What Are the Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation?

In the past few decades, meditation and yoga have grown exponentially in popularity in the West for their proposed psychological and spiritual benefits. Considering that these two heavily introspective exercises have held a position of great importance in South Asian medicine since the early Vedic days of the Indus River Valley civilization, it is understandable that millions of people today around the world have elected to carry on that tradition. The medicinal properties of meditation have been revered in Hindu and Jain communities as a part of their spiritual practices for years, but is there any scientific proof that it can truly aid emotional, and even physical, ailments?

Meditation As a Stress Aid

Stress relief is perhaps the most commonly agreed-upon benefit of mindfulness meditation, and for good reason. A study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health at Bethesda testing the legitimacy of practicing mindfulness as a means to halt stress found that meditating did in fact aid in relieving anxiety. By administrating an 8-week MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) intervention and comparing it to an active control intervention, HEP (Health Enhancement Program), the researchers discovered that both resulted in an even decrease in self-reported stress symptoms, and MBSR training resulted in comparatively decreased post-stress inflammatory responses. Thus, meditation proves to be more beneficial as a stress aid than typical treatments.

Meditation for Alleviating Chronic Pain

It may seem preposterous to argue that the mental exercise associated with meditation could aid in pain relief, but the link between physical and mental health is much stronger than most people think. In a study by Fadel Zeidan and David Vago at the NIH, the two found that mindfulness meditation "engages cortico-thalamic-cortical interactions to reduce pain" by affecting the brain's pain receptors. Basically, meditation reduces the perception of pain more than fully curing chronic pain. Of course, that is not to say someone suffering from chronic pain should solely rely on meditation to alleviate pain. Meditation for pain relief should be practiced in tandem with other methods at the recommendation of a professional.

Practicing Mindfulness to Aid Addiction

Considering that addiction is generally a control and/or "reward" issue, rerouting the mind's reward processes is the most straightforward method of curbing addictive behaviors. Mindfulness-Based Interventions, or MBI's, were found in a study by Eric Garland and Matthew Howard to reduce substance abuse by regulating cognitive and affective processes associated with reward responses and self-control. As with those suffering from chronic pain, the practice of mindfulness through meditation as a way of helping curb substance abuse should be done alongside additional physical and mental therapies with the help of a professional. Meditation alone cannot eliminate addiction, but it can help in doing so.

Start Meditating to Improve Your Mindfulness

Meditation has many benefits as a multi-purpose aid and has been used as such for centuries. Thousands of people around the world have changed their lives and views on the world for the better through the simple practice of mindfulness. That is to say, however, that more life-threatening ailments like chronic pain, addiction, or mental illness should always be discussed with a doctor or therapist in order to find help in addition to meditation, whether that be therapy, medication, surgery.