Meditation Basics: The Benefits of a Meditation Practice

Introduction

In my last meditation basics blog, I provided some valuable tips and tricks on how to meditate properly to ensure someone new (or even more experienced) to meditation can get the most out of their meditations in the shortest amount of time.

In this blog, I will discuss the benefits of meditation. You might realize that meditation is good for you, and you probably know that you feel better after meditation, but there must be more to it, right? While not every meditation is the same, we will go through the general benefits of meditation that most meditators experience regardless of the type of meditation they practice.

Meditation Benefits

Let’s get right to it. Meditation can help us in so many ways, but I will highlight what I think is the most beneficial for most people to know.

Increases Energy

Meditation helps us increase our energy in two main ways:

• Reducing energy expenditure
• Improving our sleep

When the mind is overactive, certain types of thoughts can lead to us experiencing certain emotions. And yes, emotions can also influence our thoughts which is why it is easy to fall into a vicious cycle of thoughts leading to emotions, emotions leading to thoughts, and repeat…over and over and over! For example, if you think of someone or something you do not like, you will immediately feel different. The feelings vary from person to person (i.e., anger, anxiety, jealousy, etc.), but the discomfort remains constant as they lead to a disempowering state.

These feelings release over 1400 hormones in the body which leads to increased energy expenditure. For example, cortisol speeds up our heartbeat, and each heartbeat uses energy. When cortisol is released into the bloodstream, it can last up to 12 hours, so if you get upset in the afternoon or evening, you will have a more challenging time falling and staying asleep at night.

Other feelings such as love, peace, appreciation, etc. that lead to empowering states can be experienced during meditation practice. Further, they can counteract these biochemical and hormonal changes with 1400 different hormones, including Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), known for renewal and vitality.

Essentially these positive feelings lead to an empowered state and balance out the hormones released by a disempowering state. Even a meditation practice that does not invoke positive feelings can balance out your hormones because it interrupts your thought patterns so that your thoughts no longer connect to those feelings that lead to disempowering states.

Decreases Stress and Fatigue

When we feel overwhelmed or stressed, cortisol is released into the body as part of that flood of 1400 hormones. As previously mentioned, cortisol can also impact our sleep as it can impact our body for up to 12 hours, and so over time, this can lead to fatigue.

Just like a muscle needs time to recover after a workout, our nervous system (and other systems) needs time to recover from the strain that it is under. If you do not give your body time to heal from a workout (or if you push it past its limits), you may experience an injury. Similarly, we need sleep to help our nervous system recover from stress and fatigue.

The same thing happens to the other body systems, which is why various illnesses and other health challenges may surface. Now I am not saying that if you meditate, you will never get sick or have an injury, but, in my experience, it certainly helps to strengthen your immune system.

Meditation helps us calm down or balance our nervous system by counteracting the energy-consuming hormones such as cortisol by interrupting the cycle of thoughts and emotions. That is why many meditations include the practice of observing or slowing down our thoughts.

Also, DHEA and the other 1400 hormones that can be released during meditation counter cortisol, so even if you have an emotional upset, you can recover after meditating and resume your day (without a lessened or prevented impact of cortisol). This is why many people meditate before they go to sleep because it can balance out your hormones and allow you a better night’s sleep.

Improves Attention and Focus

When we practice meditation, we are focused on the meditation. This in itself improves attention and focus, which we can then apply to other areas of our life. Further, many meditations require us to focus on one thing, such as the breath, body sensations, an object, etc. where we allow distractions to pass without getting attached to them. So we also develop the ability to tune out distractions when we are trying to focus on a specific task, thing, or person.

There are also guided meditations where we listen to the guide, follow the instructions, or maybe even get lost when our minds wander. But the more we practice the less mind wandering occurs. The less mind wandering, the more focus we experience in our meditation.

This enhanced attention span and focus also transfers to our daily lives, and we can find that we are more focused at work, more able to listen consciously to a friend or loved one, and are able to benefit in many other areas of our lives (maybe even planning that extended vacation you always wanted).

When I was in college, I started to do martial arts and meditation, and it helped me immensely as I was able to discipline myself to study. My attention span and focus were greatly enhanced, and my grades improved drastically.

The meditations I was practicing were ancient Qigong breathing techniques, and Kung Fu forms where I was focused on doing one thing at a time. Eventually, I could do the forms without thinking and focus on my breath or the energy radiating through my body. This is where I learned that there was such a thing as active meditation and quickly realized this could be applied to other types of exercise with the proper focus and practice.

Enhances Learning and Memory

There are three ways that meditation helps one enhance their learning and memory capacities:

• Improved sleep
• Learning to learn and remembering what you learned
• Clear mind

We have already covered how meditation improves sleep through emotional regulation. Meditation also enhances sleep by emptying the mind of the daily clutter of thoughts, especially when we practice right before bed.

Having a clear mind also helps us effectively learn new things (and remember them) as we have less mental clutter and distractions to sift through while we are learning. It also helps our brain to retrieve information when we need it because the information has been more effectively organized and stored and there is less information to search. When we learn something new, we are essentially learning how to learn. The more we learn, the easier it is to learn other things.

One can think of learning to meditate, similar to building a house. The first few meditations we learn might be the toughest as they are new, and we do not have a previous reference point, but the more we practice, the easier it becomes, and subsequent meditations are learned easier and faster.

It is similar to constructing the foundation of the house. It does not look like much is happening, but then the foundation is completed, and before you know it, the walls are up, and the house is being finished on the inside.

Improves Problem Solving

With regular meditation practice, we can balance our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems and heart rhythms. When we do this, we open the door for improving the transfer of information between the heart and mind. This helps optimize our executive functions such as goal setting, creative thinking, self-regulation, and foresight. All of these skills aid us in solving problems, whether they be at work or home.

Another interesting thing happens when we are on the spiritual path and especially when we practice gratitude meditations. Our way of viewing the world changes, and we start to focus more on what is serving us in life versus what is challenging us. We also view problems as things to be solved as opposed to things that are happening to us. This is freeing and again allows us to approach problems with a clear mind.

Heightens Awareness and Compassion

When we regularly practice meditation (especially heart-based meditations), we also experience a greater awareness for ourselves and others. We become aware of our actions and how they impact ourselves and others in and after the moment (and even how our actions might affect ourselves and others before we do them – back to the foresight piece discussed in the previous section).

This awareness leads to self-compassion and compassion for others as we realize we are all human, are more similar than different, and face challenges. For some, the practice even extends, and at some point, they become aware that we are all one and the same.

Conclusion

I have selected general benefits that most if not all meditations help us achieve. I sometimes hear meditators and even spiritual teachers argue about what is the best type of meditation. Do you know what the best kind of meditation is? The one you are doing!

There are enough challenges in the world that those of us in the spiritual community need to set aside our differences and egos and unite (yes, even spiritual people have some form of an ego [maybe they manage the ego whereas before the ego managed them]…you could not exist as a human without one). It is more important that people awaken at this crucial point in human history and how they do it is irrelevant. What is relevant is that it happens.

So, whatever the origin or variation of your meditation practice is (e.g., Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, mindfulness, etc.), keep doing what works for you. Oh, and by the way, experienced meditators can be in a state of meditation doing things like playing a musical instrument, singing, and even exercising if they can slow down the mind and focus on one thing or maybe empty their mind and think of nothing at all!

If you still have questions about meditation or are drawn to discovering and exploring your spiritual self through spiritual coaching, then we suggest booking a session with us today. There are One-On-One Spiritual Coaching Introductory Specials (available on the “Book Online” page) to help you get started on your journey. For more information, please check out our services page or book your introductory coaching session today on our “Book Online” page, as we have some special offers available for a limited time.