What is meditation and what will it give to the common man? What does meditation give? Effects of the practice Meditation increases the concentration of gray matter in the brain

Some effects of meditation practice are noticeable after just a few minutes of practice. This is what meditation gives a person immediately after practice:

• Feeling better
• Calms the mind
• Thoughts become clear
• The mood is lifted

But many of the benefits of meditation are not so obvious, and appear in the long term after regular daily practice. As is the case with diet or exercise, the result is not visible after the first run or one day without sweets. But we know that after some time of persistent practice, we will definitely get the desired effect.

We no longer doubt the benefits of a low-carb diet and jogging for improving physical fitness. Their effects have been studied by scientists and confirmed by many people. The scientific approach to meditation is not yet so popular in Russia. And yet not many people know that the effects of meditation have also been studied by science.

Therefore, in this article I have collected various scientific discoveries about the benefits of meditation and the effects of the practice.

I have collected information (mostly from the English-language Internet) about hundreds of scientific studies, some of which are analyzes of hundreds of other studies.

Well, below I will list the most interesting things that I managed to find. You will be surprised to learn about some of the benefits of meditation practice.

Mindfulness meditation reduces depression

Professor Philippe Raes conducted a study among 400 students in five secondary schools in Belgium. As a result, he concluded that rates of anxiety and depression decreased after 6 months in students who practiced meditation.

Some scientists argue that most meditation studies have been poorly designed. To address this issue, Johns Hopkins University researchers carefully reviewed published clinical trials. They found that although the results show a reduction in depression and stress, better work is needed to evaluate the effects of meditation on other illnesses.

Madhav Goyal, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, criticized 47 clinical trials conducted before 2012. He designed a study to fairly compare meditation with other treatments for depression. Participants were randomly assigned to different treatment groups. Some were prescribed meditation, others cognitive behavioral therapy and medication.

Madhav Goyal said his study proved that meditation relieves depression and anxiety to the same extent as drug therapy.

Meditation increases the concentration of gray matter in the brain

A group of Harvard neurologists conducted an experiment in which 16 people completed an 8-week course of meditation.

The study results were presented by Sarah Lazar, Ph.D.

MRI scans showed that gray matter concentrations increased in areas of the brain involved in learning and memory, emotion control, self-esteem and future planning.

Other studies have also confirmed increases in hippocampal and frontal gray matter volumes in experienced meditators.

Meditation dramatically increases psychomotor activity and reduces the need for sleep

In a study conducted by the University of Kentucky, participants were divided into four groups with different conditions: control group, sleep reduction, meditation, meditation + sleep deprivation.

The experiment involved people unfamiliar with meditation, novice meditators and experienced practitioners.

The results show that meditation produces at least short-term improvements in performance even in novice meditators. Experienced practitioners experienced a significant reduction in total sleep time compared to people of the same gender and age who did not meditate.

Whether meditation can replace several hours of daily sleep is not yet clear. Research continues.

Long-term meditation increases the brain's ability to generate gamma waves

Neuroscientist Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin conducted a study with Tibetan Buddhist monks. He found that most monks showed extremely high gamma wave activity in the brain. This has never been reported before in the neuroscience literature, said Richard Davidson.

Meditation improves attention and ability to work under stress

A study conducted by Catherine McLean from the University of California found that during and after a meditation training course, subjects were more effective at performing repetitive and boring tasks.

In fact, there is evidence that meditators have a thicker prefrontal cortex, and that meditation can compensate for the loss of cognitive ability as we age.

Twenty participants involved in meditation were recruited for the experiment. The participants were not monks, but rather typical Western meditators who integrated the practice into their daily lives without interrupting their careers, family, and friends.

Two participants were full-time meditation teachers. Three participants were meditation instructors who taught part-time. The rest meditated for an average of 40 minutes once a day.

The experiment also included 15 participants who did not practice meditation.

All experimental subjects were mentally and physically healthy. The experiment took into account gender, age and nationality. Two participants were left-handed. Excluding them from the experimental results did not lead to significant changes.

The present study method used a well-validated computational approach to measure cortical thickness.

The results showed that regular meditation practice was associated with increased thickness in a subset of cortical regions associated with somatosensory, auditory, visual, and interoceptive processing. Additionally, regular meditation practice may slow the deterioration of the frontal cortex as we age.

Meditation relieves pain better than morphine

In an experiment conducted by Wake Forest Medical Center, 15 healthy volunteers who were new to meditation attended four 20-minute sessions to learn mindfulness breathing meditation. Both before and after the meditation training, participants' brain activity was analyzed using ASL fMRI while they were in pain from the burns.

Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., lead author of the study, explains that this is the first experiment to show a reduction in both pain sensation and pain-related brain activity as a result of just an hour of meditation practice. “We found a significant effect - about a 40% reduction in pain intensity. Meditation resulted in greater pain reduction than even morphine or other painkillers, which typically reduce pain by about 25 percent."

Meditation helps control ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder))

In a study of 50 adults diagnosed with ADHD, the group that did mindfulness meditation showed decreased hyperactivity, decreased impulsivity, and increased ability to “act with awareness,” which contributed to an overall improvement in inattentive symptoms.

Inner peace and tranquility

Imagine what happens when you don’t clean your apartment for a very long time - dirt, dust and debris accumulate everywhere. Now imagine your body as your home, every day a lot of garbage appears in your mind, soul and body. These can be negative emotions, thoughts and energies. When you do not practice regular meditation techniques, this debris can accumulate to toxic levels that will poison you.

If left unaddressed, feelings of stress, anxiety and depression can escalate to incredible proportions, greatly impacting your quality of life. Regular meditation can combat this toxicity and create the opposite effect - a deep sense of peace and peace of mind. This is an incredibly rewarding experience!

Living consciously in the present moment

Very often people ignore the present moment; they are mentally either in the future or in the past. The meditation technique brings you back to the present, thanks to which a person becomes calmer and more balanced. Your self-awareness will begin to awaken, you will be aware of your thoughts, feelings and sensations without reacting to them, and, therefore, will not become emotionally immersed in them. As a result, you will feel a taste for life and will live in the present moment, without succumbing to illusory desires and emotions.

A mind that is tuned into the present is less likely to be overwhelmed by negative, anxious, or stressful thoughts about the past or future. Research shows that mindfulness meditation does have an effect on our brain—the parts of the brain associated with anxiety, depression, and poor concentration shrink, while the areas associated with cognition, happiness, and calmness become larger.

Well-being and satisfaction

We all want our lives to be happy and fulfilling. To do this, some people turn to external sources of happiness - relationships, money, power, fame, recognition, etc. But the world is quite changeable, and money can turn into bankruptcy, relationships into betrayal, power into prison, health into illness.

According to highly revered meditation teacher and philosopher Trinlai Rinpoche, our minds are the only true and lasting source of happiness. Meditation gives us the means to access the inner richness of the mind so that we do not need to depend on external circumstances to achieve well-being and satisfaction. Agree, this is an important advantage!

Goodwill

Buddhists have long believed that meditation and compassion go hand in hand, and modern research confirms this. One reason is that mindfulness deepens our connection with all living things, which naturally creates empathy.

In an article published in the Atlantic Magazine, psychology professor David DeSteno writes about the benefits of meditation: “Mindfulness meditation has been heavily promoted recently for its benefits on brain function and its ability to heal the body, but many experienced meditation practitioners claim that it the fundamental goal is soul engagement. Tibetan tradition and meditation teacher Tungram Gyalwa noted that the effects of meditation on memory, health and cognitive skills, although positive, were considered secondary benefits by Buddhist sages. The main purpose of meditation is considered to be to calm the mind and increase the level of attention to achieve enlightenment, which will lead to deep feelings of compassion, generosity and goodwill.

These are not all the positive effects that meditation brings, here are a few more points you should know.

• Improves brain function, alertness, self-awareness and self-control.
• Reduces the production of cortisol, a stress hormone that suppresses the immune system and causes feelings of anxiety and unsettledness for no real reason.
• Reduces blood pressure and heart rate, which relieves excess pressure on the heart and arteries.
• Increases the production of good neurotransmitters including serotonin and dopamine, which play a huge role in controlling our mood.
• Activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which allows us to recover faster from stress.
• Reduces stress, resulting in increased immunity and overall well-being.
• Promotes muscle relaxation. Muscle tension is usually caused by stress and, if further aggravated, can lead to problems such as misaligned vertebrae, spinal problems and lack of mobility.
• Slows down the aging process. Meditation significantly increases melatonin and decreases cortisol, which has a significant effect on slowing down the aging process.
• Reduces stress, depression and anxiety. Increases stress resistance.
• Gives you an understanding of the meaning of life and your purpose.

I hope that now that you have learned about meditation and its benefits and effects, you will be inspired to practice regularly!

What does meditation give to the soul? Spiritual development

We have already looked at what happens to our body, to our mind and to our psyche from meditation. It's time to talk about the soul.

But these things are not clear to many because... go beyond our ordinary knowledge. They refer to the mysterious, unknown, little-studied. Many people simply don't believe in all this. And in vain. Modern scientists have begun to study things that previously seemed like science fiction to everyone. If the scientific world already recognizes this, then we should not lag behind in time and recognize the existence of this knowledge.

Yes, meditation cures physical and mental illnesses, changes the fate of the practitioner, makes him better in all respects, stronger, smarter, but this is all secondary and unimportant.

The most important benefit of meditation is the spiritual transformation of a person, the transformation of his higher consciousness - ascending or even jumping up the evolutionary ladder and gaining spiritual immortality.

This is what is considered the true purpose of meditation, for which it is worth starting the practice. And health and a change in destiny will already come as a consequence of spiritual development.

After the ego stops during meditation, the human soul opens up. She finally wakes up, comes out of captivity to freedom, and then real miracles begin.

The practitioner gains paranormal abilities. He learns what true Love is, becomes a happy person, wisdom and other higher qualities and feelings are revealed to him. He becomes impeccable in all respects and comes to know his true Self. His attention penetrates into subtle spheres, he begins to see what an ordinary person cannot see.

And it is precisely the transformation of higher consciousness that is the further development of man as a species, and therefore true evolution.

And only the soul is considered the immortal part of our being. By shifting the point of self-awareness to the soul, we ourselves become immortal and can exist after the death of the physical body.

At first I was thinking whether or not to talk about spiritual development through meditation in an article. I think everyone should know this. I just won’t go into detail about this topic; it is beyond the scope of our blog.

Whoever does not believe in this knowledge, let him use meditation for simple, ordinary purposes that are understandable to many.

Indeed, we are all different, and only, probably, 1% of those who practice will meditate for the sake of spiritual development. For many, this is simply incomprehensible.

But there's nothing wrong with that.

If you want to get rid of any disease, please practice meditation.

Maybe you want to become healthier, more resilient, or have a more beautiful body, also practice meditation.

You want to quit drinking, smoking or get rid of drugs, you are welcome, and here meditation will help you.

You cannot concentrate for a long time, you have a bad memory, you have no willpower, and here meditation will come to your aid.

You can't sleep at night, you have nightmares, you're tired of constant depression and panic attacks. Stress is overwhelming you. There is a magic pill. This is meditation.

You want to change your difficult character that brings you problems. Meditation will rewire our brains and we will become a different person.

And so many arguments can be given so that you finally move and start practicing.

If I have not convinced you yet, and you are in doubt about whether to meditate or not, then you are probably crazy. What could be more important in life than meditation. And I have never met such a universal remedy that would solve all human problems.

But no. You are not crazy.

Of course, it's not that simple.

Firstly, we come to the question of why, given such universality of meditation, people do not practice it.

There are very important reasons here. This conversation deserves its own article.

Secondly, the effects and benefits that I talked about are achieved by many not just by meditation, but by competent energy meditative practice.

There is a category of people for whom meditation leads to asthenia, decreased blood pressure, loss of strength, they become lethargic and lazy in life. Such people need to compensate for sitting in a pose and relaxation with special exercises-asanas, qigong classes or other energy work on the body. But this can all be solved.

You just need to have a competent approach to any task, and even more so to meditation.

Well, thirdly, real meditation is replaced by its surrogate. The practitioner does not perform the technique correctly, i.e. meditates incorrectly and does not achieve results. Today, the word meditation refers to many different techniques that are not related to true practice. These include visualization techniques, all kinds of autogenic relaxations, and God knows what else. They pursue a specific goal, for example, to rest, restore strength, and maybe even improve their health. Even if a practitioner receives all this, he quickly gets bored with such activities. And such a small number of bonuses from such techniques do not justify the time spent. Often, instead of positive results, the exact opposite is obtained. And the person becomes disappointed in meditation, telling everyone that it is nonsense.

That's why I don't like the word meditation. There is no such name in the East.

Real practice is the development of true awareness, the discovery of the real Self or soul in oneself, and all this is achieved only when the ego, psyche stops and there is silence of the mind.

Once you get the hang of this practice, you will never get tired of it, because... the practitioner will feel positive changes in himself every time in the form of many bonuses that I spoke about. The understanding will come that there is no limit to perfection; the practitioner will happily sit in a pose every day and begin practice with a sense of accomplishment.

And if we miss classes, the soul will suffer and ask to study again.

Even if you do not pursue high spiritual goals in meditation, it still needs to be done correctly. This happens, I repeat, only when the mind, psyche stops, or the internal dialogue still speaks and the silence of the mind sets in.

Therefore, it is so important to meditate correctly, so as not to be disappointed later. Even such a well-known technique as following the breath carries the danger of turning from a true meditation where the ego disappears into an ego-strengthening practice.

On the pages of this blog we will learn to meditate correctly. And I will help you with this.

Let's summarize. Finding strength

By spending just 20-30 minutes of daily time on meditation, you will receive as many bonuses as you will never get from anything else. The time you spend on yourself will pay off in full.

I think now you understand why people meditate, and don't laugh at them.

All of the above effects and bonuses can be combined and expressed in one phrase. But it is in this simple expression that a deep meaning is hidden, which reveals and explains the simple and understandable benefits of meditation, in the form of gaining health, endurance, and stress resistance. So is the benefit that comes from the mysterious aspects of our lives - improving fate, improving life, good luck in all matters, increasing intuition, creativity, acquiring paranormal abilities.

Strength will come to us, we will become strong.

Remember the expression from the movie Star Wars - “May the Force be with you.” I hope you understand that it was not about the physical strength of a person, but about some abstract Force that lives not in our ordinary world, but in the mysterious and unknown world of subtle energies. This is where our soul resides. These are the energies that cause confusion in classical physics, which studies the visible world we are familiar with. And which modern quantum physics has only now begun to study.

This Power, which permeates everything that exists, sets the laws of the whole world, although its subtle manifestations seem imperceptible to us. Nourishes every cell of our body and all living organisms. Gives them strength, but only if the body is open to it.

But we do not notice it, we are not open to it, because we are locked in our ego bubble, and the Force cannot reach us.

When we stop the ego during meditation, the Force easily penetrates us, nourishes our body, psyche, soul and we become healthy, smart, wise. We are simply becoming better than we were. Strength gives us something that many have heard about, but did not know what it was, or confused this expression with another quality of a person. Thanks to her, we gain and become strong in spirit.

It is difficult to explain what fortitude is, because it also does not relate to our visible world and it is inexpressible in words. Only those who have felt it themselves can understand it.

Strength of spirit, or they also say personal strength, is, first of all, strength of spirit, i.e. our soul. When the soul is healthy, not clogged with ego, our psyche, it is strong, capable of controlling the ego, and a person feels it.

And only then the power will manifest itself in every part of our being, in the form of those bonuses that I spoke about above, and then we will be able to describe and understand it with our minds.

At the body level, we are in perfect health and we will be physically strong and resilient.

At the mental level, as acquiring a strong personality with unshakable views, sober and clear thinking.

At the mental level, such as a reduction in negative emotions, emotional strength and peace.

And all this is achieved, I repeat, only when our spirit is strong. And the spirit can be strengthened only when the ego stops, the soul spreads its wings, and the Force freely penetrates us.

And this happens precisely in meditation.

Therefore, we answered the main question of this article. You need to meditate first of all in order to become strong, to gain fortitude. This is probably a revelation to you and you have never heard of it. What can I say, read the blog and you will learn a lot more interesting things.

How modern man lacks the strength of spirit now. Nowadays there are fewer and fewer real men, because most are addicted to alcohol, which takes away strength. There are fewer and fewer real women, because lust, gluttony and other weaknesses prevail in modern society.

Because of this, many people do not tolerate life’s difficulties well, are often susceptible to physical and mental illness, react sharply to pressure from outside, become offended, angry, become despondent and pour out their grief with a glass of vodka.

And they don't know how to get out of this circle. They simply do not know that there is only one remedy that will solve all problems and give them strength - meditation.

In the modern realities of life, when we are constantly under psychological and moral pressure, you must agree that it is not the one who is physically strong who will survive, but the one who is strong in spirit.

We all want, probably unconsciously, to be a strong person with strong energy. A strong man has always been an example to follow. Look at the idols. Actors, politicians, singers, heroes. Of these, only those with strong energy and a strong personality become idols. And they have such energy and such a personality thanks to their great strength of spirit. But they have this innate feature, given to them by nature.

Why do we create idols for ourselves? Yes, because consciously or unconsciously we want to be like them. We imitate them, take our example from them. But what happens? In most cases, such imitation from the outside seems funny and awkward. Of course, how can we become an eagle, being a sparrow, become a tiger, being a fat, soft and weak domesticated cat. We're just a different species, and we're made of different stuff. People simply don’t understand that in order to become such a strong personality, you don’t need external imitation, but you need to change your inner essence.

We need to change our internal energy, only then will we turn from a cat into a tiger. Is this possible? Certainly. What should I do? You need to gain strength, and this can only be achieved through meditation. And only meditation will change you from the inside and turn you into a different person. Remember, I said that meditation is climbing the evolutionary ladder. If you begin to meditate regularly, then your first step on this ladder will be to transform from a weak cat with poor energy into a strong tiger with increased energy. (Here I don’t want to offend cats and gave this example just for clarity. In fact, there are cats with weak and strong energy, as well as tigers and any animals.)

Women want to become beautiful and their idols are often beautiful actresses.

But they don’t know that there is external beauty and there is internal beauty. Those who have fortitude have inner beauty. It is this beauty that can make a woman beautiful, even if she does not naturally have a very attractive appearance. And this is a truly miraculous transformation. There are many examples when a girl, as a result of some event in life, literally becomes a beauty before our eyes, although her appearance has not changed, she has not undergone any plastic surgery. For example, she fell in love, recovered from a serious illness, fulfilled her dream, i.e. she just became happy. And happiness is, first of all, the recovery of the soul, which means gaining the strength of the soul or spirit. And there are examples when strength leaves a person, for example due to severe stress, grief, loss of a loved one, loss of love. Or because of alcoholism, gluttony, sexual lust or other indulgences of lower passions. And then the beauty turns into an ugly one. A young woman can turn into an old woman in a short time.

What kind of woman does a mentally healthy man gravitate towards? Which is outwardly beautiful, but there is no inner beauty or, conversely, to one that radiates inner beauty. I think you understand. What you need to become beautiful. And here there is only one answer. Gain strength of spirit through meditation and after some time men will be crazy about you.

In general, to become a strong person you need two things. Meditation and life's difficulties. It is not running away from problems, but facing the hardships of life that makes us a strong person. And the worse the trouble is, the stronger we will become when we come out of it. But we must go into battle with a strong psyche, otherwise the battle will simply kill us. You can't go into battle weak. There is meditation for this. By gaining fortitude through meditation, we will be ready to face with a brave heart the adversity for which we are already prepared, and, having overcome it, we will become even stronger. And this newfound strength needs to be consolidated through meditation. This is an interdependent process.

But this is a completely different story, which I will tell you later.

You can watch a lot of videos on the Internet about the benefits of meditation.

Or this:

What more can I say.

Meditate and the Power will come to you.

Welcome to the magical world of meditation.

Best regards, Sergey Tigrov

Why is meditation needed? This question is asked by everyone who is just starting to engage in spiritual self-development. And this is correct - you must understand what result you will achieve in the end, and what you need to strive for.

What are the benefits of regular meditation?

You should not expect colossal results from the very first meditation session. Success comes with regular practice. If you are determined to introduce such spiritual techniques into your life, you need to understand why this is even necessary.

The benefits of regular meditation are as follows:

1. You clear your consciousness of everything superfluous and unnecessary. You get rid of negative programs laid down by society, parents, educators and teachers, and the environment. This is a colossal liberation from other people’s opinions and concentration on your real thoughts.
2. You learn to hear the desires of your own soul. You understand your true purpose. You can gradually find your life’s work, something you love, something that brings you pleasure and good money.
3. You become invulnerable to other people's manipulations, because your consciousness is no longer blinkered by other people's attitudes and opinions, but reflects only your own desires, intentions, aspirations
4. A taste for life appears. Your thoughts become clearer, you finally understand what you really want and direct all your energy to achieving goals that are meaningful to you.
5. You are training mindfulness. This means that you learn to completely control your thoughts and feelings and at any moment you will be able to abstract yourself from emotions, keeping your head cool and your mind sober.
6. You shift your focus to things that are truly important to you, abstracting from what doesn’t deserve your time and thoughts.
7. You establish relationships with others, calmly react to any manifestations of negative emotions, become able not only to receive love and happiness from external sources, but also to share them with the world and people
8. You discover creative abilities and talents that you never knew you had. Absolutely every person has creative potential, but it can be so hidden that it is impossible to see it.
9. You get rid of fears, phobias, complexes and insecurities, fill with self-love and self-esteem

Regular meditation teaches you to constantly be in a state of “just being” and live in the moment, enjoying the present. The past fades into the background and no longer bothers you, and the future ceases to frighten and bother you. You are simply happy, living in harmony, enjoying what you have and confident that everything will be fine forever.

Now you know what meditation gives to a person. But to get similar results, it is important to follow some rules.

Benefits of meditation for the body

According to psychosomatics, the cause of any disease lies in the human subconscious. Therefore, regular meditative practices, due to relaxation and harmonization of consciousness, have a beneficial effect on the health of the physical body.

What are the health benefits:

• The energy balance in the human subtle body is normalized. As a result, you will always feel filled with energy and vitality. Stress resistance is strengthened, the psycho-emotional state is always stable
• “Energy holes” in the aura are eliminated. Each of the seven chakras comes into harmony. It is known that chakras are responsible for the health of certain organs. Therefore, you can even achieve complete healing. But, of course, you shouldn’t neglect the methods of official medicine
• Your body reacts sensitively to external circumstances, and you learn to hear its signals. Therefore, you can easily determine the onset of the disease and quickly cure it using available methods.

Sincere meditation practice brings balance to the body and spirit, so a person is not afraid of any diseases.

The role of meditation in spiritual development

The main goal of meditation practices is spiritual self-development. As a result, you can achieve the following:

• Develop self-discipline and awareness. Take control of your own life and build it the way you need. No external circumstances can aggravate your problems
• You understand and realize in what rhythm you are most comfortable living and interacting with people, working and developing. Vanity disappears, you no longer waste energy on empty things and actions
• You develop your creative potential, discover new talents in yourself and clearly see what abilities you have. This helps to concentrate and direct energy in the right direction to achieve all kinds of goals.
• You develop morality, observe moral standards, not because they are imposed by society, but because you gain your own dignity
• You have more time because you stop wasting energy on goals and activities that you don’t need.

And most importantly, you return to yourself, become a truly whole and free, independent person.

Watch a video about what meditation is for and what its benefits are:

You can find many meditation techniques in different spiritual schools. Try everything and find what suits you best and resonates in your soul. No one but you knows which method is ideal for you.

Gradually you will begin to feel happiness and harmony filling you. You will learn to enjoy life in all its manifestations, gain meaning and purpose. You will follow the dictates of only your soul, and not adapt to the surrounding space.

And remember that meditation is constant and hard work. Working with the subconscious is not as simple as it seems at first glance. But if you take the first step on the path to spiritual self-development, you will begin to change, and after you, the world around you will change.