Maher
Hamadeh
With the rise in modern day smart
phone technology and other user-friendly devices, over stimulation has been
very common. People are constantly distracted with work, school, meetings,
communication, social media, Internet shopping, etc. Unlimited Access to all of
this can make excessive multitasking all the more tempting, leading to mind
overload. Just like the human physical body, the mind needs a break from
constant external stimulation. The lack thereof may take its toll on overall
mental health. This type of break or mindfulness meditation has been found to
reduce overall stress.
Most
research focuses on lengthy meditation program benefits, however research
conducted in Carnegie Mellon University showed that brief mindfulness
meditation practices-“25 minutes for three consecutive days"-alleviates
psychological stress. The article, Just 25
minutes of mindfulness meditation alleviates stress presents a
3 day experiment done by Creswell and his research team, testing 66 healthy
individuals aged 18-30. After 3 days of
brief breathing meditations, individuals reported their stress levels in
response to stressful speech and math performance stress tasks. Reduced stress
perceptions to the speech and math tasks were found, indicating that the mindfulness
meditation fostered psychological stress resilience
Grabowecky’s study, Attention regulation and monitoring in
Meditation, illustrates that she also
believes multitasking and overstimulation is a big issue. She even refers to
this phenomenon as the rise of “the Zombie Nation”. Mindfulness and controlled
attention, according to her, is the gateway to awareness and happiness. Without
the isolation and attention designated to concentrate attention, the mind’s
autonomy can be compromised by the outside world. Her studies showed many
positive correlations between mediation and health. The
Amygdala response to negative distracting sounds decreases with years of
meditation practice. Post-retreat telomerase activity was also significantly
greater in the retreat group. The last I will mention is that long-term
meditators have thicker cortices in the colored regions.
The cultivation of emotional and mental
states is also another profound effect meditation has. This allows people to
assess stress levels faced from day to
day. Aside from stress, meditation can also sustain or treat more severe
conditions such as Depression since it has been shown to have a direct
relationship with stress. Eliminating the stressors may be an effective
treatment for many types of Depression.
Carnegie Mellon University.
(2014, July 2). Just 25 minutes of mindfulness meditation alleviates stress,
study shows. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 12, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140702122535.htm
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