Today I would like to talk about what proven effects of meditation exist. As pointed out in earlier posts there is not one meditation, so there is not one answer to this question at all.
This is the third post of my series in which I write about what I learn about meditation in general.
You can check out these posts as well if you like:
Chill [shot in Penang, Malaysia]
Originally in ancient times, meditation was actually thought for sane people, meaning that the person practicing meditation did not have any mental issues. For sane people the effects for research can be summed up as follows among other points:
Strongest effects on improving social relations and diminishing anxiety and negative emotions
Medium effects mindfulness, attention and perception
Smallest effects on regulating emotions, reducing negative personality traits
Meditation changes the brain
Meditation can slow down the aging process of the brain
Meditation combined with movement seems to be most effective
Also it can be stated that meditation works more effectively on eliminating negative emotions than on cultivating positive ones. One can go even into further detail and analyze which types of meditations have stronger or less strong effects on the respective aspects. So for sane people one can conclude that the above illustrated effects are evident to different degrees.
For people with mental issues meditation can be advantageous as well but it can also do harm. There is no evidence that it is an alternative to therapy.
I always have the impression that I can feel certain effects working while meditating. And this explains a lot. I will dive deeper into the topic and also into different forms of meditation but enjoyed getting a general overview
Since I am learning about this topic and would like to share this process I consume a lot of infos (compare Sedlmeier also further reading)
