Benefits of meditation on reducing stress and depression

Here’s a very interesting summary of some recent research regarding the benefits of meditation on reducing stress and depression and enhancing brain function. There are two aspects of this study and the article I find particularly useful and interesting:

First, the subjects who showed benefits from meditation were new to meditation, in other words, they were not experienced in meditation techniques. Nonetheless, after 8 weeks of daily half-hour meditation, imaging studies of their brains showed beneficial changes. This suggests that anyone can benefit from meditation.

Second, I find it interesting that the commentator implies that this study is more significant than prior studies in which the subjects simply stated they felt better after meditation, because this new study used high-tech imaging to document brain changes. Prior to brain imaging techniques, wouldn’t we have considered it good enough if the meditators simply stated they felt better? Do we really need to wait for high-tech confirmation of what the experience of all human cultures has been saying for thousands of years? Still, I agree it is nice to see scientific confirmation of the benefits of meditation practice. Read on and enjoy:

http://www.yesmagazine.org/happiness/a-little-meditation-goes-a-long-way