Meditation & Health: 3 benefits of meditation on the body
Stress and anxiety have an impact on our cardiovascular system, which leads to increased stress and anxiety. It's a vicious cycle! However, there are non-medicinal solutions available to many people. Among them is meditation.
Meditation is known to have several positive effects on health.
Stimulates the brain
One of the unique features of mindfulness meditation is that it helps develop memory by promoting attention. It involves treating the mind like a muscle. So, like any other muscle, to develop it, you need to train it daily using mindfulness meditation.
The latter helps to keep your attention focused on a specific idea and avoid letting your mind wander too much.
Did you know?
Mindfulness meditation, or mindfulness, involves focusing on your sensations, breathing, emotions, and thoughts without making any value judgments. It was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, a professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts.
American studies led by neuroscientist Sara Lazar of Harvard Medical School have shown that meditation can increase gray matter in areas of the brain associated with learning, memory, and emotional control.
This study also proved that meditation can be highly beneficial for people with attention disorders: it reduces hyperactivity and impulsivity, thereby improving attention.
Antidepressant
Among the other benefits of meditation, research has shown that it can reduce stress and anxiety, and therefore the risk of depression. How does it work? You focus on your breathing by simply becoming aware of your inhalation and exhalation. These techniques are easily accessible to everyone, even children.
Did you know?
Professor Tu-Anh Tran, a faculty member, has posted four guided meditations* on his YouTube channel so that children and their families can practice throughout the day to find inner peace and focus on their work.
Episode 1:
Episode 2:
Episode 3:
Episode 4:
This method increases respiratory movement, allowing for better oxygen diffusion throughout the body, particularly in the brain. Finally, mindfulness meditation improves the functioning of the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for managing emotions. It develops intuition and creativity while limiting negative emotions such as stress, fear, and anger.
"Meditation balances the levels of excitement in both hemispheres of the brain. This balance facilitates harmony between body and mind. Meditation is a valuable resource in an age that generates more and more psychosomatic imbalances" – Marc de Smedt, French publisher, writer, and journalist, specialist in meditation techniques and world wisdom.
Immunity booster
Finally, meditation is also beneficial as an immunity booster.
Mindfulness meditation has an effect on pro-inflammatory genes, allowing the body to regenerate more easily after a stressful or anxious situation.
The rest it provides is considered to be more effective and deeper than that achieved during sleep. The body produces less waste thanks to increased oxygenation of the lungs, which acts on the hormonal, vascular, and muscular systems. This leads to increased immunity and regulation of pain sensitivity.
Did you know?
The Montpellier-Nîmes Faculty of Medicine offers a University Diploma (DU) in Meditation and Health.
Objectives of the course: To learn about the principles and benefits of meditation and how to put it into practice to improve the health of caregivers and patients.
Skills acquired
- Identify what meditation is/is not
- Understanding the physiological mechanisms of meditation and their health benefits Identifying possible applications of meditation in healthcare settings
- Continue or strengthen your own regular practice
- Implement a project integrating meditation into your healthcare setting (for your patients or professional colleagues).
Studies using theMindfulness-Based Stress Reduction(MBSR) protocol have shown positive effects on reducing pro-inflammatory genes, the immune response to the flu vaccine, immune communication in people with cancer, and immune cell activity in HIV patients.
Key takeaways
During this unprecedented health crisis, it is important to find new ways to protect ourselves from the stress and anxiety caused by lockdown. Practicing meditation in a group, even remotely, can help break the feeling of social isolation and create a sense of belonging.
Meditation
- Promotes attention and develops memory
- Helps regulate stress and anxiety
- Would help the immune system develop
*These meditations are taken from his book Méditasoins: petites méditations pour grands maux de l’enfant (Meditations: short meditations for children's serious ailments), published by Thierry Souccar.
*Journal of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy (2010) 20, 11—15 – Impact of the mindfulness-based stress reduction ( MBSR) therapeutic approach on mental health (stress, anxiety, depression) in students – C.Berghmans∗, C. Tarquinio, M. Kretsch
Tu-Anh Tran
Professor Tu-Anh TRAN is a pediatrician specializing in inflammatory and rheumatological diseases in children, and head of the pediatrics department at the Nîmes University Hospital. A practitioner of meditation himself, he was behind the creation of one of the first university degrees in meditation in France, at the Montpellier-Nîmes Faculty of Medicine: "Meditation and Health." Professor Tran has been using meditation to treat his young patients for over 10 years.
