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How Meditation Is Amazing For Your Mental Health! Part 2 Of A Series On The Benefits of Meditation
There is more evidence being uncovered regularly that meditation and mental health relief can go hand in hand. The easing of these issues is not the only benefit of daily meditation practice. It is quite 
evident that there are physical benefits of meditation as well as the spiritual benefits of meditation which have been known for centuries in many cultures.
Meditation Definition as per Wikipedia – “Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as Mindfulness or focusing their mind on a particular object, thought or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state”
Is Meditation Good?
Meditation affords improved Mental health and wellbeing. This is now a scientifically proven fact. There have been many thousands of scientific studies and clinical trials on meditation. Meditation studies Harvard has carried out have endorsed the same resulting concept. Meta-analyses of these studies have built a consensus on how meditation helps improve cognition.
The WHO, the World Health Organization, says “Stress is the health epidemic of the 21st century.” It costs US businesses $300 billion per year; it likely costs Canadian Businesses ~ $30 billion.
The Psychological Benefits Of Meditation In Society
There are so many areas in our world today that meditation has started to penetrate and make a positive difference. Mindfulness is one of the newest modern catchphrases for a specific and popular type of meditation. It unites the mind and body helping individuals to control their thinking and emotions as well as their mental health. It is growing in popularity in many social and business areas and circumstances. One area of the mental health arena meditation is being recognized as a preventative practice is in the realm of depression.
Meditation And Mental Health In Schools
After caring out scientific studies on meditation in the school systems a meta-analysis of 24 studies of the use of mindfulness at school showed interventions:
• Helpful overall with significant effects post-intervention compared to control groups.
• Mindfulness activities, when delivered during late adolescence (15–18) had the largest effects on mental health and well-being outcomes.
• Effects on specific mindfulness and mental health outcomes differed according to whether the intervention was delivered by an outside facilitator compared to trained educators/teachers.
• These results suggest that individual differences and program characteristics can impact the receptivity and effectiveness of mindfulness training.
Meditation And Mental Health in Prisons
Even prisons have seen positive results with their inmate population using Yoga and mindfulness programs.
Here are some of the results from a study on meditation benefits for these institutions:
• A small increase in their psychological well-being
• A small improvement in their behavioral functioning
• A significant difference in effect sizes for programs of longer duration and less intensity, compared with those that were shorter and more intensive, for psychological well-being.
• Programs of longer duration had a slightly larger positive effect on behavioral functioning compared with more intensive programs
• Overall, the evidence suggests that yoga and meditation have favorable effects on prisoners.
• Small but significant beneficial impact on depression, anxiety, well-being, and mindfulness.
• The largest effect was found for stress, with a moderate effect size (g=0.51).
• Significantly higher effect sizes for guided online MBIs than for unguided online MBIs.
• Effect sizes for stress were significantly moderated by the number of intervention sessions.
US Agency for health research – Meditation programs, in particular, mindfulness programs, reduce multiple negative dimensions of psychological stress.
Free Guided Meditation
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Facts About Mindfulness
Over and above the spiritual benefits of meditation scientific studies have shown how meditation changes the brain and helps in the following ways:
• More sociable.
• Better memory.
• Increased clarity.
• Reduce depression.
• Improved attention.
• Builds self-confidence.
• Better decision-making.
• Enhanced mental focus.
• Increases serotonin levels, influences mood, and behavior
• Resolves phobias and fears
• Helps control own thoughts
• Helps with focus and concentration
• Increases creativity
• Increases brain wave coherence
• Improved learning ability & memory
• Increased feelings of vitality & rejuvenation
• Increased emotional stability
• Improved relationships
• Increases capacity for intimate contact with loved ones
• A decrease in potential mental illness
• Better more sociable behavior
• Less aggressiveness
• Helps with addiction and quitting smoking drinking & drugs
• Reduces dependencies on drugs and pills and pharmaceuticals
• Need less sleep to recover from sleep deprivation
• Helps with insomnia require less time to fall asleep
How Meditation Helps
One of the main benefits of meditation and yoga is that of learning how to be present. Constantly thinking 
about the past or worrying about the future is one of the main causes of anxiety and stress which can lead to depression and even physical illness.
Learning how to meditate and doing it regularly helps focus the mind on controlling thoughts and emotions. When you can focus more clearly you have more of an ability to handle them positively.
One of the beautiful aspects of meditation is that anyone can do it, seniors, youth, people with disabilities, and anyone else. Language is not a barrier. Geographical location has no bearing and there is no special equipment is needed so there is absolutely no cost.
Benefits Of Guided Meditation
Learning how to meditate for beginners can sometimes be a challenge. There are different meditation techniques for beginners. It is not always easy to learn how to focus when the mind has no training to do so. Therefore I recommend using a guide of sorts, a guided meditation that is. You will find a simple, complimentary starter meditation kit that will be useful to you by following the link below.
Free Guided Meditation
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Regardless of what type of meditation you choose the key point is to get started. All the investment you need to begin receiving the mental, physical, spiritual, and emotional benefits of meditation is a little of your time. You can even learn how to meditate in bed.
Special Note
Please note that if your situation gets too bad and feel like hurting yourself in any way please get help. Here is a website that can put you in touch with the caring professionals that will listen to you and help you. https://happyhappyvegan.com/suicide-hotlines-list/
In this podcast we will answer:
- What are the physical health benefits of meditation?
- How to meditate deeply?
- What is meditation used for?
Join us on this episode of Unlocking Your Truth, Meditation And Mental Health And Well Being, we not only discuss how to meditate but also provide you with a link to a free guided meditation for beginners.
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Unlocking Your Truth is my weekly radio show. During the one-hour show, we discuss all things metaphysical such as Meditation And Mental Health For Your Well Being! And much more! The show airs on CIVL 101.7 FM at 7-8 PM (Pacific Time) every Tuesday evening or live-stream the show at CIVL.ca.
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The reason why I prefer yoga and meditation is because of the following reason – I want to sustain better memory and reduce depression. I also want to enhance my mental focus. I want to influence on having mood and behavior and yoga is the perfect solution to that. And another big thing I want to avoid is the enemy of all mental illness – Alzheimer's disease.