Benefits of meditation

This one is especially for all the guys out there.

This article is originally published on knowledgeformen.com

Meditation is all about clearing your mind and achieving a mental state of peace and calm regardless of the circumstances of the outside world.

So what’s it all about? What are all these people finding that you may still yet to realize? What are the actual benefits of meditation that can help you in your life and your career?

1. Meditation Reduces Stress

“To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.” ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

OK, guys, we all know how life can go.

The constant grind to find the next dollar, to seal the next deal, to land the next gig, to leave the legacy of which you can be proud, to achieve, achieve, achieve!

All this ambition and drive is great, but it can come with a price, namely, your peace of mind. The problem is, that all this responsibility and angst can overwhelm you and create tremendous stress. The weight of the world can end up on your shoulders.

So what can you do with all that pent-up stress?

Instead of ignoring it, drinking or drugging over it, fighting it or trying to push it away, many are finding that going inward helps them discover the part of the mind that remains calm.

Science has found meditation to be incredibly effective at reducing stress and anxiety.
One study found that mindfulness and Zen type meditations significantly reduce stress when practiced over a period of three months.

Another study revealed that meditation literally reduces the density of brain tissue associated with anxiety and worrying. (SOP)

According to the Harvard resource, 100 percent of insomnia patients reported improved sleep, and 91 percent either eliminated or reduced sleeping medication use.

An amazing 75 percent of insomniacs who started a daily meditation program were able to fall asleep within 20 minutes of going to bed. (MBMI)

It was found that during meditation the production of the stress hormone cortisol is greatly decreased, thus making it possible for those people to better deal with stress. Sixty percent of anxiety prone people showed marked improvements in anxiety levels after 6-9 months of starting a meditation protocol. (PM)

With all that angst and ambition driving your stress levels skyward, why would you wait to shut up the world and find the benefits that inner stillness can offer?

2. Meditation Increases Your Overall Sense of Well Being

“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” ~ Carl Jung

What can you do with an agitated, busy and depressed mind but live an agitated, busy and depressed life?

No more, right?
Why not let go of these things and live a life of happiness, joy, and energy?

Anyone interested in going beyond the depressed state of Debbie Downer from Saturday Night Live?

According to studies, mindfulness meditation increases your psychological functioning and in the process improves your sense of well being. When regularly practiced, meditation has significant therapeutic effects, increasing your quality of life. (SOP)

High school students exposed to a relaxation response-based curriculum had significantly increased their self-esteem. (MBMI)

Meditators were more independent and self-confident. People who deliberated daily were less fearful of death.

It has also been documented that people who use meditation and relaxation techniques may even be physiologically younger by 12 to 15 years. (PM)

If that last stat didn’t wake you up just a bit, you may already be dead.

If not, then keep reading. There will be tips on how to get started when you’re ready.

3. Meditation Improves Your Emotional Reactivity

“There are different things one can do to establish and hasten the peace process. Meditation is one way.” ~ Mike Love

There’s nothing more embarrassing and disempowering than a man who constantly flies off the handle, overreacting to every little stressor and negative situation.

Kind of like Jackie Gleason used to do from the old “The Honeymooners” show: “One of these days Alice – boom pow to the moon.”

What man wants to be at the mercy of his emotional nature, falling prey to being so out of control?

Do you?

Or would you rather have a strong control over your emotional states?

To relate to others, to empathize, to hone your ability to pick up on cues indicating how others are feeling?

According to studies, meditation does just that, as well as increase your emotional stability, making you less likely to be influenced by negative people in your life. (SOP)
According to Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book “Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience,” meditation can put you into that flow of life when you are absolutely absorbed in the present moment, finding success in whatever you are doing.
Maybe it’s when you are painting, or writing or playing a sport. Research indicates you can reach a state of mind where you are operating in harmony with the ability to perfectly handle all challenges.

Only happiness can follow.

4. Meditation Improves Focus and Productivity

“When we meditate, what we actually do is enter into the deeper part of our being. At that time, we are able to bring to the fore the wealth that we have deep within us.“ ~ Sri Chinmoy

You’re the man for the job.

What you need to accomplish has been laid out before you.

Do you want to have a razor-edge focus so you can be as productive as possible?

Think of the lazer-like focus one of the most productive quarterbacks in NFL history.
Tom Brady’s eagle eyes on the field and even on the sidelines tells you this athlete is on the mark.

Whereas he hasn’t commented on any meditating habits, his wife Gisele Bundchen’s did credit her own meditation as a cause of his Patriots’ team 2017 SuperBowl victory, saying on the Jimmy Fallon show: “After screaming and praying and calling my family and asking everyone to pray I started meditating, because it was the only thing that could calm me down. I channeled some great energy and I feel like a little responsible.”

Research shows that meditation does improve cognition and increases abilities to perform tasks requiring focus. (SOP)

Project Meditation reported that a Detroit-based chemical plant posted the following results three years after implementing meditation:

• Absenteeism fell by 85 percent.
• Productivity rose percent.
• Injuries dropped 70 percent.
• Profits increased 520 percent.

Other clinical findings included inner city middle school students improving grade score, work habits and cooperation, and decreasing absences. (BPMI)

So if you are the man for the job, get focused, get on it, and get meditating.

5. Meditation Improves Creativity

“Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It is a way of entering into the quiet that is already there – buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day.” ~ Deepak Chopra

The free and relaxed mind is open to ideas.

And in that state what a man thinketh he may just be able to “create-eth.” Yes, we know that’s not a word, but you get the idea.

According to studies, being mindful helps reduce cognitive rigidity leading to some higher inspiration. The science says that meditation increases your creativity, unleashing deeper thoughts that may reside below the surface thinking. (SOP)

It’s no wonder that famous creatives like John Lennon and David Lynch made meditation a major part of their life. Make it yours, and you just may come up with a brand new idea … or two … or 1,000.

6. Meditation Improves Your Memory

What did you have for dinner two nights ago?

Right?

There is little chance of recalling. But what about those vital ideas and concepts that would be great to have committed to memory? Such as lines for a play, answers to test questions, data for research, or the name of your boss, or coworkers or girlfriends?
A successful man would possess a keen mind and a steel-trap memory. You don’t have to become one of those memory experts who can recall everyone’s name in an audience of 200, but if you simply want to improve your memory, medication does the trick.

Research has shown that. In an Indian study in 2004, the practice of Transcendental Meditation was shown to improve academic performance in university students. (SOP)
Meditation helps. Remember that!

7. Meditation Improves Your Immunity

“People who used to have migraines, don’t. People are sleeping better. People have better relationships. People interact with other people better. It’s been fantastic.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

It’s tough to be a powerful He-man or Hercules if you are coughing up a lung, or carrying around Kleenex for your sniffles. Worry not, sneeze not. Yes, meditation can support you around health as well.

Different types of meditation have shown to strengthen the body’s immunes system, which makes you more resistant to viruses and infections. (SOP)

Throw that hanky away Hercules and get back to business.

8. Meditation Can Lower Blood Pressure and Inflammation

Imagine boosting your cardiovascular health by not even moving a muscle. Counterintuitive yes. But it’s true!

Research indicates mindfulness and Transcendental Meditation improve your cardiovascular health and reduce your risk of heart disease. (SOP)

Heart rate, respiration, blood pressure and oxygen consumption are all decreased with meditation. Thickness of the artery walls is shown to decrease, which effectively lowers the risk of heart attack or stroke by 8 to 15%  (PM)

As well, 80 percent of hypertensive patients have lowered blood pressure and decreased medications – 16 percent are able to discontinue all of their medications. (BPMI)

So instead of letting your blood boil over, sit still and chill.

10. Meditation Can Improve Decision Making Skills

Indecision is not a sign of a man standing in his truth or power. Imagine a high-powered executive at a board meeting, claiming “well, I’m not sure which way to go.”

Important finding: meditation improves your ability to make decisions.

Studies have found that with mindfulness meditation you can improve the functioning of your brain’s decision-making centers. (SOP)

So to meditate or not to meditate – it’s your decision.

What’s the move?

 11. Meditation Can Be Used to Alleviate Pain

You’ve heard “no pain, no gain?” Well, the truth may also be “do meditation, lessen pain.”
One study claims that meditation reduces physical and emotional pain better than morphine.

Hard to imagine, but it’s a scientific finding in a Forbes research article.

It’s also been shown that relaxation therapy has been helpful in chronic pain patients. (PM)

And chronic pain patients have shown to reduce their physician visits by 36 percent after starting a meditation practice. (MBMI)

So if you are struggling with chronic pain… You may want to put down the pills and pick up the “Oms” it might just prove more effective in the long run.
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This article is originally published on knowledgeformen.com

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