What is benefits of meditation

12 Science-Based Benefits of Meditation

By Matthew Thorpe, MD, PhD and Rachael Link, MS, RD — Medically reviewed by Marney A. White, PhD, MS, Psychology — Updated on October 27, 2020

Meditation is the habitual process of training your mind to focus and redirect your thoughts.

The popularity of meditation is increasing as more people discover its many health benefits.

You can use it to increase awareness of yourself and your surroundings. Many people think of it as a way to reduce stress and develop concentration.

People also use the practice to develop other beneficial habits and feelings, such as a positive mood and outlook, self-discipline, healthy sleep patterns, and even increased pain tolerance.

This article reviews 12 health benefits of meditation.

Stress reduction is one of the most common reasons people try meditation.

One review concluded that meditation lives up to its reputation for stress reduction (1).

Normally, mental and physical stress cause increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol. This produces many of the harmful effects of stress, such as the release of inflammatory chemicals called cytokines.

These effects can disrupt sleep, promote depression and anxiety, increase blood pressure, and contribute to fatigue and cloudy thinking.

In an 8-week study, a meditation style called “mindfulness meditation” reduced the inflammation response caused by stress (2).

Furthermore, research has shown that meditation may also improve symptoms of stress-related conditions, including irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, and fibromyalgia (3, 4, 5).

Summary
Many styles of meditation can help reduce stress. Meditation can likewise reduce symptoms in people with stress-triggered medical conditions.

Meditation can reduce stress levels, which translates to less anxiety.

A meta-analysis including nearly 1,300 adults found that meditation may decrease anxiety. Notably, this effect was strongest in those with the highest levels of anxiety (6).

Also, one study found that 8 weeks of mindfulness meditation helped reduce anxiety symptoms in people with generalized anxiety disorder, along with increasing positive self-statements and improving stress reactivity and coping (7).

Another study in 47 people with chronic pain found that completing an 8-week meditation program led to noticeable improvements in depression, anxiety, and pain over 1 year (8).

What’s more, some research suggests that a variety of mindfulness and meditation exercises may reduce anxiety levels (9).

For example, yoga has been shown to help people reduce anxiety. This is likely due to benefits from both meditative practice and physical activity (10).

Meditation may also help control job-related anxiety. One study found that employees who used a mindfulness meditation app for 8 weeks experienced improved feelings of well-being and decreased distress and job strain, compared with those in a control group (11).

Summary
Habitual meditation can help reduce anxiety and improve stress reactivity and coping skills.

Some forms of meditation can lead to improved self-image and a more positive outlook on life.

For example, one review of treatments given to more than 3,500 adults found that mindfulness meditation improved symptoms of depression (12).

Similarly, a review of 18 studies showed that people receiving meditation therapies experienced reduced symptoms of depression, compared with those in a control group (13).

Another study found that people who completed a meditation exercise experienced fewer negative thoughts in response to viewing negative images, compared with those in a control group (14).

Furthermore, inflammatory chemicals called cytokines, which are released in response to stress, can affect mood, leading to depression. A review of several studies suggests meditation may also reduce depression by decreasing levels of these inflammatory chemicals (15).

Summary
Some forms of meditation can improve depression and reduce negative thoughts. It may also decrease levels of inflammatory cytokines, which could contribute to depression.

Some forms of meditation may help you develop a stronger understanding of yourself, helping you grow into your best self.

For example, self-inquiry meditation explicitly aims to help you develop a greater understanding of yourself and how you relate to those around you.

Other forms teach you to recognize thoughts that may be harmful or self-defeating. The idea is that as you gain greater awareness of your thought habits, you can steer them toward more constructive patterns (16, 17, 18).

One review of 27 studies showed that practicing tai chi may be associated with improved self-efficacy, which is a term used to describe a person’s belief in their own capacity or ability to overcome challenges (19).

In another study, 153 adults who used a mindfulness meditation app for 2 weeks experienced reduced feelings of loneliness and increased social contact compared with those in a control group (20).

Additionally, experience in meditation may cultivate more creative problem-solving skills (21).

Summary
Self-inquiry and related styles of meditation can help you “know yourself.” This can be a starting point for making other positive changes.

Focused-attention meditation is like weight lifting for your attention span. It helps increase the strength and endurance of your attention.

For example, one study found that people who listened to a meditation tape experienced improved attention and accuracy while completing a task, compared with those in a control group (22).

A similar study showed that people who regularly practiced meditation performed better on a visual task and had a greater attention span than those without any meditation experience (23).

Moreover, one review concluded that meditation may even reverse patterns in the brain that contribute to mind-wandering, worrying, and poor attention (24).

Even meditating for a short period each day may benefit you. One study found that meditating for just 13 minutes daily enhanced attention and memory after 8 weeks (25).

Summary
Several types of meditation may build your ability to redirect and maintain attention.

Improvements in attention and clarity of thinking may help keep your mind young.

Kirtan Kriya is a method of meditation that combines a mantra or chant with repetitive motion of the fingers to focus your thoughts. Studies in people with age-related memory loss have shown it improves performance on neuropsychological tests (26).

Furthermore, a review found preliminary evidence that multiple meditation styles can increase attention, memory, and mental quickness in older volunteers (27).

In addition to fighting normal age-related memory loss, meditation can at least partially improve memory in patients with dementia. It can likewise help control stress and improve coping in those caring for family members with dementia (28, 29).

Summary
The improved focus you can gain through regular meditation may boost your memory and mental clarity. These benefits can help fight age-related memory loss and dementia.

Some types of meditation may particularly increase positive feelings and actions toward yourself and others.

Metta, a type of meditation also known as loving-kindness meditation, begins with developing kind thoughts and feelings toward yourself.

Through practice, people learn to extend this kindness and forgiveness externally, first to friends, then acquaintances, and ultimately enemies.

A meta-analysis of 22 studies on this form of meditation demonstrated its ability to increase peoples’ compassion toward themselves and others (30).

One study in 100 adults randomly assigned to a program that included loving-kindness meditation found that these benefits were dose-dependent.

In other words, the more time people spent in weekly metta meditation practice, the more positive feelings they experienced (31).

Another study in 50 college students showed that practicing metta meditation 3 times per week improved positive emotions, interpersonal interactions, and understanding of others after 4 weeks (32).

These benefits also appear to accumulate over time with the practice of loving-kindness meditation (33).

Summary
Metta, or loving-kindness meditation, is a practice of developing positive feelings, first toward yourself and then toward others. Metta increases positivity, empathy, and compassionate behavior toward others.

The mental discipline you can develop through meditation may help you break dependencies by increasing your self-control and awareness of triggers for addictive behaviors (34).

Research has shown that meditation may help people learn to redirect their attention, manage their emotions and impulses, and increase their understanding of the causes behind their (35, 36).

One study in 60 people receiving treatment for alcohol use disorder found that practicing transcendental meditation was associated with lower levels of stress, psychological distress, alcohol cravings, and alcohol use after 3 months (37).

Meditation may also help you control food cravings. A review of 14 studies found mindfulness meditation helped participants reduce emotional and binge eating (38).

Summary
Meditation develops mental awareness and can help you manage triggers for unwanted impulses. This can help you recover from addiction, manage unhealthy eating, and redirect other unwanted habits.

Nearly half of the population will struggle with insomnia at some point.

One study compared mindfulness-based meditation programs and found that people who meditated stayed asleep longer and had improved insomnia severity, compared with those who had an unmedicated control condition (39).

Becoming skilled in meditation may help you control or redirect the racing or runaway thoughts that often lead to insomnia.

Additionally, it can help relax your body, releasing tension and placing you in a peaceful state in which you’re more likely to fall asleep.

Summary
A variety of meditation techniques can help you relax and control runaway thoughts that can interfere with sleep. This can shorten the time it takes to fall asleep and increase sleep quality.

Your perception of pain is connected to your state of mind, and it can be elevated in stressful conditions.

Some research suggests that incorporating meditation into your routine could be beneficial for controlling pain.

For example, one review of 38 studies concluded that mindfulness meditation could reduce pain, improve quality of life, and decrease symptoms of depression in people with chronic pain (40).

A large meta-analysis of studies enrolling nearly 3,500 participants concluded that meditation was associated with decreased pain (41).

Meditators and non-meditators experienced the same causes of pain, but meditators showed a greater ability to cope with pain and even experienced a reduced sensation of pain.

Summary
Meditation can diminish the perception of pain in the brain. This may help treat chronic pain when used to supplement medical care or physical therapy.

Meditation can also improve physical health by reducing strain on the heart.

Over time, high blood pressure makes the heart work harder to pump blood, which can lead to poor heart function.

High blood pressure also contributes to atherosclerosis, or a narrowing of the arteries, which can lead to heart attack and stroke.

A meta-analysis of 12 studies enrolling nearly 1000 participants found that meditation helped reduce blood pressure. This was more effective among older volunteers and those who had higher blood pressure prior to the study (42).

One review concluded that several types of meditation produced similar improvements in blood pressure (43).

In part, meditation appears to control blood pressure by relaxing the nerve signals that coordinate heart function, blood vessel tension, and the “fight-or-flight” response that increases alertness in stressful situations (44).

Summary
Blood pressure decreases not only during meditation but also over time in individuals who meditate regularly. This can reduce strain on the heart and arteries, helping prevent heart disease.

People practice many different forms of meditation, most of which don’t require specialized equipment or space. You can practice with just a few minutes daily.

If you want to start meditating, try choosing a form of meditation based on what you want to get out of it.

There are two major styles of meditation:

Focused-attention meditation. This style concentrates attention on a single object, thought, sound, or visualization. It emphasizes ridding your mind of distractions. Meditation may focus on breathing, a mantra, or calming sound.
Open-monitoring meditation. This style encourages broadened awareness of all aspects of your environment, train of thought, and sense of self. It may include becoming aware of suppressed thoughts, feelings, or impulses.

To find out which styles you like best, check out the variety of free, guided meditation exercises offered by the University of California Los Angeles. It’s an excellent way to try different styles and find one that suits you.

If your regular work and home environments do not allow for consistent, quiet alone time, consider participating in a class. This can also improve your chances of success by providing a supportive community.

Alternatively, consider setting your alarm a few minutes early to take advantage of quiet time in the morning. This may help you develop a consistent habit and allow you to start the day positively.

Summary
If you’re interested in incorporating meditation into your routine, try a few different styles and consider guided exercises to get started with one that suits you.

Meditation is something everyone can do to improve their mental and emotional health.

You can do it anywhere, without special equipment or memberships.

Alternatively, meditation courses and support groups are widely available.

There’s a great variety of styles too, each with different strengths and benefits.

Trying out a style of meditation suited to your goals is a great way to improve your quality of life, even if you only have a few minutes to do it each day.

12 Science-Based Benefits of Meditation

By Matthew Thorpe, MD, PhD and Rachael Link, MS, RD — Medically reviewed by Marney A. White, PhD, MS, Psychology — Updated on October 27, 2020

Meditation is the habitual process of training your mind to focus and redirect your thoughts.

The popularity of meditation is increasing as more people discover its many health benefits.

You can use it to increase awareness of yourself and your surroundings. Many people think of it as a way to reduce stress and develop concentration.

People also use the practice to develop other beneficial habits and feelings, such as a positive mood and outlook, self-discipline, healthy sleep patterns, and even increased pain tolerance.

This article reviews 12 health benefits of meditation.

Stress reduction is one of the most common reasons people try meditation.

One review concluded that meditation lives up to its reputation for stress reduction (1).

These effects can disrupt sleep, promote depression and anxiety, increase blood pressure, and contribute to fatigue and cloudy thinking.

In an 8-week study, a meditation style called “mindfulness meditation” reduced the inflammation response caused by stress (2).

Furthermore, research has shown that meditation may also improve symptoms of stress-related conditions, including irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, and fibromyalgia (3, 4, 5).

Summary
Many styles of meditation can help reduce stress. Meditation can likewise reduce symptoms in people with stress-triggered medical conditions.

Meditation can reduce stress levels, which translates to less anxiety.

A meta-analysis including nearly 1,300 adults found that meditation may decrease anxiety. Notably, this effect was strongest in those with the highest levels of anxiety (6).

Another study in 47 people with chronic pain found that completing an 8-week meditation program led to noticeable improvements in depression, anxiety, and pain over 1 year (8).

What’s more, some research suggests that a variety of mindfulness and meditation exercises may reduce anxiety levels (9).

For example, yoga has been shown to help people reduce anxiety. This is likely due to benefits from both meditative practice and physical activity (10).

Summary
Habitual meditation can help reduce anxiety and improve stress reactivity and coping skills.

Some forms of meditation can lead to improved self-image and a more positive outlook on life.

For example, one review of treatments given to more than 3,500 adults found that mindfulness meditation improved symptoms of depression (12).

Similarly, a review of 18 studies showed that people receiving meditation therapies experienced reduced symptoms of depression, compared with those in a control group (13).

Another study found that people who completed a meditation exercise experienced fewer negative thoughts in response to viewing negative images, compared with those in a control group (14).

Summary
Some forms of meditation can improve depression and reduce negative thoughts. It may also decrease levels of inflammatory cytokines, which could contribute to depression.

Some forms of meditation may help you develop a stronger understanding of yourself, helping you grow into your best self.

For example, self-inquiry meditation explicitly aims to help you develop a greater understanding of yourself and how you relate to those around you.

In another study, 153 adults who used a mindfulness meditation app for 2 weeks experienced reduced feelings of loneliness and increased social contact compared with those in a control group (20).

Additionally, experience in meditation may cultivate more creative problem-solving skills (21).

Summary
Self-inquiry and related styles of meditation can help you “know yourself.” This can be a starting point for making other positive changes.

Focused-attention meditation is like weight lifting for your attention span. It helps increase the strength and endurance of your attention.

For example, one study found that people who listened to a meditation tape experienced improved attention and accuracy while completing a task, compared with those in a control group (22).

A similar study showed that people who regularly practiced meditation performed better on a visual task and had a greater attention span than those without any meditation experience (23).

Moreover, one review concluded that meditation may even reverse patterns in the brain that contribute to mind-wandering, worrying, and poor attention (24).

Even meditating for a short period each day may benefit you. One study found that meditating for just 13 minutes daily enhanced attention and memory after 8 weeks (25).

Summary
Several types of meditation may build your ability to redirect and maintain attention.

Improvements in attention and clarity of thinking may help keep your mind young.

Furthermore, a review found preliminary evidence that multiple meditation styles can increase attention, memory, and mental quickness in older volunteers (27).

Summary
The improved focus you can gain through regular meditation may boost your memory and mental clarity. These benefits can help fight age-related memory loss and dementia.

Some types of meditation may particularly increase positive feelings and actions toward yourself and others.

Metta, a type of meditation also known as loving-kindness meditation, begins with developing kind thoughts and feelings toward yourself.

Through practice, people learn to extend this kindness and forgiveness externally, first to friends, then acquaintances, and ultimately enemies.

A meta-analysis of 22 studies on this form of meditation demonstrated its ability to increase peoples’ compassion toward themselves and others (30).

One study in 100 adults randomly assigned to a program that included loving-kindness meditation found that these benefits were dose-dependent.

In other words, the more time people spent in weekly metta meditation practice, the more positive feelings they experienced (31).

Another study in 50 college students showed that practicing metta meditation 3 times per week improved positive emotions, interpersonal interactions, and understanding of others after 4 weeks (32).

These benefits also appear to accumulate over time with the practice of loving-kindness meditation (33).

Summary
Metta, or loving-kindness meditation, is a practice of developing positive feelings, first toward yourself and then toward others. Metta increases positivity, empathy, and compassionate behavior toward others.

The mental discipline you can develop through meditation may help you break dependencies by increasing your self-control and awareness of triggers for addictive behaviors (34).

Research has shown that meditation may help people learn to redirect their attention, manage their emotions and impulses, and increase their understanding of the causes behind their (35, 36).

Meditation may also help you control food cravings. A review of 14 studies found mindfulness meditation helped participants reduce emotional and binge eating (38).

Summary
Meditation develops mental awareness and can help you manage triggers for unwanted impulses. This can help you recover from addiction, manage unhealthy eating, and redirect other unwanted habits.

Nearly half of the population will struggle with insomnia at some point.

Becoming skilled in meditation may help you control or redirect the racing or runaway thoughts that often lead to insomnia.

Additionally, it can help relax your body, releasing tension and placing you in a peaceful state in which you’re more likely to fall asleep.

Summary
A variety of meditation techniques can help you relax and control runaway thoughts that can interfere with sleep. This can shorten the time it takes to fall asleep and increase sleep quality.

Your perception of pain is connected to your state of mind, and it can be elevated in stressful conditions.

Some research suggests that incorporating meditation into your routine could be beneficial for controlling pain.

For example, one review of 38 studies concluded that mindfulness meditation could reduce pain, improve quality of life, and decrease symptoms of depression in people with chronic pain (40).

A large meta-analysis of studies enrolling nearly 3,500 participants concluded that meditation was associated with decreased pain (41).

Meditators and non-meditators experienced the same causes of pain, but meditators showed a greater ability to cope with pain and even experienced a reduced sensation of pain.

Summary
Meditation can diminish the perception of pain in the brain. This may help treat chronic pain when used to supplement medical care or physical therapy.

Meditation can also improve physical health by reducing strain on the heart.

Over time, high blood pressure makes the heart work harder to pump blood, which can lead to poor heart function.

High blood pressure also contributes to atherosclerosis, or a narrowing of the arteries, which can lead to heart attack and stroke.

One review concluded that several types of meditation produced similar improvements in blood pressure (43).

Summary
Blood pressure decreases not only during meditation but also over time in individuals who meditate regularly. This can reduce strain on the heart and arteries, helping prevent heart disease.

People practice many different forms of meditation, most of which don’t require specialized equipment or space. You can practice with just a few minutes daily.

If you want to start meditating, try choosing a form of meditation based on what you want to get out of it.

There are two major styles of meditation:

Focused-attention meditation. This style concentrates attention on a single object, thought, sound, or visualization. It emphasizes ridding your mind of distractions. Meditation may focus on breathing, a mantra, or calming sound.
Open-monitoring meditation. This style encourages broadened awareness of all aspects of your environment, train of thought, and sense of self. It may include becoming aware of suppressed thoughts, feelings, or impulses.

Alternatively, consider setting your alarm a few minutes early to take advantage of quiet time in the morning. This may help you develop a consistent habit and allow you to start the day positively.

Summary
If you’re interested in incorporating meditation into your routine, try a few different styles and consider guided exercises to get started with one that suits you.

Meditation is something everyone can do to improve their mental and emotional health.

You can do it anywhere, without special equipment or memberships.

Alternatively, meditation courses and support groups are widely available.

There’s a great variety of styles too, each with different strengths and benefits.

Trying out a style of meditation suited to your goals is a great way to improve your quality of life, even if you only have a few minutes to do it each day.

How to change your life through meditation: scientific arguments and practice

Health

Author Ekaterina Tikhonova

May 21, 2021

Studies have shown that regular meditation has a direct impact on happiness, helps to stay in good shape and cope with stress. Understanding how meditation is scientifically useful and how to approach it

Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, author of The Buddha, the Brain and the Neurophysiology of Happiness, is one of the popularizers of Tibetan meditation. For many years he has been involved in brain research during meditation, finding more and more evidence of its usefulness for each of us. Here's what we know about it so far.

Meditation is various psycho-physiological practices (religious or healing) that allow you to make your consciousness clearer, understand yourself and control your mind. Depending on the technique, meditations are based on concentration and/or willpower. Initially, the practice of meditation came from Hinduism. It occupies an important place in yoga. Today, however, meditation is increasingly spoken of without an esoteric component - as a means to train your mind and become calmer.

Advertising on RBC www.adv.rbc.ru

There are over 3,000 scientific studies on the benefits of meditation. They involved both Buddhist monks who have devoted thousands of hours to meditation, and beginners who practice meditation for 15 minutes a day. The results recorded positive changes in most of the subjects. And here are some.

Stress reduction

For this, people usually begin to meditate. A study of 3,500 adults showed it worked. When our bodies are exposed to sudden stress or threat, the brain responds with a fight-or-flight response. It is caused by a surge in the hormones adrenaline and cortisol, which leads to sleep disturbance, depression and anxiety, increased blood pressure, fatigue and confusion. Meditation gives you the opportunity to step back, recognize stress and choose how to respond to it. For example, it could be a regular relaxation practice that allows you to act rationally even under stress.

Anxiety control

There is a part of our brain responsible for fear. This is the amygdala, called the amygdala, which works like an alarm, looking for sources of danger around. She kept the ancient man alive by catching rustles in the forest or aggressive fellow tribesmen. For a modern person, it often works as a "false call", awakening unreasonable anxiety. Research has shown that amygdala activity decreases when a person is in a meditative state. These data were obtained both in experiments with people without experience in meditation, and in trials with both healthy people and those suffering from chronic anxiety. The effect is comparable to the action of drugs, but does not cause side effects. Regular practice reprograms the fear center, reduces anxiety and symptoms of anxiety disorders and panic attacks.

Emotional recovery

Our brain tends to emotionally color or "stick" to situations and problems. For example, if a person has troubles at work, he can transfer them to family life. Conversely, troubles in personal life can be reflected in work. Meditators have the ability to not "stick". To see an emotion, a problem, to realize it and not fall into a trap.

Scientists attribute this to a decrease in the production of substances called cytokines. They are released in response to stress, affect mood and often cause depression. In the brains of those who practice meditation, connections appear that increase empathy and the ability to rationally assess problems.

Research shows that meditation is as effective as antidepressants! Therefore, for people suffering from depression, it is increasingly being prescribed as an alternative to drug treatment.

Raising awareness

Already in the eighth week of regular meditation, practitioners form their "unique brain" with well-developed areas. These areas are primarily associated with awareness and memory. Scientists are seeing an increase in the thickness of the hippocampus, which increases the brain's ability to learn and remember new material, as well as regulate its emotions. It used to be thought that mindfulness is the effect of long reflection and concentration on oneself. It is now clear that during meditation there are physical changes in the brain that help develop this skill.

Increasing mindfulness

Problems with concentration are not only found in children, attention deficit disorder has been diagnosed in millions of adults. One of the main benefits of meditation is improved focus and concentration. Like sports training, daily meditation increases the power and endurance of attention. Two weeks of practice has been found to increase attention scores by 16%. Thanks to meditation, cognitive skills at work quickly develop - and we better concentrate on the tasks at hand.

Prevention of brain aging

I lost my keys, I can't remember my name, I can't solve a simple math problem - as we approach middle age, we are increasingly faced with such problems. The decrease in mental abilities is associated with the loss of volumes of gray matter - brain neurons responsible for memory and learning. This is called cognitive decline associated with aging. For many years, scientists thought this decline was inevitable, but research over the past two decades has shown that the adult brain changes throughout life. This is a phenomenon known as neuroplasticity.

Regular meditation increases the neuroplasticity of the brain, maintains and even increases the concentration of gray matter. The brains of people over the age of 50, who constantly practice meditation, “look” seven years younger.

Sleep Improvement

Meditation helps to relax and not dwell on thoughts that prevent you from falling asleep. This practice activates the area of the brain responsible for the transition to deep sleep. Thanks to it, we fall asleep faster and get better quality sleep. When the sleep characteristics of the two groups were compared (one practiced meditation, the other did not), it became clear that the participants who meditated fell asleep faster, their sleep was deeper and longer compared to those who did not meditate.

Pain control

Meditation reduces the perception of pain in the brain. It complements medical treatment of chronic pain or physiotherapy. Research confirms that mindfulness calms the brain centers responsible for pain, and over time these changes take root and change the structure of the brain itself in such a way that patients no longer feel pain as intensely as they used to. Polls show that they stop noticing it.

Clinics prescribe meditation to help patients cope with the pain of heart disease, diabetes and arthritis. It is also used to relieve migraines, chronic fatigue, and even multiple sclerosis.

Most researchers agree that eight weeks of daily sessions of 10-12 minutes is enough to feel the positive effects of meditation. Experienced practitioners recommend meditating in the morning or immediately after waking up, when the brain is not yet preoccupied with solving a large number of problems.

It is not necessary to meditate while sitting at home. A simple breathing practice is available anytime, anywhere. Focusing on the breath is the most common approach to meditation. The main thing is to focus on the process of inhalation and exhalation. If thoughts and emotions come during practice, there is no need to block them. Look at them from the side, like a boat passing you on a river, and continue to focus on your breath.

Sit in a relaxed position with your back straight.
Your eyes may be open or closed.
Take a couple of minutes to be in a calm state. Remember that sense of immersion in relaxation when you decide to take a break after a busy day.
Now just breathe through your mouth or nose.
Bring awareness to your breath, feel the air being drawn in and out of your lungs.
Make pauses between inhalation and exhalation, in these intervals relax your awareness, immerse yourself in the process itself.
If thoughts come, try to focus on the breath again.
Continue this for 5-10 minutes.
Complete the exercise with rest in a calm state.

Why You Should Meditate: A Helpful Guide to Mindfulness Practice

You can develop mindfulness for everything else along the same lines. There is a variant of meditation - conscious walking. When, when moving, you do not dissolve in the thoughts and concerns of the day, but concentrate on how you lift one leg, move it in space, put it on the ground, then lift the other and so on. For beginners, this may be unusual and difficult, but it allows you to see and realize how difficult it really is to concentrate on something that is not very exciting and how the brain begins to resist and throw up all sorts of topics for thought.

The most basic technique is mindfulness of the breath. Close your eyes and just watch how you breathe. Try starting with a minute - for a beginner, it can be excruciatingly long, but interesting nonetheless. Track your sensations from the contact of air and nostrils, try to feel how your chest expands when you inhale and your stomach drops when you exhale. But the key trick here is to pay attention to how you are distracted by your thoughts, and go back to observing sensations.

Another direction is mindfulness of thoughts. The essence of this meditation is that you observe what thoughts arise in your head. This is an interesting experiment - to track how ideas appear and go, how quickly they replace each other, what emotions they evoke. In cognitive therapy, there are various exercises based on Buddhist meditations: you can imagine that thoughts are clouds floating in the sky, or in your imagination you can put each thought in a boat and watch how they float down the river. Another option is to imagine a white room with two doors, and imagine that every thought that enters your mind enters through one door and exits through another. The essence of this approach is to realize how many thoughts the brain generates every second, and learn to observe them.

Meditation without the supervision of a specialist can lead to hell.

Another popular variation is mindfulness of sensations in the body, otherwise known as body scanning. Here - as a rule, with an instructor (this can be a living person in some kind of joint meditation class, and an application, and a video on YouTube, there is a lot of such content now) - you consistently pass your attention through your whole body.

First, concentrate on the sensations in your toes, then study how your left heel feels, receive the signals that your calf and shin give you, rise to your knees - and so on, higher and higher, gradually covering your entire body with attention. Such meditation allows you to relax very well and relieve muscle tension. It is nice to do it before bed to make it easier to fall asleep.

However, there is always a great danger of overdoing it and starting to meditate very intensely, because, for example, in traditional practices you cannot move, instead you need to concentrate extremely and clearly focus your attention. But here it is just useful to remember the goals, and if your goal is not religious ecstasy and getting into nirvana, but simply relaxation, it is important to allow yourself to treat meditation a little easier in order to really be able to relax and not overwork.

There are other directions and types, a little more esoteric, we will mention them in order to form a complete picture. Transcendental Meditation involves concentrating on a word or mantra and constantly repeating it to yourself. Vipassana is a practice aimed at “seeing things as they are”, for which they usually take a vow of silence and do not say anything for several days, only silently observe the external and internal world. The Loving-Kindness Meditation is an exercise in compassion for yourself, others, and the world. And meditation on the chakras is already hardcore, involving the opening of the third eye, so it is better to be as careful as possible with it. However, this is not all, but it is quite enough for a start.

HeadSpace

The world's most popular meditation app. It has more than a hundred different practices that help you concentrate or, conversely, relax. Of the minuses - there is only in English.

« Practice »

Application in Russian. It has a free 10-short-lesson course for beginners—the perfect entry point for beginners.

« Mo: meditation and sleep »

Startup from Mail.ru, contains more than two hundred classes in the most popular areas: anti-stress, productivity, sleep, personal relationships and self-esteem. to the Russian market, offers more than a thousand meditations, bedtime stories and a lot of content for quality sleep.

What is benefits of meditation

12 Science-Based Benefits of Meditation

12 Science-Based Benefits of Meditation

How to change your life through meditation: scientific arguments and practice

Why You Should Meditate: A Helpful Guide to Mindfulness Practice

Learn more