Can Meditation Save Your Life?

We have all heard how good meditation is for the body, mind and soul. My fiancé meditates daily and I can see the difference in him when he doesn’t find the time to fit it in. In just 10 to 20 minutes per day mediation can help you relax and live in the moment.

“If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.” –Lao Tzu

This is a very famous quote and I believe that meditation puts you at peace so that you can live in the present moment. Not only can mediation help place your mind at peace it can also do so much more.

A recent study done at Harvard University revealed what meditation actually does to the brain. In the eight week study, Harvard researchers found that meditation rebuilds the brains grey matter.

What is grey matter?

Grey matter is a major component of the central nervous system. According to Princeton University “Grey matter routes sensory or motor stimuli to interneuron’s of the central nervous system in order to create a response to the stimulus through chemical synapse.”

Basically grey matter transports information from sensory and motor stimuli; if mediation causes grey matter to rebuild that means by meditating you can transmit more information.

Maybe this is why Dr. Deepak Chopra says mediation can heal you and reverse the signs of biological aging.

Meditation can also prevent heart disease reduce stress and lessen ADHD symptoms. In a study done from 1998-2007, by Robert H. Schneider, M.D, from the Maharishi University, participants were broken up into two groups randomly, one group engaged in mediation for 20 minutes twice a day and one group known as the control group did not.

The researchers found that the group who meditated had a lower risk of experiencing cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke and death, compared to the group that didn’t meditate.

This fascinates me that sitting in a room for 20 minutes a day and clearing your mind could have such a tremendous impact on your health and your life. I already knew that meditation focused the mind but now to find this all the other great effects it has on the mind I will immediately start meditating every day.