In our normal psychological state, our minds tend to be chaotic, distracted and as one scientist put it, immature.
Meditation channels the mind’s consciousness into a more organized, calm and productive state. Over the decades, there has been scores of studies looking at the effects of meditation on mental and physical health.
Needless to say, most of them have uncovered numerous benefits of meditation from reduced stress levels to better sleep quality.
Here are the 8 biggest mental health benefits of meditation, fully backed by science.
- Improved Cognition and Creativity
Creativity requires a different kind of thinking that is completely opposite of the brain’s normal state. In that chaos and confusion, it’s hard to create something – be it a painting, sculpture or story – that is truly unique and amazing.
Meditation clears your mind, allowing you to reach deep into your consciousness for creative ideas. That’s why you often see famous artists praising the power of meditation.
In one study that involved 14-18 year olds in Taiwan, researchers asked the kids to meditate for 15-20 minutes daily for 6-12 months.
At the end of the study, the children showed improved creativity, intelligence and general cognition.
These results emphasize a common recommendation from meditation experts to involve kids in meditation. It’s not just an adult thing.
If you want your kids or students to think more creatively and intelligently, integrate a few minutes of meditation into their daily routine.
- Increases Attention and Concentration
This is an obvious effect of meditating. The normal mental state is chaotic. Meditation clears the chaos. The inevitable effect is better concentration and attention on tasks.
This is especially helpful when you are engaged in a task that requires mental exertion such as a school project or a marketing analysis.
The improvement in attention and concentration comes paired with improved memory retention. In one study, students who engaged in daily meditation for two weeks saw a significant improvement in their exam results.
Yet another reason to enjoy meditation with your child.
- Helps With Stress Management
Meditation has been used for thousands of years to calm the mind and reduce stress. Even medical experts today highly recoend meditation for anxiety and stress management.
Normally, the body responds to stress with the evolutionary fight or flight response. This increases blood pressure, triggers the release of adrenaline and leaves you feeling high-strung.
Meditation teaches your brain to tamp down on these involuntary responses. Instead of responding to stress with even more stress, it calms down and relaxes.
This can actually make it easier for you to deal with whatever is causing the stress because your mind is clear and better able to find a solution.
There are several techniques of stress-reducing meditation including mindfulness meditation, transcendental meditation and relaxation response. Most require just 10 or so minutes per day to be effective.
- Helps With Depression and Anxiety
Depression has been a worsening problem in the US.
While treatments like cognitive therapy and anti-depressants are helpful to a lot of people suffering from depression, there is also a huge chunk of people that don’t benefit as much from them.
That’s why psychologists are increasingly recommending alternative treatments like meditation as complements to more traditional treatment options.
Several studies have already shown that meditation can help people with depression and anxiety. It helps the brain better deal with negative thoughts and in some cases it even changes the physical state of the brain.
One study found that after several weeks of meditation, certain brain regions thickened, correlating with better emotional management, self-perception and thought processing.
Meditation is not just good for patients with depression; it also prevents a relapse in those who have undergone successful treatment but are vulnerable to recurrences.
- Increases Positivity and Self Esteem
If you’ve interacted with someone who practices meditation often, you are probably familiar with their positive personality. It’s something that is true for most regular meditators.
They have a very positive outlook on life and nothing seems to bother them.
This is a proven benefit of meditation. It makes you more confident, relaxed and less anxious about whatever issues you are facing.
This personality change eventually bleeds over into your self-perception. It makes you think more positive thoughts about yourself, your physical appearance and your abilities.
Your perception of yourself overcomes whatever negative perceptions other people may have towards you.
- Improves Problem Solving
There are many reasons why meditation is recommended for leaders. One of the biggest is the positive effect it has on your ability to solve problems.
Meditation gets rid of distractions, reduces stress and anxiety and boosts your attention and creativity to help you solve problems more quickly and efficiently.
But it’s not just for managers. Anyone can use meditation to get out of a mental rut.
Several studies have shown that people who meditate often are better able to switch strategies, think outside the box and come up with creative solutions to problems.
- Increases Empathy
Regular meditation can help you become more understanding towards other people’s situations.
A study involving medical and pre-medical students (a group for whom empathy is especially important), found that meditation significantly increases empathy even during high-stress situations such as those doctors are frequently exposed to.
- Enhances Senses and Perception
This is perhaps the weirdest of all mental effects of meditation.
There is a certain condition called synesthesia which allows individuals to experience something in multiple senses. Someone may hear and also see sounds or feel certain smells on their skin.
Scientists have long believed that synesthesia occurs naturally in very few people. You cannot acquire it.
But that may not be the case. Of course it occurs naturally in some people but it’s also something you might be able to acquire through meditation.
One survey asked participants at a meditation retreat whether they experienced synesthesia.
Researchers judged their responses and determined that 35% of them had experienced actual synesthesia. Interestingly, this group had almost twice the meditation experience as the other participants.
So it seems that if you meditate for long enough (for many months or years), you might just start hearing colors and tasting sounds.
Also among the participants were doctors, among whom 63% described experiencing synesthesia. There was also a teacher group where 86% had synesthesia.
Granted, the sample size in this study was small. But the results are similar to other studies that have found that meditation enhances physical senses and perception.