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Meditation techniques all over the world are blowing away the dogma of decades ago that our brain’s potential is set at birth. It has proved that we can actually improve our brain in ways which were once believed impossible. It is nothing short of amazing that our brain can be molded by meditation. Backed by numerous studies, neuroscientists believe that meditation has the potential to upgrade your brain and transform your life in many big ways. Meditation is a practice that appears to have an amazing variety of neurological benefits.
Practicing meditation can help to create a feeling of oneness which makes us feel less lonely and separated. It releases a cascade of psychological as well as physiological benefits that help to make you happier and a healthier person. Following are the benefits that you can achieve by practicing meditation in the long-run:
1. It preserves your brain:
The studies from UCLA has found that when we practice meditation for long-term, our brains are preserved and less likely to age. Meditation has a widespread effect that encompasses throughout the brain regions and keeps it active.
2. It stops mind wandering:
When we are not doing anything in particular, our mind keep wandering from one thought to another. This wandering of our mind makes us less happy because it makes us think about the past and worry about the future. Mindfulness meditation helps to decrease the activity in the default mode network which is called the DMN. This section of the brain is responsible creating self-referential thoughts. Meditators are found to be better at getting out of the circle of thoughts as compared to the rest.
3. Effective for anxiety:
Mindfulness and meditation are found to have positive effects on people who suffer from anxiety. According to the scientific team led by the researcher Madhav Goyal, the effect size of meditation was found to be moderate i.e. 0.3 which is equal to the size of an antidepressant which is also 0.3. This makes meditation a much better option for the people who are depressed. Meditation trains our mind to increase awareness and can slowly help to manage the symptoms of anxiety.
4. Improves concentration and attention:
Lack of concentration is something that has affected most of the people. One of the main benefits of meditation is improving concentration and attention. With a few weeks of training, it helps people to improve focus and memory and help then with the cognitive skills as well.
5. Helps to recover from addiction:
Meditation helps us to manage our emotions by controlling various regions of our brain. A growing number of studies have proved that meditation is effective in helping people to recover from various types of addition. Quitting smoking is not easy for most of the people but by practicing meditation, people are more likely to leave smoking easily. It is because meditation helps people to decouple from the state of craving from the act of smoking. Researchers have proved mindfulness training is helpful in treating all kinds of additions.
Meditation is not a difficult process and you can practice in short breaks. You can also help your child practice meditation which will help them deal with daily stressors that arise due to school activities. This will help them develop their brains from an early age making your child a healthier and happier adult.
Via: Forbes
