Stress Relief in a Fast-Paced World
Meditation and mindfulness have become widespread, offering natural healing and enhanced well-being. With thousands of years of history, meditation has transformed from a spiritual practice to a technique acknowledged by science as a means of enhancing mental and physical well-being. As a supplemental treatment to conventional medicine, mindfulness is becoming increasingly popular, providing a more all-encompassing healing method. Mindfulness and meditation are effective methods to deal with stress and anxiety in this fast-paced world.
Incorporating mindfulness into daily life has significant health benefits on the mental and physical aspects of the body. It contributes towards holistic healing and results in a balanced and healthy life. The most beneficial effects of mindfulness, backed by research, are stress reduction and cognitive performance.
The Biological Basis of Mindfulness
To truly understand the impact of mindfulness on our health, it is essential to understand its role in our brain's working fully. Recent studies show that meditation causes extraordinary neural changes. These changes contribute to self-discovery and healing and are a transformative process for our brains. The prefrontal cortex, a part of our brain, is in charge of executive functions and emotional regulation and is found to become active through mindfulness practice. This enables a person to have greater control over their decisions and emotions. So, to contribute fruitful work towards laying a foundation for better health and well-being, let’s explore the science behind the changes and how they can contribute to mind-body harmony.
Mindfulness is a powerful tool in natural healing and medicine. It has the ability to reduce stress through regulating the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis. It produces the cortisol hormone in response to stress. Mindfulness is used to bring an equilibrium in the level of the stress hormone . . Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3679190/
Rusch HL, Rosario M, Levison LM, Olivera A, Livingston WS, Wu T, et al. The effect of mindfulness meditation on sleep quality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2019 Jun;1445(1):5–16.
Nelson JB. Mindful Eating: The Art of Presence While You Eat. Diabetes Spectr Publ Am Diabetes Assoc. 2017 Aug;30(3):171–4.
Effect of Mindfulness Breathing Meditation on Depression, Anxiety, and Stress: A Randomized Controlled Trial among University Students - PMC . . Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9819153/
