Health Benefits of Meditation

spirit. Because of its unique ability to elicit physical, emotional, and mental stability, meditation provides the foundation for healing and wellness. Evidence-based practice by clinicians and psychotherapists demonstrates that meditation reduces stress, promotes health, and enhances general well-being. Medical meditation has successfully been used to eliminate and/or manage diabetes, hypertension, migraines, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), psoriasis, chronic pain, and headache. The technique is useful for the treatment and management of acute and chronic emotional states, such as depression, worry, anxiety, fear, and anger, and a variety of mental ailments. It is now known that each mental state has a specific physiology associated with it. The effects of each or combinations of mental states whether positive or negative can be felt by the physical body. As an example, the feeling of anxiety induces stress which can result in abnormal production of stress hormones. Modern scientific research clearly shows that prolonged stress contributes to serious diseases such as persistent fatigue, anxiety, depression, insomnia, high blood pressure, heart irregularities, digestive disorders, mental health issues, diminished fertility, diminished libido, diabetes, and headache, to name only a few disorders. Meditation induces “the relaxation response” which normalizes the level of stress hormones produced by the adrenal gland and thereby protects the body against the effects of stressors by inducing a feeling of peace, calm, and tranquility all over the body.