As someone who has tried it before, I can honestly say that meditation is as relaxing and stress-relieving as everyone claims it to be. I love taking yoga classes as often as possible; I mainly take it before or after a big test or to try to relieve any anxiety I have related to school work. A major part of yoga, and truthfully my favorite part, is meditation. After meditating, I instantly feel relieved of all my worries and pressures. But why is meditation so relaxing? Does meditation do anything else for your health? I decided to research more on the health benefits of meditation and found the article, “Losing Focus? Studies Say Mediation May Help”, by John Cloud, which explains how studies have found that meditation strengthens functions of the brain.

This article focuses on a study performed by Katherine Maclean and 13 other researchers that tries to show a correlation between meditation and the strengthening of your attention span and overall brain activity. The study included two groups of 30, one group was sent right away to a meditation retreat and the other controlled group had to wait three months to go to their retreat. The study consisted of both groups meditating for a total of 5 hours a day. In addition, they took tests before, during, and after their retreat that measured their concentration (Cloud 2010).

The subjects took a purposely dull and tedious test that evaluated their focus and attention to detail. The results of the test from the group that went on the trip right away were astonishingly better than the results of the group that waited three months before going on the trip. The participants who meditated more were also quicker in picking up little details than the ones who meditated less. This proved that meditation causes your brain to process visual stimuli (Cloud 2010).

The article goes on to discuss how easy it is to meditate and how anyone can do it. Meditation can last as long as you want – it could be as long as an hour or even as short as five minutes. Meditation overall reduces stress, anxiety, and makes you more focused and detail oriented (Cloud 2010). I know that meditation during yoga classes has helped me tremendously whenever I was overwhelmed by school work and gave me a sense of calmness during my hectic schedule. I would recommend meditation to anyone who wants to relieve their stress, clear their minds, and become more focused.

Source:

http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2008914,00.html?iid=sr-link5

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/2707936/images/o-SUNRISE-MEDITATION-facebook.jpg