Essential Benefits of Meditation
Ignite Your Spirit
Reap the rewards of your dedicated practice.
In a hectic world that never stops moving, finding peace might seem impossible — but science suggests that meditation could be the key to emotional balance, mental clarity, and physical health.
At this point, it is common knowledge that meditation improves mental health:
Decreases anxiety, depression, and insomnia
Reduces production of stress hormones, including cortisol and adrenaline
Enhances emotional regulation
Strengthens connections in the prefrontal cortex, helping you manage emotions and feel more balanced.
Reduces activity in the amygdala, the area of the brain that processes fear, leading to less stress and emotional reactivity.
Speaking of the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, meditation has also been proven to boost brain function:
Enhances the brain’s ability to focus and resist distractions
Strengthens Cognitive Flexibility – Helps organize thoughts, problem solve, and adapt to new situations and challenges.
Increases Gray Matter Density – Meditation enhances areas related to memory, learning, and emotional processing.
Boosts creativity and encourages the creation of new and original ideas
Enhances Neuroplasticity – supports the brain’s ability to form new connections, even later in life
Meditation also supports physical health in many ways:
Decreases blood pressure and hypertension
Lowers cholesterol levels
Improves quality of sleep
More efficient oxygen use by the body
Slows the aging process – increased production of the anti-aging hormone DHEA and increased telomerase activity, which slows cellular aging
Improved immune function
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Speaking from the heart - something that I have noticed since I began meditating is a sense of contentment for no particular reason. This sense of contentment is actually a well-known effect of regular meditation — it's linked to increased activity in brain regions associated with happiness and reduced overactivity in the "default mode network (DMN),” which is tied to mind-wandering, worrying, and overthinking. Meditation quiets this network, promoting a sense of calm.
This sense of contentment is truly my favorite side effect of meditation because I often notice it in my daily life. I may be on a leisurely walk with my dog and glimpse a light breeze blow through the leaves of one of the many oak trees in my neighborhood and feel a sense of awe. A brief moment of human connection, like sharing a smile with a stranger, delights me. Sipping a cup of tea with my kids after school feels like a gift. The small moments become remarkable. These moments I’m experiencing are “glimmers”—subtle, yet deeply felt.
In Deb Dana's book Anchored: How to Befriend Your Nervous System Using Polyvagal Theory, "glimmers" are described as small, positive signals of safety and connection that promote a sense of well-being and calm in both the body and mind. These glimmers, though subtle, are powerful moments or experiences that can guide the nervous system toward a state of serenity and balance. In the book, Dana encourages the reader to become more mindful of these glimmers in their lives as a means of regulating their nervous systems and building emotional resilience. By recognizing and intentionally focusing on glimmers, people can enhance their ability to return to a peaceful, level-headed state. Check out her book in the book club!
And please check out all the amazing research about meditation. There’s A LOT out there, but here are some that are interesting:
A 2013 study in Psychosomatic Medicine found that mindfulness meditation significantly reduced anxiety levels.
A Harvard study found that just 8 weeks of meditation increased gray matter in the hippocampus (linked to memory) and decreased it in the amygdala (linked to stress).
A 2015 study in JAMA Internal Medicine showed that mindfulness meditation improved sleep quality and reduced symptoms of insomnia.
A study in Psychoneuroendocrinology found that long-term meditators had longer telomeres, a marker of biological aging.
