Site icon Caregivers of depressed adults

Meditation: Science and practice

Teach your loved one about meditation. It may help them improve their mood…

Meditation is a Buddhist derived practice that teaches you how to control and focus your thoughts, as well as, how you react in conjunction to what you think.  During the meditative act you learn how to develop a state of attention that’s highly alert and relaxed. The ultimate goal is to learn the skill of objectivity.  To “be with what is” in reality, with indifference to it.

There are numerous types of meditation and each has specific guidelines.  For example, Metta meditation involves focusing thoughts on compassion. Vipassana meditation is highly active and involves being completely aware of physical states (some painful and some not) and being non-reactive to what you feel. In general, all types fall into one of two categories:

  1. Focused attention: involves focusing your attention on an object or subject during the whole meditation session. This object may be your breath, a mantra, a part of the body, an object, or a something you visualize such as a memory
  2. Open monitoring: keeping your attention open means monitoring all aspects of what you are experiencing and doing your best to be objective about it.

Meditation can be done while sitting but you can also actively meditate while walking or standing.

What does meditation do to your brain?

What scientific communities say about meditation:

Scientific studies prove that meditation has many benefits.  It’s been known to reverse heart disease, pain, regulate emotion, reduce stress and increase the body’s immune system and its ability of prevent and fight disease.

When the brains of meditators and non-meditators are compared their are also common structural changes. Most meditators have higher levels of Alpha waves, which helps to lessen anxiety and depression. There amygdala (a brain region that regulates emotion) is smaller while areas of learning, memory, and emotion regulation are larger and function better.

Benefits many people experience from meditation:

A quick and easy way to try mediation:

This 15 minutes will likely be very difficult if you are not experienced in meditation.  Each time you practice, increase your time by 5 minutes. Try to work yourself up to an hour/day.

The key to knowing your meditation is working is that after a session you will feel relaxed, calm and joyful.

Exit mobile version