The Effects of Meditation
Kayla Ritch
West Georgia Technical College

Abstract

There are different ways to meditate, and since it’s such a personal practice there are probably more than any of us know about. Some meditations are focused-attention, or mindful meditation, while others are open-monitoring meditation. Mindful or focused-attention meditation is where you focus on one specific thing; whereas, open-monitoring meditation is where you pay attention to all of the things happening around you. With all mediation techniques there are great effects, some alike and some different. People who practice focus-attention meditation do not show any obvious signs of improvement in the creativity task following their meditation, but those who did open-monitoring meditation, however, they performed better on a task that asked them to come up with new ideas. No matter what type of meditation you practice you are expected to feel less stress. The more someone meditates, the less anxiety they have, and it turns out this is because we’re actually loosening the connections of particular neural pathways.

What is meditation? “Meditation is a group of techniques designed to alter consciousness; it’s believed to enhance self-knowledge and well-being through reduced self-awareness” (Huffman & Dowdell, 2015). The book also states that most people in the beginning stages of meditation experience a simple, mellow type of relaxation, followed by a mild euphoria and a sense of timelessness. Some advanced meditators report experiences of profound rapture, joy, and or strong hallucinations. Meditation has numerous effects and benefit all who practice it, from improving your health to improving your mind. Reduced levels of stress is one effect from practicing meditation. Stress opens doors to many illnesses and diseases and decreases the ability to concentrate and remember things. Therefore, your memory will be better if you meditate. The belief was that meditative practices not only cleanses consciousness of psychedelics and confirmed the commitment to pursuing alternative lifestyles, but they also informed the socio-cultural direction that the lives of many young people would soon take in establishing new and permanent forms of lifetime spiritual practice (Murphy, Donovan, & Taylor, 2012).
You will experience higher levels of creativity though and tap into your intuition. Meditation effects also include decreased blood pressure, decreased chronic pain and fewer headaches. The relaxation response—from meditation—helps decrease metabolism, improves heart rate, breathing, and brain waves. Monks who practice Buddhist meditation had evidence of significantly greater brain activity, called Gamma wave activity, in areas associated with learning and happiness. I wish I could say that I personally practice meditation; however, the closest I get to that relaxation is working-out. Working-out gives me that natural high and relaxation feeling. I feel as though I can concentrate better after a good workout. Just like meditation, exercising makes me feel better and happy throughout the day. Both exercising and meditating have great health benefits as well as spiritual benefits. After doing some research for this assignment I am very interested in practicing meditation. All of the effects sounds amazing; health and spiritual. Thank you for opening my eyes and mind to such an amazing relaxation technique.

References
Huffman, K., & Dowdell, K. (2015). Psychology in Action. George Hoffman.
Murphy, M., Donovan, S., & Taylor, E. (2012). The Physical and Psychological Effects of Meditation: A review of contemporary research. Chinabiofield, 23.