Some important benefits of meditation during this pandemic

With the COVID pandemic raging around the world, people find it tough to maintain their peace of mind, plagued by thoughts of possible infection and a bad outcome. Here are some of the important meditation benefits that will help you maintain a better standard of life during COVID-19.

Stress reduction: This is one of the foremost reasons why people gravitate towards mediation, especially during the pandemic. The stress hormone called cortisol will increase with physical and mental stress, and will release cytokines which are inflammatory products. This can cause disruption in sleep, increase anxiety and promote depression, blood pressure elevation, as well as cloudy and fatigued thinking patterns. Mindfulness meditation will help to reduce the stress induced inflammation response.
Anxiety control: For those people with anxiety, and high levels of it, brought about by the uncertainty of the COVID pandemic, meditation will reduce stress. With those people that have generalized anxiety disorder, coping with stress and reaction to stress is improved. Prolonged pain, anxiety and depression show a marked decrease after about 8 weeks of meditation. Job strain is also a byproduct of the pandemic and meditation will help to alleviate stress related to jobs, so that you can perform optimally.
Promotion of emotional health: There are some type of meditation that you can practice that will enhance your self image and impart a positive outlook to life. Symptoms of depression are significantly reduced with regular meditation and practitioners will experience reduction in depression symptoms. Cytokines are inflammatory chemicals released to combat stress and this leads to feelings of depression. Regular meditation during the pandemic will reduce depression considerably.
Self awareness: With meditation, you become more aware of your feelings and are able to segregate them into positive and negative feelings. Meditation will make you mentally stronger and deepen your understanding of yourself. With a greater understanding of your emotions and thoughts, you will be in a good position to evaluate your thoughts and steer them to pleasant outcomes. This is especially important when you are in a pandemic situation.
Increased attention span: if you practice focused meditation, it is akin to lifting your span of attention. Studies have shown that those who listen to meditation tapes will have enhanced focus and accuracy when doing a task. Meditation also reduces worrying, wandering of the mind and poor attention spans.
Reducing age related losses: For older people, meditation helps to improve their performance in neurophysiological tests. Different styles of meditation Increases attention, mental clarity and memory in older adults. For patients with dementia, meditation helps to improve memory partially.
Generating kindness: Meditation increases your positive feelings and beneficial actions towards yourself as well as others. It fosters feelings of kindness and increases compassion to oneself and others.
Improvement in sleep: meditation has a positive effect on sleep and will help you to get quality rest, important in the COVID pandemic where rest is of the essence.