Home > Article Index > Meditation > The Benefits of Meditation
The Benefits of Meditation
The greatest benefit of meditation is that it is the foundation for cultivating awareness. Whenever awareness is present in a part of our life, that part can improve.
Awareness is the key to health, greater intelligence and intuition, higher knowledge, and to uncovering our hidden abilities. Through regular meditation we develop our powers of perception and begin to see things as they really are. Awareness, which is cultivated in meditation, allows us to manage life, with its joys, sorrows and difficulties, with greater intelligence and creativity.
To develop meditative awareness we need to learn a range of skills that cultivate our internal abilities. Each skill brings its own benefits, including relaxation, introversion, concentration, self-reflection, contemplation and the capacity to generate higher states of mind and being. All of these processes have one main aim, to cultivate greater and more stable awareness of who we are. We can then use meditation to benefit our physical, psychological and spiritual wellbeing.
Physical Benefits of Meditation
The physical effects of meditation include better health and vitality. Meditation has been used widely as part of training in sports, for example.
Meditation supports the healing of many illnesses, especially chronic illness; it helps to reduce pain and suffering. It has been found to help lower blood pressure, to improve survival in cancer, to improve a number of digestive disorders, and to help in many other conditions.
Psychological and Emotional Benefits of Meditation
The psychological and emotional benefits of meditation include greater relaxation, improved focus and concentration, emotional stability, better capacity to make decisions, greater self-insight and improved relationships.
The Health Benefit of Meditation
The health benefit of meditation resides in its power to calm the mind and restore vital energy to the whole Self.
The aim of meditation is to increase awareness. As awareness increases we begin to feel and experience more aspects of ourselves and to understand life with greater clarity and depth. We begin to see the many interweaving relationships that make up the fabric of our lives.
As a result of this process we change in ways that are nourishing, strengthening and which lead to greater joy. Joy is the greatest greatest health benefit of meditation. In fact it is the true gift of meditation.
Better physical health and mental peace are often side-effects of the process of meditation. They result from the profound transformation of the nervous and chemical systems of the body, from mental strength and stability, and from changes to our lifestyle and patterns of relationship that result from exercising our awareness.
At a physical and neurological level, meditation turns on the 'relaxation response', which is effected by the parasympathetic nervous system. This relaxes every organ and system in the body.
For example, meditation slows the heart rate and breathing, lowers blood pressure, improves digestion, benefits the immune system’s ability to respond to stress, and so on. Turning on the relaxation response removes the effects of stress and day-to-day tensions.
Calming the nervous system calms the mind. A calm mind enhances our capacity for feeling and intuition, so that we naturally begin to feel what our body needs.
For example, if we can feel and recognize how deeply tired we really are we can then do what is required to heal that tiredness. We may need to learn how to slow down, how to sleep more and how to practice simple relaxations, such as Yoga Nidra. We may find that we can practice simple relaxation and meditation techniques for short periods and more often.
Over time, regular meditation allows us to see the effects that our lifestyle and habits are having on our body. We can make gradual, appropriate and intelligent changes.
Today, the health benefits of meditation are widely recognized. Meditation practice is prescribed in many medical texts as an effective process for reducing physical, emotional and mental problems, and for positively influencing a diverse array of diseases. Chronic conditions, such as high blood pressure, cancer, digestive problems, disorders of the nervous system, anxiety, and many other conditions can be helped significantly through meditation.
Meditation has been used by athletes as an essential part of their preparation for elite sporting events such as the Olympic Games, and by athletes in all codes of sport, from football, to swimming, tennis, fencing, and so on.
When a meditative technique is added appropriately into our life, in a way which suits us according to our present needs, then our life is enhanced at all levels. Physical vitality and well-being are just some of the health benefits of meditation.
Spiritual Benefits of Meditation
Meditation powerfully affects our spiritual wellbeing. The benefits include greater Self-awareness and Self-knowledge, a greater sense of being present in the here and now, a deeper sense of individual purpose as a result of feeling linked to something greater.
Meditation, when properly applied, has many benefits for a full, effective and happy life.
About the Author(s):
In 2004, Dr Swami Shankardev and Jayne Stevenson decided to pool their talents to create Big Shakti. They co-create various seminars and workshops, which Swami Shankardev presents throughout Australia, USA, Europe and India.
More...
|