MRI scans of the brains of subjects in both groups were taken before and after an eight-week period.

At the end of the course, participants in the test group reported improved attention: in their lives, conscious actions and non-judgmental perception have become frequent phenomena.

The parameters of the control group remained unchanged.

The study showed that

• meditation restores brain cells
• increases the amount of gray matter
• allows the brain to slow down reactions to stress,
• improves concentration, learning and memory.

2. Reduces the risk of heart disease

Schneider, Grim, Reinforth and other scientists examined 201 men and women with coronary heart disease.

They were divided into 2 groups for the Transcendental Meditation Program and the Health Education Program.

After five and a half years, the Transcendental Meditation Group showed 48% reducing the risk of heart attacks and heart attacks.

3. Rejuvenates the brain

In another American study, Pagnoni and Tsekis compared the gray matter in the brains of 13 Zen meditators over a long period of time with a group of 13 people who had nothing to do with meditation.

Although the concentration of gray matter in the brain decreases with age, the gray matter density of Zen meditators has remained unchanged.

4. Reduces anxiety, depression and pain

Goyal, Sing and others studied 3,515 participants in mindfulness meditation programs and found evidence of reduced anxiety, reducing depression and pain.

A similar study was conducted by neuroscientist Fadel Zeidan and his team at Wake Forest University in the United States.

Employees of the Faculty of Medicine drew up a diagram of the activity of various parts of the brain using a tomograph.

During the experiment, the scientists decided to check whether it would be possible to see the conscious attitude of the subjects to pain by the activity of the brain in a certain area.

Participants in the study had their feet burned with a hot metal bar while the tomograph scanned their brains.

According to the subjects, they experienced unpleasant and painful sensations, and the tomograph recorded activity in the corresponding part of their brain.

This experiment was repeated after participants attended four 20-minute sessions of mindfulness meditation.

Now the brain activity of the subjects in the corresponding area has decreased so much that the tomograph did not record it!

But the activity of other areas of the brain responsible for behavioral control and processing of emotions increased.

It is these areas of the brain that modulate feelings of pain: the subjects felt less pain than the first time.

The conscious perception of pain also decreased - by 40%, and the unpleasant sensations that accompanied this pain - by 57%.

The subjects, who practiced meditation for a long time, reported a 70% decrease in pain levels and associated discomfort by 93%.

Neuroscientist Zeidan noted that with the help of mindful meditation succeeded in reducing the pain to a greater extent than using standard doses of morphine and other traditional painkillers.

5. Strengthens the immune system

Most diseases are born in the mind. This is not to say that diseases are not real, but only that they can be prevented.

Stress, lack of sleep and the inability to manage emotions - all this affects your body not only on a psychological level, but also on a physical one.

A study conducted at Harvard University Medical School showed that yoga and meditation practitioners had improved energy production in the mitochondria of cells, which improves immunity and stress resistance.

6. Compensates for lack of sleep

Meditation is known to help arrange your sleep and, once you start meditating, you will be able to get enough sleep in less time.

In a study conducted by the University of Kentucky, participants were tested on 4 measures: control, napping, meditation, and sleep deprivation plus meditation.

Research has shown that meditation provides at least short-term improvements, even for beginning meditators.

For long practitioners who spend considerable time in meditation, the need for sleep is significantly reduced when compared to people in the same demographic who don't meditate.

We do not claim that meditation will replace sleep or compensate for its lack. However, you will definitely improve the quality of your sleep.

7. Improves breathing

To some, this may seem obvious, but many people do not understand the importance of improving the quality of breathing.

According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, you have fundamental needs that must be met in order for you to progress.

It starts with physiological needs:

• water,
• sex,
• need to go to the toilet
• and of course breathing.

In most types of meditation, you consciously focus on your breath, filling your lungs with air.

The more you practice it, the more it becomes a part of your unconscious, resulting in better, deeper breathing.

The deeper the breath, the better the body is saturated with oxygen, and the higher life expectancy.

8. Sharpens tactile sensations

Researchers at the Ruhr University in Bochum and the Ludwig-Maximillian University of Munich presented studies of experienced Zen monks that showed an improvement in the sense of touch.

To quantify touch, the researchers limited the so-called “two-point discrimination threshold.”

This marker indicates how far apart two stimuli must be in order to separate as two separate sensations.

After finger meditation, performance improves by 17% of normal.

In comparison, visually impaired people have 15 to 25% greater tactile sensitivity than people with normal vision because they use their sense of touch so intensely that it replaces visual information.

Therefore, the changes brought about by meditation are commensurate with those achieved by intensive long-term training.

9. Helps manage stress

Many people consider themselves capable of doing several things at the same time. But usually this is not true.

Multitasking is very difficult, unless the person's brain is abnormally structured or damaged!

The purpose of meditation is focus. You can meditate by concentrating, or breathing, or counting, or something else.

But in any case, meditation leads to a more mindful approach to day-to-day activities, which increases productivity and avoid depression.

This was proven by a study by the University of Washington and the University of Arizona.

The initial results of the study showed whether the practice of meditation or relaxation can improve the ability of office workers to multi-task on a computer at the same time more efficiently or with less stress.

Two groups of human resource staff were given 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation practice or also received a multi-tasking stress test before and after the practice.

The third group, the control group, was not interfered with for 8 weeks, but it was tested twice: before and after this period.

The results showed that task completion times and errors were not significantly different among the three groups.

However, a group of meditators showed more low stress and a better memory for the tasks they presented.

They switched from task to task less often and stayed focused on one task for longer.

10. Connects with the inner world

Writer and activist who dedicated his life to changing the educational system, Will Stanton believes that meditation should be part of the school curriculum.

In his book Educational Revolution, he proposes a completely new global education model for humanity.

If every child had the opportunity to join the ocean of consciousness that permeates all things, the desire to do wrong to others would dissolve.

Meditation allows through experience to discover the truth about who we really are.

Problem modern society in that we are constantly running from ourselves, and therefore from the truth.

Most of us are learning to be something we are not. We learn to adapt and comply with social norms, to put on a mask in front of other people. We become slaves of the ego.

We run from ourselves, and we can't stand even the thought of taking off the mask to which we are accustomed. This is how we betray ourselves and let the ego rule our lives.

What if we didn't run away from ourselves? What if you learned to be at peace with yourself from an early age?

If meditation were taught in school, children would discover their own interests, passions, and creativity.

They would not worry so much about their "insecurity", but would be able to live in the present moment instead of trying to reach a place where they are not.

Will Stanton Claims Meditation Helped Him If it wasn't for meditation, he wouldn't have followed his heart and tried to change the education system.

According to the writer, it is meditation that connects him with the deepest and most acute longing of his soul, and guides you to your life purpose.

Children who practice meditation regularly would not be so prone to stress, anxiety, and disease.

They would have developed stronger bonds with all living things, and their need to compete with peers would have been less.

The activist believes that it is extremely important to teach children this gift of mindfulness - meditation. And he hopes that one day the practice of meditation will become as common as brushing your teeth.

After all, in order to learn to live in peace with each other, we must first feel that this world is within us.

Whatever meditation technique you choose to practice regularly, it will definitely bring benefits.

You will become more calm, cheerful, attentive, healthy and happy. And these are not just words, but proven by scientific facts.

Of course, meditation is not a panacea. It all depends on you, on whether you are ready to give yourself a few minutes a day to improve your own life.