One way of awakening the mind and looking within is through meditation. If we look at ancient traditions, we see a common theme of meditation. Although we may associate meditation with Eastern traditions, such as Buddism, it maybe surprising to find that meditation was also practiced in the Western traditions too. It dates back to antiquity, with mentions of it in Greko-Roman mythology. Thus, one can say that meditation has been around for as long as the human kind has been around. With advancement of science and technology, research has been to look in the ways that meditation can help individuals perform better not through over exertion but through stillness. Below are three ways that meditation can help you according to scientific research in the field.
- Promotes Creativity
I've written a lot about creativity, because I believe it is the most important skill. Everything we see in the world today is because of our innate creativity and imagination. A person imagined a company, a product or an experience and then was able to bring it from their imagination into real life. Thus, everything originates in creativity. Apart from creating products or brining ideas to life, creativity is also a vital skill in negotiations and problem solving. It is about allowing one to create winning situations that perhaps are less obvious and require non-linear thinking. Thus, there is a tremendous benefit to developing creativity.
It has been shown that meditation increases creativity. The authors of the study constructed well known water jug experiment where the participants where asked to get a desired amount of water from the three jugs present. The group had experienced mediators and individuals with no meditation experience. The findings of the study were illuminating in that it found that mindfulness meditation reduces cognitive rigidity due to rigid and repetitive thought patterns. Thus, it allows the individual to be more open minded and malleable. It also notes that mindfulness meditation aids one to develop "beginner's mind", a mind characterized by being able to identify and utilize simple solutions over those that are overly complex set.
The authors also note that the benefits of meditation were found with as little as six-weeks, and were not limited to those who were experienced meditators.
Our ability to be self-aware is vital for our success in the work place, and in all facets of life. Each person is born with innate talents and also weakness or blind spots. It is our ability to be aware of our own unique identity, as well as being able to regulate our emotions in different circumstances, is what allows us to achieve ultimate satisfaction and success in our endeavors. Self-awareness is the ability to retrospectively and objectively look at one self and connect with who it is we truly are. Meditation allows one to do so. It does so in a way of being connected to the present moment and viewing the experience as just one instant of life, rather than an overwhelming emotional response that calls for an impulsive action. In this way meditation allows one to be more objective and detached to the experiences of the highs and lows, while being present in the moment. It is precisely this quality that leads to self-awareness. A recent study that looked into various meditation traditions and connected them to nuerochemical processes came to the conclusion that mediation is an important step toward become understanding of the self.
Sleep is vital for our health and performance. As a matter of fact, studies have shown that lack of sleep can cause brain damage and decrease our ability to function. However, inability to get a good nights rest is something very prevalent in our society, starting from college students working on a deadline to CEOs trying to grow their companies. A study reports that around 30% of adults in the US get less than 6 hours of sleep frequently, which is defined to be chronic short sleep (CSS). This leads to the reduction of our cognitive function, and thus our overall performance, not only the short term but the long term.
A recent study on the effect of mindfulness meditation and sleep has shown that meditation promotes sound sleep. The study looked at 49 adults with sleep disturbances, and those in the meditation group subjects reported less insomnia, fatigue and better daytime functioning at the end of the study. The authors attribute this to meditation's ability to reduce anxiety, worry, and mood disturbances through regulating neurocognitive processes.
