Some people put aside five minutes every day for routine meditation. There are many classes and apps that are dedicated towards meditation and they all have the same overall message: meditation is like medicine – it will improve your mental health. However, is there any scientific knowledge to back this claim?
What is meditation?
The practice of meditation is something that has been ongoing for thousands of years across many different cultures and religions. It can be defined as a technique where a person trains their mind to focus only on the present. The main goal of meditation is to improve your awareness and to gain a healthy perspective. Instead of focusing on all of the racing thoughts, feelings and negative judgements that we experience on a daily basis, meditation helps observe those thoughts without judgment in order to gain better understanding. The more scientific term is called “mindfulness,” which is defined as a psychological process of bringing your attention to the present experiences, actions and emotions without judgement. With tons of new studies being conducted, there is an emerging link between meditation and mindfulness, strong mental health, as well as long-term health benefits.
The science – how does meditation affect the brain?
Tons of scientific findings show the positive effects that meditation has on our brains. Through countless studies and neurobiological tests, the positive changes can be observed. A study from UCLA compared the brains of long-time meditators and people who didn’t meditate. They found that the people who had been meditating for on average 20 years had a better-preserved brain and a larger volume of grey matter, a part of the central nervous system that helps with information processing. Another study from Yale University found that meditation, even a small amount, could reduce the activity in a person’s “default mode network”. This area is activated when we aren’t thinking of anything specific, and our mind starts to wander. This is a positive effect of medication because mind-wandering has been associated with higher-distress levels, because people usually start to ruminate about problems, the past and future. Through meditation, mind-wandering can be controlled which leads to overall lower levels of distress. It can also be linked to decreased activity in the amygdala, a brain area that regulates fear, anxiety and stress. This decrease results in regulating emotion processing, helping people deal with these negative emotions. While meditation decreases brain activity in some areas, it’s also been associated with increased activity in the brain’s hippocampus, an area responsible for learning and memory. Overall, meditation and mindfulness have been proven to make some very real and positive changes to the brain’s structure.
The results – health benefits
Meditation has proven capable of changing the brain’s structure and way of functioning, but how does that affect people’s mental health? One of the main ways that meditation impacts mental health is through emotional and stress regulation. Long-term stress can have detrimental effects, with links to chronic problems like heart disease, high blood pressure and obesity. Through meditation, people can learn how to process and deal with both short-term and long-term stressors in a healthy and mindful way. A research experiment tested the effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction on people with generalized anxiety, and found that after, the participants experienced lower stress-related hormones than before. On top of stress management, meditation can help regulate everyday emotions like anger, sadness and frustration and provide a fresh perspective on people’s lives.
Overall, meditation has been proven to have some great benefits in terms of mental health. It is a fantastic way to improve your mental well-being, improve your stress regulation and help live in the present moment. Take five minutes out of your schedule to improve your mental health today!