The practice of mindfulness has been proven to relieve stress & anxiety, reduce depression, boost focus, conquer negative thoughts, and help with many other health related matters such as lower blood pressure.

Growing research is showing benefits for the mind and body that every one of us could use.

Evidence-Based Research on Mindfulness

There is brain science behind mindfulness meditation, Dr. Sara Lazar of Harvard Medical School has done research on meditation and increased cortical thickness. Since then more studies have been done which conclude that cortical plasticity can occur in adults, in areas important for cognitive and emotional processing.

What does this mean?
It means that as your brain structure is strengthened it reduces memory loss and depression, which can occur with age.

Mindfulness practices are good for everyone because it is prevention for the future. However, for those currently suffering from anxiety, depression, or cognitive issues like memory, Mindfulness works as treatment.

Mindfulness Therapy Is As Effective As Meds Against Depression

A study, conducted from the U.K.’s University of Exeter, compared the results of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) with those of maintenance antidepressant use among 424 adults with recurring major depression. They established that mindfulness-based therapy is equally as good as drugs, which could offer a new option for those who do not want to be on medication for years.

How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work For Depression?

Using meditation, individuals learn to separate themselves from the sway of their immediate moods. They learn to recognize negative thought patterns and to respond productively, rather than spiraling downward into obsessive thoughts and relapsing into depression.

Dr. Zindel Segal, a University of Toronto psychologist and the co-developer of MBCT, explained that short-circuiting negative thoughts allows people to find joy in the present moment.

Meditation Makes You Feel Less Moody

Many of us automatically interpret things in a negative way and assume the worst about ourselves and others. This can cause depression; which meditation has been shown to alleviate. One of the reasons why meditation is effective for mood and depression is because it helps us not believe these automatic thoughts that we have. It involves focusing on what’s possible in the present, not what’s impossible.

Scientific Evidence Based Benefits of Mindfulness Treatments

Mindfulness Meditation Helps You Sleep Sounder

Researchers at the University of Minnesota looked at seven studies on mindfulness meditation and sleep, concluding that the practice helps some people get better rest. Mediation might help people break the cycle of obsessing about not being able to get to sleep, which makes it harder to get your zzz’s. Reducing stress hormones like cortisol, which can interfere with sleep, may also help. Meditation of course, helps to reduce stress.

Mindfulness Meditation Helps With Pain Management

Mindfulness meditation has been shown to help ease chronic discomfort like neck and back pain, arthritis, fibromyalgia and recurring headaches. It teaches you to open your senses to your breathing, the sound of the wind rustling or the feel of the sun on your skin. If your attention is going toward other things, the pain is not going to bother you as much.

Mindfulness Meditation Improves Your Ability to Focus

Mindfulness training improves your ability to maintain attention and regulate emotional distractions. s Fadel Zeidan, a cognitive neuroscientist at Wake Forest School of Medicine, conducted as study where people who did 20-minute meditation sessions for just four days did significantly better on timed cognitive tests than a control group. The meditators were better able to ignore the timer and simply focus on the task. You can learn to become an expert at putting your mind where it needs to be!

Mindfulness Meditation Reduces Anxiety and Stress

Recent studies are proving that meditation can actually lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in our bodies. And in a new study by Zeidan, levels of everyday anxiety decreased by a whopping 39 percent after just four 20-minute mindfulness meditation classes. How? Being more aware of our immediate experiences through meditation may keep us from stewing over the past or worrying about the future.

Mindfulness Meditation Improves Your Sex Life

Your sex life could get a boost with mindfulness meditation, which enhances the connections and size of an area of the brain called the insula that’s important for awareness. According to Marsha Lucas, Ph.D., a neuropsychologist in Washington, D.C., strengthening the insula may be what helps some women pay better attention to arousal after meditation training and even have better orgasms.

Mindfulness Helps You Heal Faster and Live Longer

In one study, people who took eight weeks of mindfulness meditation training had far fewer cases of colds and flu and less severe infections compared to a group of non-meditators. Daniel Muller, a doctor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who worked on this study, says meditation may help to restore the body’s homeostatic balance. It may even help us live longer by keeping our DNA from degrading over time, according to recent research at the University of California, San Francisco.

Start your Mindfulness based therapy or Mindfulness training by joining a Therapy Group or making an appointment

Contact

Sharmeen Mahmud, MA, PPS

949-264-2621

calledtomindfulness@gmail.com