The Many Benefits of Meditation

This article in the Huffington Post shows scientific evidence of the many benefits of meditation.

In fact, the author, Amanda L. Chan, lists twenty reasons why it is good for your mental and physical health.

The reasons she lists are

1. It lowers stress — literally (see Guided Meditation for Relieving Stress).
2. It lets us get to know our true selves (see Guided Meditation for Achieving Your Goals).
3. It can make your grades better.
4. It could help our troops.
5. It could help people with arthritis better handle stress.
6. It changes the brain in a protective way.
7. It works as the brain’s “volume knob.”
8. It makes music sound better.
9. It helps us even when we’re not actively practicing it.
10. It has four elements that help us in different ways (body awareness, self-awareness, regulation of emotion and regulation of attention – see Guided Meditation for Embracing Anger).
11. It could help your doctor be better at his/her job.
12. It makes you a better person.
13. It could make going through cancer just a little less stressful (see Can The Power Of Your Mind Help You Heal?)
14. It could help the elderly feel less lonely.
15. It could make your health care bill a little lower.
16. It comes in handy during cold season.
17. It lowers depression risk among pregnant women.
18. It also lowers depression risk among teens.
19. It supports your weight-loss goals (see Guided Meditation for Weight Loss).
20. It helps you sleep better (see Pain Relief – Guided Meditation for Better Sleep).

As you can see, all six of my guided meditation products have a place in this list of the many benefits of meditation. More will follow.

There is a slide show on the page that shows seven fascinating facts about meditation. Some of these facts overlap with those above. Here they are anyway:

1. It makes your brain plastic.
2. It increases gray matter.
3. It can be better than sleeping.
4. It’s better than blood pressure medication.
5. It can protect your telomeres (the protective caps at the end of chromosomes).
6. It can slow the progression of HIV.
7. It’s pain relieving properties beat morphine.

I wanted to embed the video in the slideshow, but ran into trouble doing it on my blog. The video features psychologist, Robert Hernandez and he talks about the positive benefits of meditation.

Please pick an item from the above lists and share your thoughts and feelings about it.