Emotional and Physiological Benefits of Meditation - Research Paper Example

Emotional and Physiological Benefits of Meditation With contemporary technological development, meditation has become an extensively popular alternative to conventional medical therapy. Meditation entails the entire practices aimed at self-regulating individual mind and body. Meditation practices are designed to restore physical, psychological, and mental wellbeing of an individual. Meditation is directly linked to individuals’ relaxation response 1Meditation has a exceptionally decisive role in transforming individual’s negative minds to positive minds, converting an individual from unhappy situation to a happy state of affairs as well as changing an individual’s disturbed mind to peaceful mind. Frequent meditation brings about a sense of contentment and happiness thus reducing the level of anxiety, worries, unconstructive thoughts and fears as well as increasing individual level happiness. The benefits of meditation are vastly demonstrated on individual’s spiritual, physical, mental, psychological, and emotional levels2. Some meditation benefits are demonstrated at very fast rate while others takes sometimes before being realized. The meditation outcome purely depends on the time devoted in meditation, the concentration and earnestness level as well as individual perception on meditation. There are several rewards associated with frequent meditation in different people. To begin with, stress diminution brought about by meditation reduces individual’s level of anxiety and stress. Meditation almost instantly decreases levels of stress and depression that leads to emotional setbacks. This happens due to the fact that, meditation helps in immediate diffusion of negative thoughts and perceptions that may be cause of stress or depression3. Meditation has proved to be the most effective way of reducing anxiety among middle aged and old aged people in the society. In the worst case scenario, overwhelming and paralyzing anxiety brings about panic disorder which interferes with individual’s emotional arrangement. In conventional settings, panic attack is commonly treated through medical therapy. However, in contemporary society, meditative breathing reduces chances of full-blown episode of panic attack. Meditation helps in increasing an individual’s focus, increasing their concentration levels while undertaking daily activities with very limited distractions4. Meditation is also known for reducing the level of aggression, depression and unstable emotional feelings. It leads to the development of a stable, resilient, and well balanced personality. Frequent meditation has a critical impact on an individual’s self actualization as it increases the level of actualization to the affected person. The approach has proved to be very effective and critical in advancing the three common characteristics of self-actualization; consistent evaluation of oneself to the entire world, strong self realization and self maturity5. Meditation also improves a person’s sense of connection and self-confidence. In most cases, people with depression issues feel composed and mentally healthy after undergoing relaxation responses meditation. Meditation has also been confirmed to be incredibly effective in reducing the relapse rate by over 50 percent. In this case, meditation transfers actions found in prefrontal cortex in the initial right hemisphere to the left hemisphere, making an individual to become more relaxed, happier, and enthusiastic6. Individuals who undergo frequent meditation report an extensive improvement in their concentration, memory, productivity as well as their mental and emotional health. This explains the significance of meditation in advancing individual memory and concentration levels. Employees who demonstrate low performance are in most cases advised to practice meditation to advance their concentration on their occupations, which is tantamount to improving their performance levels. Meditation is also commonly known for humanizing individual’s thought and consciousness. The silence associated with meditation helps people to spot and evaluate their incoming thoughts. This gives the affected persons an opportunity to assess and judge their thinking paradigms7 Meditation brings about psychological patience and relaxation. Frequent meditation enables an individual to remain positive and calm during unstable moments. Patience reduces chances of making incorrect decisions that might have future negative emotional and psychological impacts on an already depressed person. Through meditation, an individual regains a state of joy and happiness. This makes one’s environment to be healthy and enjoyable thus increasing individual’s level of contentment. Joyful moments are as well popular in reducing the impacts of the existing shortcomings in individual life as well as increasing the level of positive energy in an individual. The positive energy gained during joyful moments can be utilized in more useful activities such as pursuing a specific goal or participating in creative activities8. Inner peace is also achieved through consistent meditation since the process of meditation helps in clearing negative thoughts from one’s mind. As a result, one develops peaceful emotions as worrisome thoughts are cleared9. A person with a peaceful feeling and emotion is rarely affected by negative external factors. A peaceful mind also leads to constructive and creative thinking, which is necessary for emotional and psychological development. Meditation detaches an individual from unconstructive emotions and perceptions. During the meditation period, negative, ineffective and less constructive thoughts are cleared from one’s mind, reducing ones negative emotional development10. The limited negative emotions experienced after meditation have a very insignificant effect on individual’s general emotions. This is due to the fact that, meditation helps one to observe his/ her thinking in a more critical way. Medication increases awareness on emerging emotional harm11. Frequent exercising of meditation assists one in detecting the emerging harm that might interfere with physical, psychological and emotional stability of a person. By being aware of existing emotional harm, an individual creates an opportunity to maximize his engagement in unconstructive argument that would lead to emotional setbacks. The meditating individual may also become more sensitive on other people’s energies that may lead to anger, lack of happiness, and a sense of being upset12. A sizeable number of people are at presently utilizing meditation in addressing their psychological and emotional problems. Meditation has instantaneous and long term impact on people’s emotional and psychological health. Meditation has diverse impacts on different people at different levels. However, recent researches have demonstrated several positive impacts of meditation to different individuals. Meditation impact is also dependent on individual’s interest in becoming aware of the existing universal laws and the prevailing internal consciousness. In the recent past, meditation is rated as one of the most effective techniques for treating psychological and emotional problems. It has an exceptionally significant role in dealing comprehensively with the existing psychological and emotional problems. It has as well offered the most excellent alternatives to vulnerable people in the society who cannot afford the conventional and expensive psychological and emotional therapies. Read More