Do you know the health benefits of meditation?

What exactly are the health benefits of meditation? As a pillar of spiritual wellness, it turns out that meditation can reduce stress and support mental health. Continue reading to learn how mediation can expand one's sense of purpose while supporting overall health and wellness.

Supporting your health means supporting your whole health. That's why we're digging into spiritual wellness, one of the eight dimensions of wellness that contribute to a healthier you. One way to support spiritual wellness is through meditation.

What is meditation?

Meditation is a mental exercise involving relaxation, focus, and awareness, which has proven to yield positive results in alleviating the body’s stress response. One way to think about meditation is that it is to the mind what physical exercise is to the body. Meditation has a long history of use in improving calmness, physical relaxation, and psychological balance, coping with illness, and enhancing overall health and well-being.

While there are many types of meditation, a common theme is that they all involve a quiet, distraction-free environment, a focus of attention, comfortable posture, and an open attitude.

Meditation is broadly defined as the practice of acknowledging the mind in a way that can achieve ultimate consciousness and concentration. While some people use the term meditation with mindfulness interchangeably, they are connected and both refer to calming the mind. According to meditation expert, Lodro Rinzler, mindfulness is a type of meditation where one brings their full mind to an object.

Plus, evidence shows that being more mindful in daily life can have a positive impact on one’s mental and physical health.

The power of meditation

According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, meditation can help reduce stress, chronic pain (such as headaches), and blood pressure. It can also help you quit smoking and better navigate a variety of mental health conditions.

Stresses, like those that have resulted since the start of the pandemic, are the body’s response to unforeseen adversities. When one encounters these threats or uncertainties, it increases the level of the stress hormone in the body and activates the autonomic nervous system, which drives one’s fight or flight response. Studies have revealed that people who meditate regularly have lower levels of stress hormone in their brains—leading to greater resilience in addressing the adversities we face.

Types of meditation

There are many types of meditation—as one might find up to 17 different practices and techniques. But three of the more common types include:

Mindfulness meditation: This form of meditation involves being 100% aware and focused on the activity you're doing and not thinking about anything else. It can be done virtually anywhere: while walking the dog, waiting in line at the supermarket, sitting in an airport terminal, and more. By truly focusing on the moment, one can train their brain to be less affected by stress.

Breath awareness: A type of mindful meditation, this approach encourages mindful breathing while ignoring other thoughts that come into your mind. The benefits are similar to mindfulness, including reduced anxiety, improved concentration, and an ability to manage one’s emotions.

Transcendental meditation: Drawing from its origin in India, this type of meditation involves focusing on a particular mantra or phrase that is repeated during meditation (e.g., “Om” or “I am worthy). It’s shown to have positive results in reducing stress and anxiety.

How to practice meditation

This Harvard Health article provides some tips for getting started with mindfulness meditation. Given the many different types of meditation, it might take some time to find the right one that works for you.

If you're wondering how often you should practice meditation, know that there is no right or wrong answer. If a person is only able to meditate once a week, that might be the place to start. From there they can work up to a few sessions per week and eventually to once per day. Picking a particular day or time of day also helps to establish meditation as a habit that is easy to incorporate into a daily routine. Effort and consistency may be more important than frequency here, at least in the beginning.

Meditation resources

Check out these resources for more information about meditation and ways to reduce stress:

• Mass General Brigham Health Plan ongoing series of Community Workshops includes several webinars related to reducing stress and practicing mindfulness, including "How to Combat Stress with Good Nutrition," "Mindful Parenting," and more.
• Our behavioral health partner Optum provides free and helpful resources at www.optumeap.com. There are podcasts, webinars, and FAQs on such topics as managing finances, grief and loss, anxiety, tips for parents, dealing with traumatic events, tips while working remotely, going back to school, and many others.  
• Calm and Headspace have both released free digital offerings to help the public cope with anxiety and panic. Calm’s online hub includes sleep stories, meditations, music and mindful movement. Headspace offers a collection of meditation content called Weathering the Storm. Employers can also access its free online collection of tools and resources to support mental health in the workplace. 
• Mass General provides a wealth of virtual, home-accessible tools (apps, podcasts, videos, etc.) to support mindfulness, relaxation and movement.
• Brigham and Women’s Hospital mind-body consultant at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine discusses how to incorporate meditation into your life and ways to work through the common barriers.

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