What is meditation?
Meditation is a practice that involves focusing or clearing your mind using a combination of mental
and
physical techniques.
Depending on the type of meditation you choose, you can meditate to relax, reduce anxiety and
stress,
and more. Some people even use meditation to help them improve their health, such as using it to
help
adapt to the challenges of quitting tobacco products.
The practice of meditation is thousands of years old, and different forms come from around the
world.
But modern science has only started studying this practice in detail during the last few decades.
Some
of the biggest leaps in science’s understanding of meditation have only been possible thanks to
modern
technology.
On the outside, someone who’s meditating might not seem to be doing anything other than breathing or
repeating a sound or phrase over and over. Inside their brain, however, it’s an entirely different
story. Modern diagnostic and imaging techniques, like electroencephalography (EEG) and functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans, show that meditation can positively affect your brain and
mental health.
Is
meditation a religious practice?
Yes and no. Meditation has foundations in ancient philosophies and several world religions, but you don’t have to be religious to meditate.
Some examples of religious and nonreligious methods of meditation include:
- Buddhist: Several different forms of meditation have their origins in Buddhism (which is considered both a philosophy and a religion, especially depending on the nation of origin). Theravadan meditation is more common in Southeast Asia, especially in India and Thailand. Zen Buddhist meditation originated in China, and different forms of it eventually evolved elsewhere, such as Japanese Zen Buddhist meditation. Tibetan Buddhist tantric meditation comes from the former nation of Tibet, now an autonomous region of China.
- Christian: Contemplation, which is when you focus intently on a question, idea, religious concept or deity, is a common practice in Christianity. Praying is often classified as meditation, especially when it takes this form.
- Guided: This nonreligious form of meditation can happen with several people or one-on-one. It’s a common technique in counseling, therapy and group support settings.
- Osho: This form of meditation, also known as “dynamic meditation”, comes from India and has its roots in Hinduism. Breathing exercises are deliberate and forceful.
- Sufi: Sufism is a branch of Islam, and meditation is a common practice among people who follow it.
- Taoist: Like Buddhism, Taoism is also considered a religion and philosophy. It originated in China and is best known through the writings of its founder, Laozi (also spelled “Lao Tzu” or “Lao-Tze”). Transcendental: This form of meditation comes from India and is nonreligious. It involves using mantras, which are phrases or words people focus on and repeat aloud or in their minds.
- Yoga: This is a physical form of meditation and exercise from India. It can take on religious and nonreligious forms.
How do you meditate?
There’s no one correct way to meditate. That’s because meditation can take many different forms.
Experts have analyzed meditation practices and found that some common processes happen across
different meditation forms. These are:
- Body-centered meditation. This is sometimes called self-scanning. Doing this involves focusing on the physical sensations you can feel throughout your body.
- Contemplation. This usually involves concentrating on a question or some kind of contradiction without letting your mind wander.
- Emotion-centered meditation. This kind of meditation has you focus on a specific emotion. For example, focusing on how to be kind to others or on what makes you happy in your life.
- Mantra meditation. This kind of meditation involves repeating (either aloud or in your head) and focusing on a specific phrase or sound.
- Meditation with movement. This type of meditation can involve focusing on breathing, holding your breath or performing specific body movements. It can also involve walking while focusing on what you observe around you.
- Mindfulness meditation. This form of meditation is about staying aware of what’s happening at the moment rather than letting your mind wander and worrying about the past or future. It can also involve a similar approach as body-centered meditation, using what you feel throughout your body as a foundation for your awareness of the world around you.
- Visual-based meditation. This kind of meditation involves focusing on something you can see (either with your eyes or by concentrating on a mental image).
What Exactly does Meditation Do?
- Decreased symptoms of anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
- Improved ability to think, concentrate and solve problems.
- Better ability to adapt to and overcome emotional problems
Because mental health has a strong impact on the health of your body, those benefits also often bring improvements in how well you sleep, high blood pressure and heart function, and much more.
Why does meditation work?
Thanks to advances in technology, researchers and healthcare providers can see how meditation affects your brain. However, to understand some of these changes, it helps to know a little about brain structure.
In your brain, you have billions of neurons, which are cells that use electrical and chemical signals to send signals to each other. One neuron connects to thousands of others, which is how your neurons form networks across different parts of your brain. Those networks form different areas of your brain, which have different jobs and specialties.
Multiple research studies have found that people who meditate regularly have certain differences in their brain structure. Those changes usually involve brain tissue that’s denser or certain areas of the brain that are larger than expected, which is a sign that the neurons there have more connections to each other and the connections are stronger.
The affected areas of the brain are usually those that manage or control your senses (vision, hearing, etc.), your ability to think and concentrate, and your ability to process emotions. That means the brains of people who meditate regularly are healthier and less likely to show age-related loss of function. They also have a stronger ability to deal with and process negative emotions like fear, anger and grief.