The monks and nuns did this several times a day. However, there is nothing magical about these recommended numbers. Meditation appears to be similar to physical exercise in this way. There is no optimal length of time you should exercise, and there is no perfect number of minutes to meditate, either.
Making meditation a regular part of your day is more important than how long you meditate. For that reason, the length of time you meditate should be sustainable for you. Are you better off doing this than sitting on the couch? Will it benefit you as much as doing two miles? Having said that, three recent studies do offer some scientific guidance as to how long to meditate.
Cognitive scientist Dr. Marines preparing for deployment, meditation sessions as brief as 12 minutes produced cognitive improvements. A study found that 12 minutes a day of Kirtan Kriya meditation was sufficient to produce significant positive changes in predictors of dementia found in the blood.
Sometimes you'll start a meditation sitting upright with an erect spine and lifted chin but come out of it with your chin dipped forward and your back slightly rounded. If this is happened in your meditation, not to worry! You were just having an extremely blissful experience that you most likely didn't remember after you came out. From the outside, it looked like you could've been sleeping, but on the inside, it weirdly felt like you were still sitting upright.
It's also not unusual for meditators in these extremely deep states to drool on themselves from time to time. Taking a deep gulp of air during meditation is a common side effect of the deep levels of rest reached during the practice. The body's breathing rate is linked to the amount of rest being acquired during a given experience. While jogging, your breathing rate will be heavy. While sitting and reading a book, your breathing rate is significantly lower.
While sleeping, your breathing rate slows even more. And while meditating, your breathing rate can reach levels that are even deeper than sleep, where you're barely breathing at all.
During these pockets of extremely deep rest, you may stop breathing altogether. This is usually followed by a deep gulp of air, after which, everything will quickly even out and you can continue breathing normally. Even if you didn't experience any of these symptoms, it didn't mean your meditation was ineffective. Every meditator has experiences that feel more surface from time to time.
The difference in novice meditators and seasoned meditators is that novices judge their deep experiences as "good" meditations and the surface experiences as "bad" ones. Seasoned meditators, on the other hand, remain judgment-free about their experiences, which actually keeps them positioned to enjoy more deep meditations, simply because they have fewer expectations about what it should feel like. The trick is to adopt this attitude of indifference about all meditation experiences.
Some forms of meditation can improve depression and reduce negative thoughts. It may also decrease levels of inflammatory cytokines, which could contribute to depression. Some forms of meditation may help you develop a stronger understanding of yourself, helping you grow into your best self. For example, self-inquiry meditation explicitly aims to help you develop a greater understanding of yourself and how you relate to those around you.
Other forms teach you to recognize thoughts that may be harmful or self-defeating. The idea is that as you gain greater awareness of your thought habits, you can steer them toward more constructive patterns 16 , 17 , In another study, adults who used a mindfulness meditation app for 2 weeks experienced reduced feelings of loneliness and increased social contact compared with those in a control group Additionally, experience in meditation may cultivate more creative problem-solving skills Focused-attention meditation is like weight lifting for your attention span.
It helps increase the strength and endurance of your attention. For example, one study found that people who listened to a meditation tape experienced improved attention and accuracy while completing a task, compared with those in a control group A similar study showed that people who regularly practiced meditation performed better on a visual task and had a greater attention span than those without any meditation experience Moreover, one review concluded that meditation may even reverse patterns in the brain that contribute to mind-wandering, worrying, and poor attention Even meditating for a short period each day may benefit you.
One study found that meditating for just 13 minutes daily enhanced attention and memory after 8 weeks Kirtan Kriya is a method of meditation that combines a mantra or chant with repetitive motion of the fingers to focus your thoughts.
Studies in people with age-related memory loss have shown it improves performance on neuropsychological tests Furthermore, a review found preliminary evidence that multiple meditation styles can increase attention, memory, and mental quickness in older volunteers In addition to fighting normal age-related memory loss, meditation can at least partially improve memory in patients with dementia.
It can likewise help control stress and improve coping in those caring for family members with dementia 28 , The improved focus you can gain through regular meditation may boost your memory and mental clarity.
These benefits can help fight age-related memory loss and dementia. Some types of meditation may particularly increase positive feelings and actions toward yourself and others. Metta , a type of meditation also known as loving-kindness meditation, begins with developing kind thoughts and feelings toward yourself. Through practice, people learn to extend this kindness and forgiveness externally, first to friends, then acquaintances, and ultimately enemies.
One study in adults randomly assigned to a program that included loving-kindness meditation found that these benefits were dose-dependent. In other words, the more time people spent in weekly metta meditation practice, the more positive feelings they experienced Another study in 50 college students showed that practicing metta meditation 3 times per week improved positive emotions, interpersonal interactions, and understanding of others after 4 weeks These benefits also appear to accumulate over time with the practice of loving-kindness meditation Metta, or loving-kindness meditation, is a practice of developing positive feelings, first toward yourself and then toward others.
Your brain develops through neural connections. Neurons, the information processing cells in your brain, connect to make neural pathways, which are responsible for your thoughts, sensations, feelings and actions. When you repeatedly do an activity, you strengthen the neural connections involved, which develops the associated regions of your brain. For example, if you are a cab driver who constantly navigates different routes, then you are strengthening the neural connections that develop the spatial reasoning parts of your brain.
While research on mindfulness meditation is still in the early stages, some small, initial studies have found that over time mindfulness meditation may lead to increases in gray matter density in the hippocampus and other frontal regions of the brain as well as increases in anterior insula and cortical thickness. Increases in gray matter and the left hippocampus aid learning, cognition and memory , resulting in better retention of facts and more mindful behavior.
And increases in the anterior insula and in cortical thickness benefit cognitive function, attention and self-awareness.
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