Meditation can be an amazing way to relax and be with yourself for a few minutes. But it can do more than just relax you. If you’re looking to get into meditation, you should consider some of the effects it can have on your body.
Noticeable effects meditation has on the body include more self-awareness and lower stress levels. People who meditate may also be able to increase their attention spans and get better sleep. Meditation might even lower blood pressure and help with anxiety. Consider why these effects matter.
Whether you’ve never meditated before or have done so for years, you should know how it can affect your body. Then, you can make the most of your time meditating, and you can enjoy some of the benefits. Read on to learn more about the effects of meditation.
Table of Contents
What Does Meditation Do to the Body?
Meditation can help your body relax, which can offer a lot of benefits. As you meditate, you can focus on your breathing and ignore everything else in the world. That can also help improve your ability to focus on things outside of meditation. Consider what else meditation does:
- Makes you feel calm
- Ignore your stressors
- Reduce negative feelings
You may not notice all of the ways that meditation changes your body. Some changes may come immediately, such as more awareness of your breathing. But it may take time and multiple meditation sessions to see more results.
What Happens to Your Body After Meditation?
After you end a meditation session, you can experience the benefits of it. That way, you can continue to feel calm and be able to feel more positive. Once you get into the habit of meditating, you may see an improvement in your attention span.
Regular meditation may also help your memory. These and other effects can linger long after you finish meditating for a day. Then, you can enjoy those benefits without having to spend all of your time on meditation.
And if you keep up with the habit, you might experience more effects. Soon enough, you can feel better and be able to concentrate for longer. Those things can help you in and out of meditation. And all of these things can be improved through MBSR training online or MBSR therapy.
How Do You Know If Meditation Is Working?
The quickest way to determine if meditation is working is to analyze yourself and your body. Consider if you’re able to stay in the moment, or if you keep thinking of things like what you’ll eat for dinner or when that project is due for school or work.
Another thing to check is if you’re fidgeting or if you’re able to sit still. You should be able to remain still and focused on the task at hand. But you should also compare different types of meditation, such as:
- Guided meditation
- Mantra meditation
- Tai chi
- Yoga
- Qi gong
Some types may require a bit of movement, while others have you sit or stand still. Either way, consider how you’re meditating to determine if it’s working.
10 Noticeable Effects Meditation Has on the Body
While it’s great to understand if meditation is working and how it can help, you should consider the ways it affects your body. Then, you can determine if meditating will offer the benefits you desire or if you should choose another way to relax.
Meditation isn’t for everyone, but it’s an excellent way to be with yourself. If you struggle with things like memory or concentration, give meditation a try. While you may not notice the following effects immediately, they can develop at some point.
1. More Self-Awareness
As you meditate, you may find that you can become more aware of your mind and body. If you’re aware of your body, you can notice any habits that may be harmful. For example, maybe you don’t have the best posture.
You can also become more aware of your thoughts. While this affects your brain more than the rest of your body, meditating can help you improve how you think about yourself and others. If your thoughts are causing you to harm yourself, changing those patterns will help you.
Being self-aware is crucial during meditation, but you can use those skills outside of it. That way, you’ll be able to notice when you do or think something that can hurt you.
2. Lower Stress Levels
A lot of people give meditation a try because of stress relief. When you experience stress, be it mental or physical, your cortisol levels increase. Too much cortisol can lead to the release of cytokines and other harmful chemicals in your body.
This inflammatory response leads to a lot of problems, but meditation may help reduce your risk of experiencing those things. As you meditate, you can manage or lower your cortisol levels to have the opposite effect on yourself.
After a while, you may notice that you don’t experience a ton of physical symptoms related to stress. Now, meditating may not get rid of all of your stress, but it can be a great way to reduce it.
3. Longer Attention Span
Are you struggling to keep your attention on one thing? This can be a problem for a lot of people, especially with the rise of social media and the internet. Fortunately, meditation may help you regain a longer attention span.
People have conducted multiple studies about how meditation affects your attention span. In a lot of the studies, results show that people who meditate can concentrate a lot better.
This may sound more like a mental effect, but it can also change your body. You may not need to spend as much time on a task for work. Or you might be better at keeping your eyes on the road while you drive, which can affect you and others.
4. Better Sleep
If you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, you know how frustrating that can be. But when you meditate, you may be able to sleep much better than before. Studies have shown that meditation can help you stay asleep longer.
Meditating can also teach you how to get rid of intrusive or stressful thoughts. So if you tend to overthink things before bed, you’ll be able to control what you think about.
As you fall asleep, you can think of more positive things. Then, you may be able to fall asleep more easily than if you thought more negatively. And when you fall asleep easily, you can get more sleep and keep from feeling tired the next day.
5. Lower Blood Pressure
You may also be able to lower your blood pressure when you meditate regularly. As you work on your focus and improve your thoughts, you can relax your nerves. When you relax your nerves, you can lessen your fight or flight response.
That can then help with other things, such as:
- Heart function
- Blood vessel tension
- Other heart problems
Meditating may also offer other health benefits, such as help with irritable bowel syndrome. As you control your thoughts and your mind, you may be able to alleviate certain symptoms. You may not experience all of those changes immediately, but it’s possible.
6. Help With Anxiety
As mentioned, meditation can help with stress, and that can then help with anxiety. If you meditate, you may be able to control the thoughts that lead to an anxiety attack. Then, you can feel better and less anxious.
This change can happen in anyone who has anxiety. But the effect may be bigger in people who have more severe anxiety symptoms. It can help if you have generalized anxiety disorder or a similar condition.
Not only can you keep from having negative thoughts, but you may also have more positive thoughts. Then, you will be able to recover from anxiety attacks, and you can cope with stress a bit better than you would be able to otherwise.
7. Better Emotional Health
Maybe you have depression or experience depressing thoughts. You might find that meditation can help with those symptoms. Participating in mindfulness meditation can have a significant effect on your depression.
Any type of meditation that can help control your thoughts is also beneficial. You can work on the thoughts that pop into your head and minimize the negative thoughts and images. Over time, you may not have as many depressive symptoms.
While you may need medication to treat your depression, meditation is worth trying. Then, you can experience better emotions overall. And you can meditate almost anywhere to help keep depressive thoughts from affecting your day.
8. Reduce Memory Loss
As you get older, you may notice that your memory isn’t what it used to be. Of course, conditions such as dementia can affect your memory. However, you may be able to combat other age-related causes of memory loss with meditation.
One of the best types of meditation to try is one where you say a mantra and move your fingers. These actions and sayings can help you focus. Researchers have found that people who practice that type of meditation get better results on neuropsychological tests.
Meditation may also help reduce some symptoms of dementia. But you may still need to take medication or use other treatments to keep from losing your memory.
9. Be Kinder
You can be your own worst critic, but meditation may help that. As you meditate, you can shift from a more negative thought process to thinking more positively. Then, you may be able to think better about your work and life.
The same effects can help you be nicer to the people around you. One study even found that the more you meditate, the kinder you can be.
Even practicing meditation a few times a week can have significant effects. You can experience more positive emotions to treat yourself better. The routine may also help you communicate with others, which can help you feel connected to those people.
10. Lessen Pain Symptoms
Pain can be a very real physical symptom, but it can also be somewhat mental. As you meditate and work on your thoughts, those effects may extend to your pain. Scientists have found that meditation can help with:
- Quality of life
- Pain perception
- Pain-based depression
If you struggle with pain, consider meditating. It may not be the only thing you need to relieve your symptoms, but it could help. If this is something you may want to do, you can get certified to teach meditation and have a lasting impact on people’s lives.
Final Thoughts
Meditation can affect the body in multiple ways, from lowering your stress to improving your memory and focus. No matter what you struggle with or who you are, give meditation a try. You never know how it might improve your life.
Check out this article to understand how meditation affects mental health.
