meditation

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What is meditation?

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While many people associate the word yoga with physical practices, historically the practice of yoga has related to the development of meditative states. The word meditation is the English translation of the sanskrit word dhyāna. Meditation is the concentration on a single subject area, for example the breath. It can also mean contemplating on a single subject area. There are numerous traditions of meditation and techniques, but all share the intent for the meditator to attain higher levels of awareness and knowledge.

When we practice meditation we learn to be with ourselves, which is often not that easy. We begin to understand the nature of our monkey mind with its tendency to jump from one thing to the next. We begin to understand our habitual patterns. We learn to quiet the mind and connect with the deepest aspect of our being. We cultivate the ability to be present. We begin to see more clearly. We learn to appreciate the interconnectedness of all beings. Meditation gives us the insight necessary to more easily navigate the ups and downs of life. We feel happier.

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The benefits according to science

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Neuroscience-oriented research on meditation particularly around mindfulness meditation and the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs has highlighted many benefits of meditation.

Meditation activates the parasympathetic nervous system.
Meditation changes the structure of the brain; it increases the thickness of certain cortical regions which are important for sensory, cognitive and emotional processing and may slow age-related declines in cortical structure (Lazar et al. 2005).
Meditation decreases stress related cortisol (Tang et al 2007)
MBSR programs improve mood and affective processes (Nyklick & Kuijpers, 2008), strengthens the immune system functioning (Davidson et al, 2003), stress (Carlson, Speca, Faris & Pagel, 2007) and emotional regulation (Nielsen & Kaszniak, 2006).
Twenty minutes a day of mindfulness meditation can improve performance on a range of cognitive tasks (Zeidan, Fadel, et al. 2010)
Meditation can provide pain relief (Zeidan, Fetal, et al. 2012)
Meditation can positively affect the functioning of the amygdala and our emotional response to situations in non-meditative states (the amygdala is a part of the brain responsible for the fight or flight mechanism and is commonly activated even when our survival is not threatened) (Desbordes et al 2012)