Meditation & Health: 3 benefits of meditation on the body
Stress and anxiety have an impact on our cardiovascular system, leading to increased stress and anxiety. It's a vicious circle! Non-medicinal solutions exist and are within the reach of many people. Meditation is one of them.
Meditation is known to have a number of positive effects on health.
Stimulates the brain
One of the special features of mindfulness meditation is that it helps you develop your memory by encouraging attention. The mind is like a muscle. So, like any other muscle, to develop it, you need to train it daily with the help of mindfulness meditation.
The latter keeps your attention focused on a precise idea and prevents your mind from wandering too much.
Did you know?
Mindfulness meditation, or mindfulnessconsists in concentrating on sensations, breathing, emotions and thoughts, without making value judgments. It was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, a professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts.
American studies led by Harvard Medical School neuroscientist Sara Lazar have shown that meditation increases gray matter in the areas of 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, and thus strengthens attention.
Antidepressant
Among the other benefits of meditation, research has shown that it reduces stress and anxiety, and therefore the risk of depression. How does it work? You concentrate on your breathing, simply by becoming aware of your inhalation and exhalation. These techniques are easily accessible to everyone, even children.
Did you know?
Professor Tu-Anh Tran, who teaches at the Faculty, has posted 4 guided meditations* on his YouTube channel, so that children and their families can practice throughout the day to help them find peace and focus on their work.
Episode 1:
Episode 2:
Episode 3:
Episode 4:
This method increases respiratory movement, enabling better diffusion of oxygen throughout the body, and particularly to the brain. Finally, mindfulness meditation improves the functioning of the prefrontal cortex, which is dedicated to managing emotions. This develops intuition and creativity, while limiting negative emotions such as stress, fear and anger.
"Meditation balances the degrees of excitation of the two cerebral hemispheres. This point of balance facilitates harmony between body and mind. Meditation is a precious resource in an age that generates more and more psychosomatic imbalances" - Marc de Smedt, French editor, writer and journalist, specialist in meditation techniques and world wisdoms.
Immunity booster
Finally, meditation is also known for its benefits as an immunity booster.
In fact, mindfulness meditation has an effect on pro-inflammatory genes, enabling the body to regenerate more easily after a stressful or anxious situation.
The rest it provides is considered more effective and deeper than that achieved during sleep. The body produces less waste thanks to increased oxygenation of the lungs, which in turn affects the hormonal, vascular and muscular systems. This in turn increases immunity and regulates pain sensitivity.
Did you know?
The Montpellier-Nîmes Faculty of Medicine offers a University Diploma (DU) in Meditation and Health.
Course objective(s) : To understand the principles and benefits of meditation and how to apply it to improve the health of caregivers and patients.
Skills acquired
- Identifying what meditation is and isn't
- Understand the physiological mechanisms of meditation and their relevance to health Identify possible applications of meditation in healthcare settings
- Continue or strengthen your own regular practice
- Implement a project integrating meditation into your care environment (for your patients or professional entourage)
Studies using the "Mindfulness-bases stress reduction" (MBSR) protocol have shown positive effects on the reduction of pro-inflammatory genes, immune response to the flu vaccine, immune communication in cancer patients and immune cell activity in HIV patients.
Things to remember
During this unprecedented health crisis, it's important to find new ways to protect ourselves from the stress and anxiety of confinement. For example, practicing meditation in a group, even at a distance, helps break the feeling of social isolation and creates bonds of belonging.
Meditation
- Promotes attention and memory
- Helps regulate stress and anxiety
- Helps the immune system to develop
*These meditations are taken from his book "Méditasoins: petites méditations pour grands maux de l'enfant", 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 psychological health (stress, anxiety, depression) in students - C. Berghmans∗, C. Tarquinio, M. Kretsch
Tu-Anh Tran
Pr Tu-Anh TRAN is a pediatrician specializing in inflammatory and rheumatological diseases in children, and head of the pediatric department at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nîmes. A meditation enthusiast himself, he was behind the creation of one of the first university meditation diplomas 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.
