The Benefits of Meditation – Physical, Emotional, Mental and Spiritual

Are you wondering what are the benefits of meditation? In this article, I would like to explore the physical, emotional and mental benefits of meditation.

Practicing meditation on a daily basis, can confer many benefits and improve life in many ways. In this post, I would like to mention a few of the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual benefits of meditation.

Like everything in life, you achieve results, only when you repeat your actions and persevere with what you are doing.

This is true when you learn a new skill or a new language, when you wish to excel at your job, and also, when you want to make progress with meditation.

If you wish to gain results and enjoy the benefits of meditation you need to meditate every day. However, it is okay if you skip a meditation session occasionally, due to any circumstances.

What does meditation do? It calms down the restlessness of the mind and decreases the number of distracting thoughts. It also creates a sense of inner peace, relaxes the body, and improves overall health.

As your sense of inner peace increases, your ability to concentrate and focus your mind would also increase.

What Are the Benefits of Meditation?

Have you asked yourself what are the benefits of meditation and why should you practice it? I will try here to answer your questions.

The benefits of meditation manifest on the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels. Some of them appear quite fast, and others, take more time to manifest. This depends on the amount of time devoted to meditation, the levels of earnestness and concentration, and on the inner ripeness of the meditating person.

Remember, it is not enough to meditate once or twice a week. You have to meditate every day to attain results.

Here is a list of the benefits of meditation, listed under different headings, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.

Physical Benefits of Meditation

What are the physical benefits of meditation? Here are the main benefits:

1. Physical tension eases down, and your body becomes calm and relaxed.
2. Reduced high blood pressure.
3. You gain increased energy levels.
4. Studies show that among its many health benefits it boosts the immune system.
5. Meditation helps you fall asleep easily at night and sleep more soundly.
6. Practicing meditation can affect favorably the state of your immune system.
7. An increased feelings of vitality.
8. It improves the mental and physical health.
9. Research shows that even a short amount of meditation can boost pain tolerance and reduce pain-related anxiety.

As you see, the physical benefits of meditation can make a long list.

Emotional Benefits of Meditation

What are the emotional benefits of meditation? Here are a few of the emotional benefits:

1. The ability to stay calm and poised in stressful situations.
2. This practice can reduce anxiety and depression.
3. You learn to stop worrying.
4. It would give you a good mood boost and a feelings of confidence and tranquility.
5. You experience less nervousness, irritability and moodiness.
6. Your self-confidence gets stronger.
7. A sense of happiness fills your mind and awareness.
8. You gain control of your feelings and reactions.
9. Research shows that mindfulness meditation lowers levels of cortisol, the hormone that causes stress.

Mental Benefits of Meditation

What are the mental benefits of practicing meditation?

Here are a few of the mental benefits:

1. Meditation gives you the inner strength and energy to deal effectively with tasks, people and circumstances.
2. Increase of creativity.
3. Meditation improves your concentration and focus, and enables you to control the mind wandering.
4. Improved learning ability and better memory.
5. Increased self-discipline.
6. Sharper intuition.
7. Enhanced common sense.

Spiritual Benefits of Meditation

Here is a list of the spiritual benefits of meditation:

1. You enjoy a sense inner peace, no matter what you are doing or where you are.
2. The ability to detach yourself from negative and disturbing thoughts, emotions or people, and from anything that can disturb your inner peace or affect how you feel.
3. You gain a heightened awareness of your inner self.
4. You gain the ability to look within you, beyond the body, mind and personality.
5. A realization of who you really are.
6. Attaining self-realization and spiritual awakening.

This list of the spiritual benefits of meditation can give you a hint about what you can achieve when you meditate.

Inner Peace and Happiness

Meditation leads to inner peace, poise, common sense and a peaceful mind. With a peaceful mind, you make fewer mistakes, make better judgments and decisions, and become more patient and tolerant. This of course, improves your relationships with your family, friends, neighbors and colleagues.

The benefits of meditation do not end here. Regular practice enhances the sense of happiness and contentment. As the mind becomes more and more peaceful, the number of worries, anxieties, fears and negative thoughts decreases, and in their absence, happiness rises, unobstructed.

Much of the stress and tension you normally experience come from your thoughts, beliefs and expectations.

Stress and tension are the cause of most problems, including ill health. However, regular meditation can reduce them.

When the mind is at peace, many problems just disappear, and the ones that do not disappear, would easier to solve.

A mind that is not disciplined accepts every passing thought and wastes your time and energy on useless and negative thoughts. It also aggravates every problem and takes it out of proportions.

With a disciplined mind, you will be able not to let this happen. A disciplined mind is one of the skills that you gain when you meditate.

• As you continue to meditate, in time, you will see changes in your behavior, attitude, and manner of thinking.
• You would become more positive, and learn to react more patiently and calmly in the various situations of your daily life.
• You will also be in a better position to deal with people and with problems.
• Your actions would become positive, efficient, and focused.

A Few More Benefits

This practice adds balance, poise and common sense to your life. This means becoming a more reliable, responsible and confident person.

It improves your ability to make wiser decisions and choices. This would save you time and energy.

You become a more considerate, kind and positive person. This happens because your mind learns to be tranquil and calm, without negative thoughts emotions,

You become able to handle problems and obstacles calmly and confidently, without getting stressed or agitated.

Developing the ability to let go of the past and stop dwelling in it.

You stop taking things too personally, and stop allowing whatever people say and do to affect your mental and emotional health.

You see life from a broader perspective. This means viewing every situation as it is, recognizing opportunities, and being able to handle every situation in an efficient way.

Quotes about the Benefits of Meditation

“When there are thoughts, it is distraction: when there are no thoughts, it is meditation.”
– Ramana Maharshi

“The purpose of meditation is to make our mind calm and peaceful. If our mind is peaceful, we will be free from worries and mental discomfort, and so we will experience true happiness. But if our mind is not peaceful, we will find it very difficult to be happy, even if we are living in the very best conditions.”
– Kelsang Gyatso

“Meditation and concentration are the way to a life of serenity.”
– Ram Dass

“Meditation is one of the ways in which the spiritual man keeps himself awake.”
– Thomas Merton

“Meditation can help us embrace our worries, our fear, our anger; and that is very healing. We let our own natural capacity of healing do the work.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh

“The purpose of meditation is personal transformation.”
– Henepola Gunaratana

“With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

“When your attention moves into the Now, there is an alertness. It is as if you were waking up from a dream, the dream of thought, the dream of past and future.”
– Eckhart Tolle

For more quotes, read Meditation Quotes that Calm the Mind

Conclusion

All types of meditation can help you reduce stress, calm your mind, improve your focus, and expand your awareness.

You can practice candle meditation, focusing on your real essence, mindful meditation, transcendental meditation, guided meditation or any other technique.

If you wish to learn to calm your mind, reduce the number of restless thoughts in your mind, and expand your awareness, you will do well to read and follow the advice in the book Calm Down the Nonstop Chatter of Your Mind.