World Mental Health Day: Does Daily Meditation Really Help?

Meditation practice may help if you are anxious, tense, and worried due to stress. Even a few minutes of meditation can help restore your calm and inner peace, which can benefit both your emotional well-being and your overall health. Meditation is simple, inexpensive, does not require any special equipment, and can be practised by anyone.

Finding time to meditate throughout the day, whether for 5 minutes or 20 minutes, can help you feel happier and more at ease and both your mind & body will appreciate it. Meditation has numerous health and well-being benefits, we have listed a few of them below.

Benefits of Meditation
•    You can deal with stress better
Meditation fosters mental and physical calm, which can help reduce stress. The body follows the mind when it relaxes and let's go. We require our adrenaline and nervous systems to unplug, recycle, and rejuvenate from time to time.

•    It relieves anxiety
Meditation is widely regarded as the ultimate portable anti-anxiety treatment. Simply closing your eyes and doing breathing exercises for a few minutes can turn off the anxiety-inducing mechanisms in your brain. It allows you to unwind by allowing you to simply relax and remain calm under pressure. Mindfulness can help you feel more relaxed by lowering your blood pressure and stress levels.

•    It helps reduce the symptoms of depression 
Depression is a group of mental health conditions that are frequently triggered by stress and anxiety. According to research, meditation can alter brain areas associated with depression, such as the 'me centre' and 'fear centre.'

•    Your brain can be retrained 
Brains develop as they are used. Studies have shown that meditation retrains the brain to use the prefrontal cortex, or 'me centre,' to regulate the 'fear centre'. As a result, when we are not meditating and are faced with a stressor, we will use our prefrontal cortex to direct our minds back to think more calmly and clearly, rather than reacting impulsively.
 
•    It is beneficial to your heart
Meditation has been shown in studies to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. Meditation improves blood pressure, heart muscle efficiency, and overall cardiovascular mortality.

•     It reduces blood pressure 
Adults are affected by high blood pressure, which is considered a worldwide epidemic that increases the risk of stroke and heart attack. According to research, meditation can naturally lower blood pressure without the use of medication.

•    It promotes inner strength 
We've all been stuck in traffic or in a long, boring meeting and wished we could get out. Practising meditation and mindfulness helps build inner strength and endurance to calmly get through these situations because it creates an ability to be in the moment no matter what, we're just able to be with difficult things without unravelling or letting them affect us.

•    Anger management 
Getting angry is natural when dealing with difficult people or situations. You could make things worse if you act impulsively, however, when you meditate, you train your brain to focus on the present, which can help you learn to control and process your emotions at the moment. Maybe you're upset, but if you slow down and just feel your emotions, just turning your attention to your breath creates a sense of relief in the mind.

•    Pain management
Because meditation activates areas of the brain associated with pain processing, mindful breathing can help people manage chronic pain. According to research, even a short period of meditation can improve pain tolerance and reduce pain-related anxiety, potentially reducing the need for opioid pain medication.

•    Meditation protects against burnout
It's easy to burn out as we work longer hours and take on more responsibilities. According to research, practising mindfulness-based stress reduction may actually shrink the part of the brain that causes worry and fear while strengthening the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for personality development. 

A Take-Home Message
Experiences and modern research show that meditation is beneficial for achieving life goals, with some even referring to it as "food for the soul" and suggesting that this practice can open doors to a better life. Why not try a style of meditation that suits your goals, even if you only have a few minutes a day, because it is a great way to improve your quality of life.