How Useful Is Meditation Really?

In a world where mindfulness and self growth are forever being pushed by magazines, books and TED Talks, I was wondering what works and what is a fad when it comes to bettering our mental health? If we were to follow what was popular at the moment, and I'm sure some of us do, I doubt that would lead to much mindfulness as your brain would be chopping and changing every five seconds to keep up with what would help it relax! So I've decided to tackle a popular method for mindfulness, meditation, to see what science has to tell us about it, and also to give my personal verdict upon trying it myself. 

 

MEDITATION

There is no one way to meditate and the great thing about it is, if you have the patience which regular meditation will help you with (!), you have the chance to try many types. There's focused meditation where as the name suggest you direct your focus on something, usually breathing or a body scan. It helps bring your focus back to your focal point when your attention wonders. There's guided meditations which usually focus on creative thinking, usually there's a story you follow which has a link to whatever you're trying to improve/understand, weather that's confidence or letting go of past fears etc. There's also meditation music which plays for an allotted amount of time and you choose to meditate however you see fit. And there's chanting, using traditional Buddhist practices to focus on chakras. Now what happens to our brains when we meditate? The overall difference is that our brains stop processing information as actively as they normally would. Or if you want the specific breakdown of what happens to your brain, it tends to go like this:

Frontal lobe: This is the most highly evolved part of the brain, responsible for reasoning, planning, emotions and self-conscious awareness. During meditation, the frontal cortex tends to go offline.
Parietal lobe: This part of the brain processes sensory information about the surrounding world, orienting you in time and space. During meditation, activity in the parietal lobe slows down.
Thalamus: The gatekeeper for the senses, this organ focuses your attention by funneling some sensory data deeper into the brain and stopping other signals in their tracks. Meditation reduces the flow of incoming information to a trickle.
Reticular formation: As the brain’s sentry, this structure receives incoming stimuli and puts the brain on alert, ready to respond. Meditating dials back the arousal signal.

So we become more present, aware of ourselves and less aware of distractions and gain peace, not running away with thoughts and emotions. Sounds good right? And finding this is what happens to the brain makes total sense! Whenever I meditate, there have been times I feel like my brain is floating, I get these tingles on my body and it's like I can feel the vibrations of myself but I forget where I am. It feels amazing. But are there downfalls? Well in a 2009 paper in Advances in Mind-Body medicine, the author team led by psychologist Kathleen Lustyk provided an in-depth review of mindfulness practice studies that reported adverse side effects to participants. These included reports of depersonalisation (feeling detached from ones body or mental processes) psychosis, insomnia, a loss of appetite and anxiety. But as psychologists Miguel Farias and Catherine Wilkolm point out, 

“Buddhist meditation was designed not to make us happier, but to radically change our sense of self and perception of the world. Given this, it is perhaps not surprising that some will experience negative effects such as dissociation, anxiety and depression. However, like the small print on medication, these “side-effects” in some individuals are not what the creators of this pill are concerned with promoting.” 

I think if you have mental health issues that you feel are serious, it may be useful to consult your doctor about the use of meditation to help first. Also if you use a meditation teacher, do your research and keep an open mind - it has been proven meditation helps with mental health issues, but if you're worried it doesn't hurt to get some guidance.Which leads me to ask, are you in the correct mindset already? Because if you're meditating to get something you won't find whatever it is you're looking for. It wasn't designed to make you happier than everyone else or able to no longer think negatively ever again. You'll still be paranoid, have fat days, feel moody etc because you're human. It's not about not caring anymore and finding the easy way out. For me it's about becoming at peace with your mind and yourself, understanding your thoughts and when to follow them. As I've said before we create our own reality, and in that I don't mean everything outside of you is in your control and you'll get everything you ever wanted and people will say and do as you please. But whatever happens to you, you CHOOSE how to react to it. You CHOOSE how to see it. That's taking control of our reality. And I personally found meditating incredibly useful for letting go of past hurts and understanding why I would think the way I did, and then from that it taught me how to distinguish what thoughts to follow and how to let others go. 

CREATING THE HABIT

This is the hardest part. I started off with 5-10 minutes, every morning first thing when I woke up. I tried different types of meditation, and I enjoyed the focusing ones at first but now I adore the guided meditations - so I found once I could focus my mind on something and got into the regular habit of it, the meditations focused on confidence and understanding your thoughts and relieving yourself of past pain was really what I needed. I then started doing it last thing before bed as well, and then I found I enjoyed it so much I would find spare moments in the day to meditate. If work stressed me out I'd sneak off to the loo's and do a focused breathing session. I used to let my emotions get carried away and if something upset me I would react on 100% - but meditation techniques have helped me so that now I don't need to go off and do them when someone upsets me, it's like I have muscle memory in my brain to just automatically know how to deal with the emotions and understand the thoughts. It's incredibly freeing. At first I meditated on a schedule and now it's like I don't have to force that at all - I meditate through an enjoyment of it. It's just like the gym for your brain - difficult at first, but with time, patience and a routine you'll notice a difference and come to love it as a vital part of your life.

When starting out I tried many apps to see what would help me best. My top three in order are:

1) Insight Timer - thousands of meditations and talks on here to try. It lets you save your favourites, try many different methods and seems to have a meditation for every occasion. You can look up emotions, situations, whatever you feel you need at the moment they will have. Best for choice! FREE

2) Let's Meditate - Less options than Insight Timer, but still has brilliant value meditations. Gives option to download so can listen when not connected to wifi or internet. Has meditations for all sorts, from Body Scan to Chakra Ativations to Letting Go of the Past, a few among many. I personally adore the Envisioning meditation. Good for first meditation App. FREE

3) Buddhify - Has a fantastic mediation option where you have categories with sub categories. For example you can choose Stress & Difficult Emotions, Using Your Phone or Walking (plus more) and find meditations within those categories that are specific to your needs. Great for instant help. FREE

(link is external)in Advances in Mind-Body medicine, the author team led by psychologist Kathleen Lustyk provided an in-depth (and to me, astonishing) review of mindfulness practice studies