Medical Benefits of Meditation

How Meditating Can Help With Physical and Emotional Issues

Jun 13, 2009

Research has shown that meditation can aid in health related issues, both physical and emotional.

When meditation became popular in the 1970s, researchers began to explore the medical benefits that are associated with meditation. The idea behind meditation involves ridding the body and mind of negative energy, while bringing in positive energy. This positive energy relaxes the mind and by keeping a mind relaxed, one can focus on healing different parts of the body and soul.

Healing the Body with Meditation

There are many physical ailments that can benefit from meditation. For example, meditation can help lower high blood pressure. High blood pressure can lead to heart attack and stroke. Meditating lowers high blood pressure by reducing the stress that elevates blood pressure.

It's also been found that meditation can be very instrumental in reducing pain. It is believed that the slower breathing which occurs while meditating calms the body. This results in a reduced pain level. Many pregnant women also report a decrease in pain while meditating during labor.

Other ways that meditation can help the human body include lowering cholesterol, relaxing muscles, altering body temperature, and aiding in metabolism. It can also help in the recovery following surgery.

In addition, meditation can be used as preventative medicine. By reducing stress, meditation can prevent asthma attacks, ease PMS, preventing ulcer flares and prevent headaches.

Healing the Mind with Meditation

Keeping the mind healthy and happy can benefit a person's overall health. Emotional problems can trigger physical effects in the body. One of the most emotionally damaging psychological problems is stress. As seen above, stress can lead to a variety of illnesses.

Stress and depression can cause psychosomatic illness. Psychosomatic illness can lead people to believe that they have physical ailments and this belief causes the symptoms to actually occur. Examples of common psychosomatic illnesses include rashes, diarrhea, and vomiting. Meditation can help reduce stress and depression, thus alleviating the symptoms associated with psychosomatic illness.

Meditation can have very positive effects on a person's emotional well-being. It can promote better concentration, decrease anxiety, provide clearer thinking, and aid in the creativity process. It can also help an individual develop intuition.

On a deeper level, meditation can boost one's self-confidence, give an individual a deeper sense of purpose, cause a greater appreciation of nature and provide additional nurturing to relationships. It can also bring more understanding and love.

Meditation can also enhance a person's spiritual journey. This can come from feeling a better connection to a higher power, communication with one's spirit guide, running energy in the body, and aligning the chakras, (energy points in the body). Each of these have positive effects on the mind.

Whether it be for physical or emotional reasons, there are many benefits a person can experience through meditation. Although meditation isn't entirely understood, yet, researchers continue to investigate the benefits of meditating.

The copyright of the article Medical Benefits of Meditation in Meditation & Health is owned by Janis Masyk-Jackson. Permission to republish Medical Benefits of Meditation in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.