Obtain Emotional Stability That Supports Positive Thinking Through Mindful Meditation

Mindfulness meditation is a simple form of meditation based on the Vipassana Buddhist method of meditation. This form of meditation can also be called Insight Meditation, to see things as they really are.

During meditation, the meditator sits in the observance of all things, their surroundings, their breath and non-judgmental thoughts, showing compassion, patience and acceptance for all things.

Although it has Buddhist roots, the practice has evolved based on research regarding the influence of the mind-body connection on good health. This method of meditation has no religious or philosophical dogmas attached to it.

The practice can be viewed by anyone from any background with beneficial results. Mindfulness encourages and cultivates the art of paying attention without engaging or attaching meaning to events, thoughts, and emotions in a way that causes conflict or anxiety.

Why practice mindful meditation

In various studies, participants who practiced mindfulness meditation for eight weeks to six months saw a reduction in symptoms of anxiety, depression, and physical pain.

A study conducted by Mass General Hospital and Boston University found that these effects occurred even when participants were not actively meditating. The study also found other long-term benefits of practicing meditation:

• The practice of meditation trains the brain to process emotions differently, which brings stability to an individual's emotional state and decreases depression and anxiety.

• Participants learned to process information without immediate reaction or by responding differently.

The study used two forms of meditation, compassion meditation and mindfulness meditation. Compassion meditation aims to teach practitioners to observe experiences, themselves and others through a lens of benevolence and compassion. Mindfulness meditation teaches practitioners to observe thoughts and experiences without attaching meaning, to simply observe what is.

Brain scans were taken while participants viewed positive images, negative images, and neutral images. This was repeated during and after their participation in the meditation program.

The results indicate that people who participated in the study showed less activity in the brain's emotional and memory center, the amygdala.

• Compassionate meditation participants exhibited reduced activity in the amygdala when they showed positive and neutral images; activity in the amygdala increased when they were shown negative images, which showed some form of human suffering.

• Participants in mindfulness meditation showed an overall decrease in activity in the amygdala for all images, positive, negative and neutral.

The results of both groups support the study hypothesis. Based on the results of mindfulness meditation, meditation improves emotional stability and stress response.

Participants in the compassionate meditation group had lower depression scores.

How it works

Gaëlle Desbordes, PhD, researcher at the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at the MGH and at the BU Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, who shared the authorship of the study reports, explains the study results : “We believe that these two forms of meditation cultivate different aspects of the mind.

Since compassion meditation is designed to enhance feelings of compassion, it follows that it increases the response of the amygdala in the brain to watching people in pain. The increased activation of the amygdala was correlated with lower levels of depression in the compassion meditation group, which could mean that having more compassion towards others is certainly beneficial for oneself.

Overall, these results are consistent with the overall hypothesis that meditation can lead to lasting and beneficial changes in brain function, particularly in the area of ​​emotional processing. "

How long do the benefits last

Follow-up observations for the Mass General Hospital and Boston University study were made three weeks after its conclusion. This study shows that meditators experience the benefits of emotional stability and reduced depression and anxiety when not meditating.

The results of this study also indicate that the benefits of meditation go beyond immediate participation in a meditation program. Whether the benefits are sustained beyond this period requires further study. The effects of meditation on emotional stability without a program environment as well as the level of independent practice by participants required to experience the same benefits appear to be the next lines of inquiry.

How it benefits you

The fact that mindful meditation involves showing compassion, patience, and acceptance for all things can serve us in a number of ways. Getting emotional stability is a benefit in itself, but it can serve us in many ways.

In conscious meditation and emotional stability, one can achieve a better understanding and appreciation of oneself, which leads to a more positive attitude towards life. Several studies have shown that positive thinking is beneficial for our health.

Positive thinking is known to have a wide reach in the service of our health, both physical and emotional. Optimists have better immunity, less depression and anxiety, and better heart health.

Positive thinkers are also better able to deal with stress because they are more resilient and have the ability to face challenges and adversity with a positive attitude. This makes them more resilient and better able to avoid the harmful effects of stress hormones on the body.

Mindful meditation can help develop a strong positive attitude, which in turn can greatly improve our health and well-being.