In the past few years, there has been a steady rise in the number of people who are recognising the benefits of meditation. Many schools around the world have added meditation and mindfulness to their curriculums and many more adults than before are seeking out guided meditation groups to help them find peace and calm in their ever-busier world.
The benefits of meditation are widely documented: reduced stress, a calmer mind, improved concentration and increased general wellbeing. But did you know that there a whole host of lesser-known, unexpected benefits to be gained from meditating?
1. Meditation Enhances Your Problem Solving Abilities
Got a problem? Solve it by meditating. Meditation brings about a calmness in the mind and in that place of calm, you are able to rationalise things more easily and this, in turn, allows you to see things from a different perspective making problem-solving easier.
2. Meditation Facilitates Physical Healing
If you have an injury or have had an operation, meditating can help you heal faster. This is because your body is in a relaxed state, pain is reduced and since your body isn’t using energy to deal with stress, it can utilise the energy for healing instead. This is particularly useful for menstrual cramps, fibromyalgia and arthritis.
3. Meditation Helps You Stop Multitasking
People often take pride in their ability to multitask, but, multitasking isn’t actually very good for you. In fact, it’s not physically possible for the brain to multitask so what is really happening is that the brain is switching between tasks at a rapid rate. This can leave you feeling exhausted and can quickly lead to burn out. Meditation allows you to focus more efficiently on one task, allowing you to achieve a higher level of concentration and gaining better results.
4. Meditation Makes You More Creative
If you are an artist or if you rely on being creative for your job, mediation can help you. It activates the creative centre of your brain allowing for better ideas and better solutions. This doesn’t just apply to artists though, it is also useful for problem-solving, finding more creative ways of doing things.
5. Meditation Helps You Make Better Connections With Others
By practising regular meditation – particularly Loving Kindness meditation, you will feel less isolated and more able to connect with others. You will find that you are able to read other people’s signals through facial expressions and body language, therefore, building empathy for them. This, in turn, helps you forge better relationships with the people in your life.
6. Meditation Boosts Your Immune System
Mental and physical stress puts a strain on the immune system, often compromising it and weakening it until you get sick and either stay sick for a long time or get sick again after only a short period of time. Meditating combats this by boosting antibodies and by telling the brain to send more of the messages that the immune system needs in order to work efficiently.
7. Meditation Increases Willpower And Self Control
If you are trying to lose weight, become more healthy, or break a bad habit, meditation can help you by increasing the blood flow to the part of the brain responsible for controlling willpower. So, before you decide to eat that piece of cake, or give up on your plan to visit the gym, adopt a daily meditation practice and soon you will be on your way to making those positive changes permanent.
If you’ve never meditated before, it’s easier then you might think and there are many different ways of doing it. Read: 6 Ways To Meditate for some ideas on how to get started.
Suz McDonald
Holistic Wellbeing Specialist
Suz McDonald is passionate about helping others to heal their past and step onto their spiritual path. She is a certified ThetaHealing® Master/Instructor, Reiki Master/Teacher, sound therapist, yoga teacher and mindfulness coach. She combines these techniques to bring about positive change in your life.
Join Suz for a one-to-one consultation, workshop, retreat or class and take the first step to changing your life for the better.
