Five reasons why meditation heals your body

Heal your body with meditation.

Do you meditate? If you answered no, then maybe you are not aware of how to meditate or the healing that it can do for your body. I recently just started my daily meditation practice about one year ago. Once I learned about meditation and how it heals your body, I wanted to do it every day! I just loved how I felt refreshed and had so much clarity after only 10 minutes of meditation practice. In this article, I will emphasize five reasons why meditation will heal your body and be like taking a daily vitamin!

Meditation heals your body by improving mitochondria function

Are you aware that engaging in meditation will optimize your mitochondria to boost your immune system and slow aging? A survey was conducted in Boston, Massachusetts, by Dr. Herbert Bensen and his colleagues, which proved this concept. They analyzed the gene profiles of 26 volunteers – none of whom regularly meditate – before teaching them a relaxation routine lasting 10 to 20 minutes. It included reciting words, breathing exercises, and attempts to exclude everyday thought¹.

After eight weeks of performing the technique daily, the volunteer gene profile was analyzed again. Clusters of essential beneficial genes had become more active and harmful ones less so. The boosted genes had three main beneficial effects: improving the efficiency of mitochondria, the powerhouse of cells; increasing insulin production, which improves control of blood sugar; and preventing the depletion of telomeres, caps on chromosomes that help to keep DNA stable which will prevent cells from wearing out and aging.²

In layman’s term, meditation helped the mitochondria to operate better, improve control of blood sugar, and prevent your cells from aging. Now that is powerful! I think if more people knew this, then a lot more people would be meditating. Speaking of mitochondria, if you want to learn more about how to take care of them, you can visit my article on Seven ways to help boost your mitochondria during pandemic times.

Meditation for weight loss

Yes, it is true! Meditation heals your body by helping weight loss! It does this by allowing you to focus on your feelings when it comes to eating food, which will enable you to make better choices. A study in 2014 showed that mindfulness meditation effectively decreases binge eating and emotional eating³.  Energetically, it also helps you lose weight by increasing the focus on your solar plexus chakra, and as a result, you will have more will power.

In another study, two experimental groups practiced Shamatha meditation daily over a 6-week time frame. After the six weeks, it was found that the people who were doing regular practice of Shamantha meditation had improved their autonomic nervous system (ANS) and noticed a substantial decrease in cortisol levels⁴.

Improve your sleep with meditation

Do you struggle with insomnia? Did you know that meditation heals your body by improving sleep? Ever since I have begun meditating every day, I have noticed an improvement in my quality and continuity of sleep. When I meditate, I am quieting my mind, which will help my sleep because my nervous system calms down. Do you wake up a lot at night after a stressful day? Nighttime awakenings happen not only because of the anxiety, but physiologically your sympathetic nervous system is stimulated. In other words, your body is telling you to stay awake and “be alert.” It would be good if we were in paleolithic days and looking out for a saber-toothed tiger in the night! Can you say “crazy”? However, that is not the case, and loss of sleep during these times can wreak havoc on your health!

In 2016, a study suggested a simple meditation or music listening (ML) program may improve stress, mood, well-being, sleep, and quality of life in adults with subjective cognitive decline ( memory issues)⁵.

If you want to learn more about sleep, please visit thatorganicmom.com.

Meditation for anxiety and depression

Are you dealing with increased anxiety from the pandemic and uncertainties of the future? You are not alone! I, too, am a victim of this! I don’t know about you, but I think the hardest thing about this time is not knowing what the future brings. One of the things that have helped me is my daily meditation practice. I carve time out of my busy day, lay down with an eye mask, put on meditation tunes with Solfeggio frequencies, and zone out for about 20-30 minutes.

If you have never heard of Solfeggio frequencies, you are not alone. Not everyone is aware of them! If I were, to sum up, what they do, I would call them sound therapy to heal your body. Each Solfeggio tone is comprised of a frequency required to balance your energy and keep your body, mind, and spirit in perfect harmony. These frequencies originated many years ago and were developed by a Benedictine monk, Guido d’Arezzo (c. 991 AD – c. 1050 AD). It was used by singers to learn chants and songs more easily. We know the Solfeggio scale as seven ascending notes assigned to the syllables Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti; however, the original range was six ascending notes attached to Ut-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La ⁶.

These frequencies are so relaxing that sometimes I will even fall asleep while listening to them! More importantly, the Solfeggio frequencies help to calm me down and increase my mental clarity. You can easily access these Solfeggio frequencies on Spotify! I like the ones that are produced by the Meditative Mind. If you don’t have Spotify, then they are available for internet purchase here.

Meditation for pain control

Do you suffer from chronic joint pain? Maybe you just had surgery or have a disease that affords you pain daily? Did you know meditation heals your body by decreasing pain response? If so, then turn to meditation practice instead of taking that pain pill. A study in 2011 used functional MRI techniques to observe brain activity as participants experienced a painful stimulus. Some participants had gone through four days of mindfulness meditation training, while others had not. The meditating patients showed increased activity in the brain centers known to control pain. They also reported less sensitivity to pain⁷.

Mindfulness meditation decreases cortisol levels.

In my personal life, meditation has helped my neck pain. Once I started my daily meditation practice about one year ago, I noticed an improvement in my neck pain and did not have to go to the chiropractor as often. Overall, when you meditate, you activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which will decrease your stress and even cortisol levels. Mindfulness meditation lowers the blood cortisol levels, suggesting that it can reduce stress and may decrease the risk of diseases that arise from fear, such as psychiatric disorder, peptic ulcers, and migraines⁸.

Meditation is being kind to your body.

Overall, the critical thing to remember is to be kind to yourself each day! If you don’t make time to do this, you may be putting your health on the backburner. Finding the initiative to take care of yourself is more than just eating organic food or taking supplements, it is finding time to achieve energetic wellness. To achieve this balance, you need to do something that calms your mind. Meditation is a great way to do this! It is an excellent opportunity to sit and quiet your mind and turn off that “on” switch.

Personalize your meditation

Overall, there are many ways to incorporate meditation into your life. You do not have to be in a lotus position! You can meditate while walking or even riding a bike! I usually do my meditation while lying in bed. Just find a way that will suit you the best! You are in control of your destiny! If it works for you, then you can’t argue with success!

Namaste!

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Coghlan, Andy. “Meditation Boosts Genes That Promote Good Health.” New Scientist, 2 May 2013, www.newscientist.com/article/dn23480-meditation-boosts-genes-that-promote-good-health/ ^1,2.

Blase, Kees L., and Adeline Van Waning. “Heart Rate Variability, Cortisol and Attention Focus During Shamatha Quiescence Meditation.” Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, vol. 44, no. 4, Apr. 2019, pp. 331–342., doi:10.1007/s10484-019-09448-w⁴.