1, decompression
When stress strikes, the body will release stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, which will produce a series of physiological effects. Long-term stress may have a disastrous effect on your health, leading to sleep interruption, high blood pressure and inattention. Meditation exercises affect the body in a way opposite to stress by triggering the body's relaxation response.
Step 2 control anxiety
Meditation is an effective form of anxiety management, which can calm the mind and reduce the stress in the body. In a study of 89 patients with generalized anxiety disorder characterized by chronic and excessive anxiety, patients who participated in mindfulness meditation showed "significant relief" of stress hormones and inflammatory response to stress conditions. At the same time, patients who attend non-meditation stress management courses have poor response.
Step 3 improve memory
Meditation can improve learning ability and memory. Long-term meditation practice can increase the density of gray matter in some areas of the brain (the more gray matter in a specific area of the brain, the smarter it will be in related fields), which is related to our self-awareness, compassion and self-examination ability.
4. Enhance self-awareness.
Meditation can help you better understand yourself and how you get along with people around you. This conscious self-awareness can also help you identify self-defeating thinking patterns, and it is related to the decreased activation of brain regions related to meditation.
5, improve attention
Meditation can improve attention and concentration. Even for beginners, a small dose of meditation every day can improve their expressive force and concentration. Meditation can even reverse patterns in the brain that lead to confusion and inattention.
Step 6 relieve loneliness
A study by Carnegie Mellon University shows that mindfulness meditation training can effectively relieve loneliness, thus reducing the risk of illness and death. In addition, reducing loneliness can also reduce the tendency of looking for a partner just to make up for my lack of self, thus helping me find a more suitable and truly happy life partner.
7. Relieve depressive symptoms
Meditation can not only change the brain chemistry to promote positive thinking and optimism, but also teach you to pay attention to your thoughts and feelings and observe them without any judgment. Therefore, it can help relieve the symptoms of depression, including depression, sadness and inferiority. According to an analysis, meditation therapy has been proved to relieve the symptoms of patients with clinical depression.
8, improve the quality of sleep
A short meditation at night can relax your body and mind and let you sleep well. In a study to evaluate the value of mindfulness meditation in the treatment of insomnia, participants who meditate are more likely to fall asleep than those who do not meditate, and fall asleep for a longer time.
9, improve control
Meditation regulates the function of prefrontal cortex, which is the part of the brain responsible for logic, reasoning and rational thinking. This exercise helps us feel more in control by developing awareness of the present and clearing other thoughts from our minds. According to research, just one breath of meditation 15 minutes can help people make more informed choices.
10, relieve pain
Meditation has been proved that it can not only reduce the pain of the body, but also enhance the elasticity of the body, thus having greater ability to cope with pain. In fact, according to a study by Beckett University in Leeds, only ten minutes of mindfulness meditation can be used as a substitute for painkillers. It is found that this practice can improve pain tolerance and threshold, and reduce participants' anxiety about pain.
1 1, help to quit addiction.
Meditation can exercise self-discipline and improve self-control. The "addiction" mentioned here is not only alcohol addiction and drug addiction, but also some minor addictions, such as constantly brushing mobile phones. It is found that abstainers will perform much better in controlling alcohol addiction after receiving meditation training, and the psychological pressure related to alcohol addiction will also be alleviated.
12, increase exercise endurance.
Many benefits of meditation are closely related to exercise, but practice can also be beneficial to your exercise in many ways. It not only helps to eliminate restrictive thinking and self-belief, but also enhances motivation. In addition, research shows that people who intentionally concentrate on sports and consciously integrate into their surroundings prefer sports to those who don't.
13, relieve stress and anxiety
A study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that an exercise called "open monitoring meditation" can reduce the density of gray matter in areas of the brain related to anxiety and stress. If a problem appears in front of you, the meditator will get rid of it more easily, while people who don't practice meditation usually find it difficult to get rid of psychological troubles, which leads to neglect all day.