The Benefits of Mindfulness
Posted November 2nd, 2015
The practice of mindfulness has been getting a lot of attention recently. In fact, many leaders in the business world have begun practicing mindfulness because of its many benefits.
Mindfulness is simply adopting a routine of meditation, where you spend some time each day sitting motionless, clearing your mind of all thoughts, and focusing only on yourself, your body or your breathing. The key to mindfulness is clearing your mind completely, not letting any thoughts or emotions intrude, and focusing on your body.
This is a relatively simple thing to do, and you may wonder what kind of benefits it can give. Research has shown that mindfulness has many different benefits, some of which might surprise you.
1. It helps to alleviate body aches and pains.
Research has shown that regular meditation can change the way you feel pain, cutting your pain sensation almost in half. Other research has shown that mindfulness can increase the tolerance for pain.
2. It improves cognitive function.
Studies have shown that people who have meditated for a long time have more folds in their brain cortex, which is a sign of greater cognitive functioning, than people who do not meditate.
3. It helps with mood.
Meditation has been shown to enhance people’s mood as well as their short-term memory.
4. It improves attention span and focus.
When you meditate, you attempt to clear your mind completely, and doing this, according to research, can help your mind focus better because it gets practice in pushing away distractions, both external and internal, like stray thoughts.
5. Mindfulness helps to develop fortitude and contentment.
Studies of people who meditate show heightened activity in the prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain responsible for feelings of confidence and self-assurance, as well as resilience to setbacks.
6. Mindfulness appears to retard the progression of diseases of the brain and nervous system.
One study of people who were suffering from Alzheimer’s conducted over an eight-week period showed that people who meditated suffered less mental decline over the time period than those who did not meditate.
7. Mindfulness improves creativity
Meditation has been shown to enhance people’s ability to generate new ideas, as well as integrating those ideas into an overall conceptual system.
In sum, the evidence for the benefits of meditation is overwhelming and shows that it is just as important to train the mind as it is to train the body.
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