Many people experience feelings of anxiety or depression at some point in their lives, and mental health issues affect millions of people to some degree. There are different things that can help, depending on a person’s mental health issues and preferences for possible solutions. Meditation is gaining particular recognition for the help it can bring to mental health sufferers – here’s why.
Meditation is about training your awareness so you can gain mental clarity and a sense of emotional wellbeing. Different techniques can be used within meditation, such as mindfulness, or simply focusing your attention on a single idea or activity for a period of time.
The practice of meditation begins with finding a comfortable position, which is often sitting or lying. Some people invest in a meditation pillow to achieve the comfort needed for meditating. When comfortable, you close your eyes – using an eye mask if this helps – and then breathe naturally. While meditating isn’t about controlling your breath, focusing on the natural inhalation and exhalation of your breath is helpful to keep your mind from wandering.
This is the basic practice of meditation. As you become more accomplished, you can incorporate other techniques, or focus the mind on specific things that are helpful to you. One of the key things about meditation is about sticking with it and always making time for it. While meditation is a quiet practice, its benefits can be great and even life changing for people. An increasing body of scientific research is also showing how meditation can improve the mental health of people who practice it for more than eight weeks.
Here are some of the notable ways that meditation can improve mental health.
Stress Reduction
Meditation has been shown to lower the levels of cortisol – known as the stress hormone – in the body. The presence of cortisol can create other issues, such as sleep disruption, which contributes further to feelings of stress. In particular, using a mindfulness meditation that involves the repetition of a mantra can significantly help.
Improved Concentration
A number of studies have looked at the impact meditation can have specifically on concentration, with the help of brain scans. These scans have been used before and after research participants embarked on a two-month meditation programme. Following the meditation programme, a smaller amount of gray matter was seen pictured on the scans. This gray matter can negatively impact concentration, but also things such as the ability to regulate emotions. Reducing the amount of gray matter through meditation thus helps with focus and mental stability.
Controlling Anxiety and Depression
Multiple studies have been done to assess the impact of meditation on people with known anxiety and depression issues. Again, the results consistently show that people who embark on a sustained course of meditation see a significant reduction in their symptoms. Mindfulness is one technique that is shown to be especially helpful to tackle anxiety. The concept of mindfulness is to train the brain to focus on the present moment, which can be helpful for those whose minds run away with them with worries and anxious thoughts. Among anxiety and depression sufferers, many people also note that their sleep patterns and mood begin to improve with the consistent use of meditation in their lives.
Improved Self Esteem
By helping to dampen down negative thoughts and feelings, meditation tends to have a knock-on effect of improving self-esteem levels too. Better self-esteem and more positivity can help to shift the balance in terms of mental health. It helps people veer away from cycles of anxiety and negativity, and instead tend towards a more positive outlook and improved self-image.
Tackle Addiction
One reason some people suffer with their mental health is due to addiction to substances, such as drugs and alcohol. Known to change the balance of chemicals in the body to trigger mental health problems, the use of alcohol and drugs often creates a negative cycle, due to their addictive qualities and people wanting to escape the mental health problems these substances started. Addicts who undertake meditation programs have seen incredible benefits. The meditation itself can build inner strength and a feeling of calm, while mantras can help them give up their addictions. In turn, this helps to change their mental health for the better.
Anger Management
People who have a tendency towards anger often suffer from mental health issues that need resolving. Some powerful research has shown how meditation can help people with anger issues, lowering their levels of stress and increasing their ability to control emotions. After a course of meditation, people with anger problems have seen better control of their emotions. They also suffer fewer physical signs of stress too, such as an improved heart rate, blood pressure and rate of breathing. Even those who would still experience a quick emotional response to some situations would be able to recover a lot more quickly due to the positive effects of meditation.