When you hear the word meditation, you immediately think of Dharma and religion. But in the last 20 years, meditation has been welcomed by the medical and scientific world. Meditation has many health benefits if we practice it regularly, every day for 10 to 30 minutes and for many years in a row. Meditation can slow down the aging of the brain and help the brain to improve its ability, and can help control emotions, reduce stress and improve sleep. When we hear the word meditation, we immediately think of religious observances, but since the 1970s, American psychologists have transformed meditation into a non-religious, non-religious mental health treatment method. In 1979, medical professor Jon Kabat-Zinn decided to develop an 8-week meditation program called MBSR "Mindfulness based stress reduction", which can be translated as reducing stress while remaining fully aware.
Since then, meditation has become an increasingly popular option in the medical world! American doctors started first, then France. Meditation seems to have many health benefits and has a positive effect on the brain, such as boosting mood, reducing stress, increasing concentration, forgetting chronic pain and helping to improve sleep.
In recent years, meditation has lost its religious connotation. Meditation is considered a popular technology to combat stress and insomnia. In Europe, especially in France, you can find meditation lessons at relaxation centers, not just in monasteries or religious places. Meditation is giving yourself time to sit and observe your emotional state, seeking peace and relaxation, away from all distractions, noise, and pressure. When emotions are calm and centered, stress decreases, and drowsiness appears. Sleep can also be restful.
Creating opportunities for quiet, listening to your feelings and body, focusing or concentrating on the movement of your breath in real time, is the goal of meditation practice, which can be done in a group (once an hour) or alone. It sounds easy, but meditation is a difficult exercise.
In addition to being a relaxing exercise, the medical world has turned to meditation as a treatment method to prevent depression, or so-called mindfulness meditation. To cope with cancer, Western medical specialists also recommend that people with cancer, those undergoing treatment, or those recovering from illness practice meditation regularly.
Meditation slows down aging
The thick layer of nerve tissue in the human brain tends to shrink as we age. Meditation helps slow down the decline of the nervous system, and at the same time, it can also help prevent the brain from deteriorating too quickly. Studies analyzing the brains of meditators for many years and many hours (from 15,000 to 30,000 hours) have shown that meditation really has an effect and is effective on the brain, preventing it from aging with age. According to brain scans, meditators maintain their brain mass better and lose less than non-meditators of the same age.
Normally, our bodies feel There is a sense of awareness of everything because of the signaling, information, and communication from one nervous system to another. And meditation will help the nervous system to have more new connections. This means that a person who meditates can easily remember, accept, and quickly learn new things because the brain is functioning well. In other words, meditation seems to help people adapt to situations more easily and have a better mood.
New research could further assess the effects of meditation on the aging brain, which shrinks as people age and causes them to gradually lose their cognitive and memory skills. Geriatricians are particularly interested in the idea of meditating while remaining alert. Stress, anxiety, and depression are all factors that contribute to the onset and progression of dementia, and researchers are finding that meditation may be a way to prevent or reduce the social consequences of dementia. Researchers from France, Belgium, England, Germany, Switzerland, and Spain are studying the effects of meditation and learning a foreign language on aging brains in people over 65, with results expected soon.
Meditation improves emotional regulation
Another effect of meditation is its effect on emotions! The human brain has two parts: positive emotions on the left side and negative emotions on the right side.
Right side. For those who meditate, positive emotions will spread and penetrate into the negative emotions. Because of this, in Western countries, more and more people like to meditate. Although meditation brings us emotional relief, meditation has no effect on our behavior. This is believed to be according to 20 scientific studies that have been analyzed, which found that meditation makes the person who does it feel refreshed, more understanding, better mood, less worried, and less stressed, but it has very limited effects on personality and innate behavior.
But remember, whether you meditate as a treatment or to relax, meditation can be effective only if you practice it regularly, often or ideally every day. But you don’t necessarily have to go to a center or religious center. There are many ways to learn to meditate and you can do it at home, even alone. All you need is silence! And if you don’t have free time, 10 minutes a day is enough to meditate.
Start today with us
Choose a quiet place, no TV, no phone… Listen and be with yourself… Sit down, lie down, but don’t lie down… Take one breath, inhale, exhale…. Focus only on your breathing… Listen to your body and relax… Continue to take deep breaths and count your exhales and inhales… Follow the flow of your breath as it enters your nostrils and descends into your abdomen… If you get distracted, think about something else, notice that… Then come back to your breathing, continue to inhale and exhale deeply… Don’t give up when you get distracted… Bring your mind back to your breath…
By: Iang Sok Minhhttps://www.rfi.fr/km/cambodia/20180214-%E1%9E%82%E1%9E%BB%E1%9E%8E%E1%9E%94%E1%9F%92%E1%9E%9A%E1%9E%99%E1%9F%84%E1%9E%87%E1%9E%93 % E1% 9F% 8D-% E1% 9E% 93% E1% 9F% 83% E1% 9E% 80% E1% 9E% B6% E1% 9E% 9A% E1% 9E% 92% E1% 9F% 92% E1% 9E% 9C% E1% 9E% BE-% E1% 9E% 9F% E1% 9E% 98% E1% 9E% B6% E1% 9E% 92% E1% 9E% B7
