Meditation for Your Health

The Healing Power of Meditation Continues to Make Waves in the Scientific Community!

New research is finding meditation useful for a variety of health problems—including easing chronic pain… reducing gastrointestinal symptoms… and lowering blood pressure and stress to protect the heart! 

With regular practice, meditation can also help you gain a deeper awareness of your inner self. There is even some evidence that meditation changes your brain—enlarging areas of brain tissue that help us think and learn… while decreasing areas that cause us stress and anxiety.
Have you meditated today? It’s super simple with the right guidance…

With Harvard Medical School’s special report—Meditation For Your Health—you’ll get all the facts… the latest findings… and the science-backed meditation techniques to apply the healing powers of this ancient practice in your life!  Sit down. Close your eyes. Breathe in and out… 

Can it really be that simple?

YES! When Harvard Medical School professor, Dr. Herbert Benson, first discovered that centering the mind induced a unique state of calm, called the “relaxation response”.... no one could have predicted just how powerful entering this state of relaxation could be. In fact, studies showed that both heart rate and blood pressure were reduced in people who meditated! 
In the field of neuroscience—researchers Antoine Lutz and Richard Davidson found patterns of electrical activity in the brains of longtime meditators differed significantly from those of other study participants… which means, meditation could induce real, measurable changes in the brain!

Order Harvard Medical School’s easy-to-read guide: Meditation For Your Health — where you’ll get everything you need to start reaping the rewards of this ancient healing practice:

• The four types of meditation backed by science
• Exactly how meditation activates various parts of the brain
• Which medical conditions meditation can help
• A STEP-BY-STEP breakdown of how to calm your mind and breath… so that you can start incorporating meditation into your daily life!
• And so much more!

There is no better time to start your practice! Especially now as new research findings continue to highlight the health benefits of regular meditation, including improvements in cardiovascular health, anxiety, depression, gastrointestinal conditions, and insomnia. 

Pretty cool, right? That’s why meditation should be at the top of your list alongside exercising, eating well, and sleeping… if you want to stay in tip top shape as you age! 

Order this Special Health Guide today and discover everything you need to know to reap the health benefits of meditation.

Prepared by the editors of Harvard Health Publishing in consultation with Darshan Hemendra Mehta, MD, MPH Assistant Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Medical Director, Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital Medical and Education Director, Osher Center for Integrative Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. 18 Pages (2024)

About Harvard Medical School Guides

Harvard Medical School Guides delivers compact, practical information on important health concerns. These publications are smaller in scope than our Special Health Reports, but they are written in the same clear, easy-to-understand language, and they provide the authoritative health advice you expect from Harvard Health Publishing.

What happens when you meditate?

If you’ve ever meditated, you know how it makes you feel—the intense relaxation and deep calm that suffuse you. But what physiological changes are occurring in your body and brain as you breathe deeply and focus your mind?

The answer centers on your autonomic nervous system, which controls various bodily functions. The autonomic nervous system is divided into two parts. The sympathetic nervous system directs your body’s response to stressful or dangerous situations, first described by Harvard physiologist Walter Cannon as the “fight-or-flight system.” When you’re confronted with, say, a vicious-looking dog, your sympathetic nervous system kicks into action. It increases your heart rate, boosts your blood pressure to send more blood to your muscles, and quickens your breathing, preparing your body to fight or flee.

When you meditate, you turn down your sympathetic nervous system and turn up your parasympathetic nervous system. This is the second part of your autonomic nervous system, which generally takes over once a danger has passed. It quiets your body and returns your heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing to normal.

Meditation also affects your brain’s electrical activity, otherwise known as brain waves. There are five types of brain waves: beta, alpha, theta, delta, and gamma. Beta waves are the most prevalent type when your brain engages in mental activities, such as conversing or teaching a class. Theta waves reflect the state between wakefulness and sleep and relate to the subconscious mind, creativity, and learning. Electroencephalogram (EEG) studies show that when you meditate, theta waves surge as your brain enters a state of deep relaxation. Interestingly, research has found that theta waves decrease in first-time meditators. This opposite reaction might reflect a state of increased alertness in people who are just learning the practice.

• What is meditation?
• Types of practice
• What happens when you meditate?
• How meditation changes your brain
• Which health conditions does meditation help?
  • Anxiety and depression
  • Chronic pain
  • Cancer
  • Chronic bowel disease
  • High blood pressure
  • Insomnia
  • Addiction
  • Smoking
• How to get started
• Resources

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