Benefits of mindfulness and meditation
In terms of health, just some of the evidence-based benefits include - greatly improved overall health & well-being (physical, mental and emotional); relaxation; reduced stress, anxiety and worry; stronger immune system; greater energy; improved sleep; lower blood pressure; improved memory, attention and learning ability; improved communication skills; anti-ageing; weight management; greater self-esteem and overall enhanced personal awareness and happiness.
Some of the reasons why meditation is increasingly popular:
- It is easy to learn
- It can be practised anywhere, at anytime - for short or long periods
- There is no ongoing cost and no need for equipment
- There is no need to go anywhere
- No need to rely on anyone else for you to practice meditation
Educational benefits of meditation and mindfulness
Meditation has been shown to have a dramatic effect on brain function. A core element of learning meditation is training one’s attention and subsequently, one’s awareness. Increasingly, a large and growing body of research is showing that meditation and mindfulness complement and also greatly enhance educational skills, learning and behaviour, particularly as mediation helps to develop traditional educational skills.
Meditation and mindfulness have been shown to:
- Improve learning ability and academic performance
- Enhance social and emotional learning
- Facilitate greater cognitive function and intelligence
- Improve memory
- Improve attention and focus
- Improve planning and organisational skills, as well as better information processing
- Improve creativity
- Reduce stress and anxiety (including test anxiety) and improve behaviour
- Improve self-esteem, self-development and self-awareness
- Aid better emotional self-regulation and improved social and relationship skills
All of the above benefits can lead to a much improved learning and social environment, which, in turn, provides benefit to teachers and staff and the educational institution (and system) overall.