Benefits of Meditation

• Decreases stress related cortisol (Tang et al.2007)

• Strengthens the immune system (Davidson et al. 2003; Tang et al. 2007)

• Helps a variety of medical conditions, including cardiovascular disease, asthma, type 2 diabetes, PMS, and chronic pain (Walsh and Shapiro 2006)

• Helps numerous psychological conditions, including insomnia, anxiety, phobias and eating disorders (Walsh and Shapiro 2006, Evans et al, 2008, Schreiner & Malcolm, 2008)

• Research conducted with chronically depressed patients where an 8 Week Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy program (MBCT) of 2.5hrs a week proved to offer protection against relapse/recurrence equal with that of antidepressant drugs. (Segal ZV, et al. 2010)  

• Young people in need (children and youth involved with child protection and/or mental health systems) can benefit from mindfulness practices as it helps with emotional regulation and social coping skills that can improve aspects of their self-awareness, self-esteem, and resilience. (Coholic, Diana A. 2011)

• Herbert Benson M.D, director of the Mind/Body Centre at Harvard University, has shown through extensive studies of the physiology of Mediator's, decreases in heart rate, breathing rate, metabolism and blood lactate level, and demonstrated that their blood pressure is lower than the “normal” population.

• Increases activation of left frontal regions which in effect lifts mood (Davidosn 2004)

• Increases grey matter in the insula (Holzel et al. 2008; Lazar et al.2005), hippocampus, (Luders et al. 2009) and prefrontal cortex (Lazar et al. 2005) reduces cortical thinning due to aging in prefrontal regions (Lazar et al. 2008) improves psychological functions associated with these regions, including attention (Carter et al. 2005, Tang et al. 2007), compassion, (Lutz, Brefczynski-Lewis et al. 2008) and empathy (Lazar et al. 2005)

• Reduces stress induced immune response and in effect greatly increases our ability to recover from illness. In an 8-week (MBCT) program carried out in a work environment on twenty five healthy employees. The researchers found that brain activity was altered and the level of change in brain activity predicted the level of increase in antibody responses to an influenza vaccine. (Davidson RJ, Kabat-Zinn J, Schumacher J, et al, 2003).  In a similar study MBCT was used to buffer the effects of psychological stress on the development of inflammation in the skin (Rosenkranz et al, 2003)
• Another small, cross-sectional study (Evans et al. 2008) reported a significant decrease in anxiety and depressive symptoms in participants who completed an eight-week group course of MBCT.  

• An Australian study conducted in 2006 (Schreiner & Malcolm, 2008 ) involved a ten-week mindfulness meditation course. The findings suggested a significant decrease in anxiety, depression and stress. The decreases were more pronounced in those with severe rather than those with moderate symptoms. 

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