Hi,
When I started this website, I wrote an article on Benefits of Meditation. It is still there and covers the main benefits of meditation in a short summarized form. While this article gives you a broad idea, it is somewhat lacking in presenting the scientific researches on the measurable benefits of meditation that have been made in the past decades.
Benefits of Meditation
Since meditation has become quite main stream in the western world, a number of scientific studies have been conducted out there to actually measure the effects of meditation on human body. The studies are quite encouraging and give a positive verdict on the practice of meditation for physical and mental well being of people. For the guys like me, who are already a strong advocate of practice of meditation, the findings of these results are like music to the ears.
Coming back to benefits of meditations, one of my friends Giovanni Dienstmann (well honestly speaking, we became friends only a few weeks ago through a Linkedin forum ) has written an excellent article on the benefits of meditation wherein he has covered in great details about a number of scientific studies on meditation. Giovanni is a Meditation instructor and runs a popular blog on meditation & personal growth (Liveanddare.com). He realized that there have been over 3,000 scientific studies on the benefits of meditation, but nowhere on the internet there has been any compilation of them in an organized form. Thus he decided to fill in the gap by writing Scientific Benefits of Meditation – 76 things you might be missing out
I think that this article is one of the most important articles ever written on the scientific benefits of meditation. Backed by the source of the scientific studies conducted, it presented a solid compilation of all the benefits of meditation that have been validated in a lab. You must read it to know some measurable benefits of meditation.
My own take on the benefits of meditation
There are many wonderful things in life whose benefits you can realize only by actually doing them. You can read an encyclopedia on the benefits of walking in the morning. But that will be of no use unless you take the plunge and start a routine of morning walk. That will be the only way to actually feel the benefits.
Same thing applies to meditation. Keep aside the scientific study for a moment. You need to meditate yourself to see if it benefits you or not. That is the only test that matters for normal folks like us.
So when are you going to make meditation a part of your daily routine?