Meditation is a simple practice available to all, which can reduce stress, increase calmness and clarity and promote happiness. Learning how to meditate is straightforward, and the benefits can come quickly.

BENEFITS OF MEDITATION:

If relaxation is not the goal of meditation, it is often a result. In the 1970s, Herbert Benson, MD, a researcher at Harvard University Medical School, coined the term “relaxation response" after conducting research on people who practiced transcendental meditation. The relaxation response, in Benson’s words, is “an opposite, involuntary response that causes a reduction in the activity of the sympathetic nervous system.”

Since then, studies on the relaxation response have documented the following short-term benefits to the nervous system:

• Lower blood pressure

• Improved blood circulation

• Lower heart rate

• Less perspiration

• Slower respiratory rate

• Less anxiety

• Lower blood cortisol levels

• More feelings of well-being

• Less stress

• Deeper relaxation

So, should we get started?