6 science-backed benefits of meditation

Have you heard of the simple habit that can make you more beautiful, slimmer, and more successful all at once? And the best part: You don't have to do much at all. All you need to do is sit back comfortably, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing.

Meditation is more than just a nice way to relax now and then. Numerous concrete benefits have been proven in scientific studies:

1. Meditation helps you achieve your goals

It's no coincidence that meditation is an integral part of the daily lives of many successful people, including Oprah Winfrey and Hugh Jackman. Research shows that just ten minutes of meditation a day can sharpen your focus, even if you have never meditated before. Meditation helps you tune out distractions and focus on one thing. This allows you to get more done in less time and work more effectively under pressure. [1] [1] Study: Dailymail (2017): Just 10 Minutes of Meditation does Wonders to your Brain and Allows Anxious People to Focus

A 2006 study even showed that meditation can change your brain. In people who meditate regularly, the prefrontal cortex was more densely connected. This part of your brain helps you make decisions, control impulses, and plan complex actions. In other words: meditation improves your self-control. [2] [2]Research: Scinexx – the science magazine (2010) Prefrontal cortex enables reward delay

When your schedule is full once again and you feel like you are constantly running in circles, the things that matter to you often get neglected. Meditation provides a brief break from everyday life and helps you become more aware of your own thoughts and feelings: Why am I doing this, and what do I want to achieve in life? Focusing on a goal that truly reflects your personal values is the key to success. [3] [3] Values as a basis for motivation: US National Library of Medicine / National Institutes of Health (2019) Using Personal Values to Understand the Motivational Basis of Amity Goal Orientation

Spend some time with yourself every day. – Dalai Lama

2. Meditation helps you shed the pounds more easily

We all know that sitting in front of the TV with a bag of chips in the evening is not a good idea and that an apple is a healthier afternoon snack than a piece of chocolate cake. Time and again, we resolve to change our diet, only to fall back into old habits after a short while.

Researchers in Canada have shown that healthy eating starts in the mind. In a meta-analysis, they compared a total of 18 studies investigating the effects of mindfulness training and meditation on weight loss.  Although participants lost more weight initially through other measures such as exercise, meditation and mindfulness training yielded the best long-term results. Participants who took part in exercise or diet programmes even gained weight in the long term, while those in meditation programmes continued to lose weight. [4] [4] Mindfulness exercises and weight loss: K Carrière, B. Khoury, M. M. Günak, B. Knäuper/Obesity Reviews (2017) Mindfulness-based Interventions for Weight Loss: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

These positive effects could be attributed to the fact that meditation helps us better regulate negative emotions and that we learn to eat more mindfully and pay more attention to our natural sense of hunger, for example. [5] [5] Meditation regulates emotions: Focus (2016) Slim through meditation

3. Meditation helps you age more slowly

People who have recently gone through a stressful period often look years older. Chronic stress actually affects our cellular health. An important marker of our biological age is the so-called telomeres, which sit protectively at the ends of our chromosomes. You can think of them as the plastic caps on shoelaces that prevent them from fraying. Over the course of our lives, telomeres become increasingly shorter until they can no longer function properly. This means that eventually a cell can no longer divide. [6] [6] How the ends of chromosomes affect cellular aging: University of Heidelberg (2013) Function of telomeres in cellular aging processes Such cells are called senescent and can promote inflammation in the body, among other things. [7] [7] Remedies for senescence: Pharmazeutische Zeitung (2018) Anti-aging and more  

Various studies have shown that stressed people had shorter telomeres, meaning they were biologically older and therefore more susceptible to age-related diseases than their more relaxed peers. [8] [8] Meditation and the aging process: Guardian (2016) Could Meditation really Help Slow the Aging Process? By meditating, we can reduce stress and slow down our cellular aging in this way. [9] [9] Meditation and cellular aging: US National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health (2016) Zen meditation, Length of Telomeres and the Role of Experiental Avoidance and Compassion

There is evidence that meditation can even "rejuvenate" cells. A study involving cancer patients who made a series of lifestyle changes, including meditation, found that these participants' telomeres became ten percent longer within five years. [10] [10] How lifestyle lengthens telomeres: University of California (2013) Lifestyle Changes May Lengthen Telomeres, A Measure of Cell-aging

Meditation reminds us that situations such as moving to a new city or starting a fast-paced job are not stressful in themselves, but rather our reaction to them. Studies have shown that meditation can help us experience certain situations as less threatening and approach events over which we have relatively little control with greater calm. [11] [11] Meditation and cellular aging: US National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health (2011): Can Meditation slow Rate of Cellular Aging? Cognitive Stress, Mindfulness and Telomeres

4. Meditation makes you creative

 "Every child is an artist. The problem is to remain an artist while growing up," Pablo Picasso once said. In fact, researcher George Land found in the 1960s that children are much more creative than adults. He used a creativity test that he had developed for none other than NASA to examine the creative potential of five-year-olds. The surprising result: Compared to just two percent of adults, 98% of children are highly creative! Unfortunately, later studies showed that we also seem to lose this ability as we grow up. [12] [12] Study: Creativity is learned: Griffith University Queensland Australia (2005) Fresh Thinking drives Creativity and Innovation

The good news is that we don't completely lose our creativity, but merely have difficulty accessing our creative potential. One study showed that meditation can enhance our creative thinking. However, this does not work with every type of relaxation, but rather by practising so-called "open monitoring meditation". This involves noticing thoughts and feelings without judging them or dwelling on them. It's somewhat different from so-called focused meditation, in which you concentrate on a specific body part, for example. [13] [13] Meditation and creativity: Leiden University Netherlands / Frontiers in Psychology (2012) Meditate to Create: The Impact of Focused-Attention and Open-Monitoring Training on Convergent and Divergent Thinking

If you would like to bring your inner child back to life and rediscover your creativity, we can recommend the very helpful 7Mind meditation app.

5. Meditation is more restorative than a holiday

US researchers wanted to know which was healthier: a holiday or meditation. To find out, they studied two groups of women who either took part in a six-day meditation retreat or simply went on holiday at the same resort. None of these participants had prior experience with meditation. They were also compared with a third group of women who also took part in a retreat and already meditated regularly. The scientists took blood samples before, during, and after the experiment and examined various biomarkers. 

After six days at the resort, all the women initially felt less stressed and in a better mood. However, the restorative effect for the holidaymakers alone was short-lived. The women who had meditated still felt happier and more relaxed ten months later than they had before. Meditation also had a measurably positive effect on the participants' cellular health. [14] [14] The effects of meditation and holiday: E.S. Epel, E. Puterman, J. Lin, E.H. Blackburn, P.Y. Lum, N.D. Beckman, J. Zhu, E. Lee, A. Gilbert, R.A. Rissman, R.E. Tanzi, E.E. Schadt /Translational Psychiatry (2016): Meditation and Vacation Effects have an Impact on Desease-Associated Molecular Phenotypes

Another study showed that improving your mood can also make you healthier. Carolyn Fang from Temple University in Philadelphia studied people who took part in an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction programme, a combination of meditation, yoga, and mindfulness exercises. It turned out that after this programme, the participants not only felt significantly better, but also had stronger immune systems: an increase in killer cells was detected in their blood. These ensure that diseased cells are killed. [15] [15] Immune defences and meditation: US National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health (2010): Enhanced Psychosocial Well-Being Following Participation in a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program is Associated with Increased with Natural Killer Cell Activity

You cannot stop a flock of birds from flying over your head. But you can stop them from nesting in your hair. – Martin Luther

6. Meditation helps with headaches and migraines

Anyone who has ever had a migraine knows how debilitating it can be. While meditation can't prevent headaches or migraines, it has a measurably positive effect on both pain intensity and the frequency of pain. This result came from a meta-analysis comparing a total of eleven studies investigating the effects of meditation on migraines and tension headaches. [16] [16] Meditation and headaches:  US National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health (2018): Mindfulness Meditation for Primary Headache Pain: A Meta-Analysis

It is not entirely clear how meditation affects our perception of pain. It could be that people learn to tolerate pain better. [17] [17] Meditation and migraines: Monika Tomova/Headspace (2017): New Research on How to Easy the Discomfort of Migraines > It may also be that mindfulness training helps us reduce stress, which is considered a common trigger for headaches. [18] [18] Meditation and migraines: American Migraine Foundation (2017): Spotlight on: Treating Migraine with Meditation

Conclusion

Meditation trains your mindfulness and offers you numerous benefits. Ten minutes a day is enough to improve your health and well-being. [19] [19] Study: Dailymail (2017): Just 10 Minutes of Meditation does Wonders to your Brain and Allows Anxious People to Focus > Or, in the words of Hugh Jackman: "When I meditate, my energy is positive and I feel closer to people. I am freer."

____________________

This post was written by Maria Röckmann. While studying journalism Down Under, she once held a microphone up to a man's face, fell in love with him, and stayed there. When she's not exploring playgrounds in Brisbane with her children, she writes for the 6-Minuten-Verlag or works on her first novel.

Sources:

[1, 19] Study: Dailymail (2017): Just 10 Minutes of Meditation does Wonders to your Brain and Allows Anxious People to Focus

[2] Research: Scinexx – the knowledge magazine (2010) Prefrontal cortex enables delayed gratification

[3] Values as a basis for motivation: US National Library of Medicine / National Institutes of Health (2019) Using Personal Values to Understand the Motivational Basis of Amity Goal Orientation

[4] Mindfulness exercises and weight loss: K Carrière, B. Khoury, M. M. Günak, B. Knäuper/Obesity Reviews (2017) Mindfulness-based Interventions for Weight Loss: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

[5] Meditation regulates emotions: Focus (2016) Getting Slim Through Meditation

[6] How the ends of chromosomes affect cellular aging: University of Heidelberg (2013) Function of Telomeres in Cellular Aging Processes

[7] Remedies against senescence: Pharmaceutical Journal (2018) Anti-Aging and More

[8] Meditation and the aging process: Guardian (2016) Could Meditation Really Help Slow the Aging Process?

[9] Meditation and cellular aging: US National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health (2016) Zen Meditation, Length of Telomeres and the Role of Experiential Avoidance and Compassion

[10] How lifestyle lengthens telomeres: University of California (2013) Lifestyle Changes May Lengthen Telomeres, A Measure of Cell-Aging

[11] Meditation and cellular aging: US National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health (2011): Can Meditation Slow the Rate of Cellular Aging? Cognitive Stress, Mindfulness and Telomeres

[12] Study: Creativity is learned: Griffith University Queensland Australia (2005) Fresh Thinking Drives Creativity and Innovation

[13] Meditation and creativity: Leiden University Netherlands / Frontiers in Psychology (2012) Meditate to Create: The Impact of Focused-Attention and Open-Monitoring Training on Convergent and Divergent Thinking

[14] The effects of meditation and holiday: E.S. Epel, E. Puterman, J. Lin, E.H. Blackburn, P.Y. Lum, N.D. Beckman, J. Zhu, E. Lee, A. Gilbert, R.A. Rissman, R.E. Tanzi, E.E. Schadt /Translational Psychiatry (2016): Meditation and Vacation Effects Have an Impact on Disease-Associated Molecular Phenotypes

[15] Immune defences and meditation: US National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health (2010): Enhanced Psychosocial Well-Being Following Participation in a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program Is Associated with Increased Natural Killer Cell Activity

[16] Meditation and headaches:  US National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health (2018): Mindfulness Meditation for Primary Headache Pain: A Meta-Analysis

[17] Meditation and migraines: Monika Tomova/Headspace (2017): New Research on How to Ease the Discomfort of Migraines

[18] Meditation and migraines: American Migraine Foundation (2017): Spotlight on: Treating Migraine with Meditation