Posted on September 11, 2024
Meditation which was thought in the past as a spiritual or religious practice, has become a part of scientific approach. With increased research, it has been established that meditation complements science as a result of its ability to cause changes in the brain, body and mental health. In this blog we will be looking at how meditation works as per science and how science and meditation go along together.
Meditation: A Brief Overview
To define, meditation is a process where one exercises his or her mind to achieve a state of relaxation or awareness. It has been around for thousands of years and used mostly in the religious practices such as Buddhism and Hinduism. But for the last few decades or so there has been a rapid rise in the use of meditation in the western countries for both religious and health purposes.
Meditation is all about developing one’s consciousness, being there in the present moment and having a quiet and undistracted mind. It helps people pay attention to their feelings and thoughts in a non-critical manner leading to a healthy state of mind. That is the charm of meditation – one can meditate regardless of profession, age and health status and the results can be seen in just a few days of regular practice or even within one day from the moment when one has realized that he or she needs it.
Scientific Exploration of Meditation
Specifically, the increase in using meditation has created a trend among the scientists who wish to study its impact with the scientific approach. Several columns of biomedical science researchers comprising of neuroscientists, psychologists, and medical experts have attempted to understand the physiological and psychological effects of meditation. There have been many scientific research done over the years to support the idea that meditation has the ability to alter the brain and the body in the most concrete ways.
Neuroplasticity and Brain Changes
Neuroplasticity is one of the greatest areas of interest regarding meditation since it is the study of the brain and how it changes according to its experiences. Recent research involving the employment of functional magnetic resonance imagination (fMRI) has demonstrated that meditation leads to development of some structures of the brain conspicuous for the control of attention, controlling feelings, and introspection.
For instance, it has recently been ascertained that long-time practisers of meditation possess a larger prefrontal cortex – the area that controls decision making, focus, and undesirable impulse controlling skills. The reduction in the size of the amygdala or the ‘fear center’ of the brain as a result of frequent practice of meditation has also been discovered to lower the sensitivity to stress and emotional triggers. This is why people who meditate claim to have increased tolerance to stress and challenges which are associated with the act of meditation.
Stress and Health: Ways of Stress Reduction
Perhaps the most famous outcome of scientific research about meditation is the fact that it lowers stress. The HPA axis is involved in stress relief of a body where cortisol is the stress hormone. Research has shown that people who practice mindfulness meditation experience low levels of Cortisol and the negative impacts of stress on the body.
It is a fact that has been scientifically proven that stress if prolonged leads to numerous diseases like heart disease, high blood pressure or lowered immune system. When practiced, meditation that helps to reduce stress is known to reduce the risks of contaminated blood, poisonous substances, fluids and everyday infections that eventually affect the cardiovascular system, blood pressure, and immune system. Certain research has gone to the extent of claiming that meditation actually helps in slowing down the aging process on the cellular level through preserving the telomeres which are the caps of chromosomes.
Bear in mind that your mental health refers to your general emotional health and well being.
In addition, meditation has healing effects on the mental aspect of an individual as discussed below. Of them, mindfulness meditation has been proved to have therapeutic effects on anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Due to the fact that meditation makes people focus on their thoughts but avoids the feeling of attachment towards them, the process makes people emotionally stable.
In treating disorders, cognition that is based on meditation has been merged with CBT and DBT to assist clients with attitude and feeling regulation. The practice makes people be more in control of their emotions hence promotes healthier ways of responding emotionally.
Meditation and science and the future of both
In parallel with the development of scientific research on meditation, the correlations between the two disciplines become more and more evident. Nowadays, new approaches of meditation examination are available and they are based on the use of neuroimaging. In addition, it has also extended its use to the different types of programs which comprises pain control, treatment for addiction, and health promotion at workplace.
The alliance of meditation with science is for a dual purpose of making it easier to better understand this practice in the hope that it will gain credibility with the scientifically minded people. Meditation has scientific evidence supporting it as the positive impact of meditation in people’s lives is well documented, and in return, meditation allows us to see the human body and human mind from a perspective we cannot access or see using other means.
Conclusion
Meditation has shifted from just being religious practices but now embraced as clinical procedure on improving mental, emotional and physical health. The way that science has been linked to meditation has expanded new horizons of cognition about the universe and it becomes quite evident that this ageless practice has the capacity to enhance the human existence and wellbeing. And as more research is carried out it might be that meditation will stay in the focus of scientists, giving people even more detailed information about This phenomenon which influences our lives so much.