Physiological benefits:
- It lowers oxygen consumption.
- It decreases respiratory rate.
- It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate.
- Increases exercise tolerance.
- Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation.
- Good for people with high blood pressure.
- Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate.
- Decreases muscle tension
- Helps in chronic diseases like allergies, arthritis etc.
- Reduces Pre-menstrual Syndrome symptoms.
- Helps in post-operative healing.
- Enhances the immune system.
- Reduces activity of viruses and emotional distress
- Enhances energy, strength and vigor.
- Helps with weight loss
- Reduction of free radicals, less tissue damage
- Higher skin resistance
- Drop in cholesterol levels, lowers risk of cardiovascular disease.
- Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing.
- Decreases the aging process.
- Higher levels of DHEAS (Dehydroepiandrosterone)
- Prevented, slowed or controlled pain of chronic diseases
- Makes you sweat less
- Cure headaches & migraines
- Greater Orderliness of Brain Functioning
- Reduced Need for Medical Care
- Less energy wasted
- More inclined to sports, activities
- Significant relief from asthma
- Improved performance in athletic events
- Normalizes to your ideal weight
- Harmonizes our endocrine system
- Relaxes our nervous system
- Produce lasting beneficial changes in brain electrical activity
- Cure infertility (the stresses of infertility can interfere with the release of hormones that regulate ovulation).
Psychological benefits:
- Builds self-confidence.
- Increases serotonin level, influences mood and behavior.
- Resolve phobias & fears
- Helps control own thoughts
- Helps with focus & concentration
- Increase creativity
- Increased brain wave coherence.
- Improved learning ability and memory.
- Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation.
- Increased emotional stability.
- Improved relationships
- Mind ages at slower rate
- Easier to remove bad habits
- Develops intuition
- Increased Productivity
- Improved relations at home & at work
- Able to see the larger picture in a given situation
- Helps ignore petty issues
- Increased ability to solve complex problems
- Purifies your character
- Develop will power
- Greater communication between the two brain hemispheres
- React more quickly and more effectively to a stressful event.
- Increases one's perceptual ability and motor performance
- Higher intelligence growth rate
- Increased job satisfaction
- Increase in the capacity for intimate contact with loved ones
- Decrease in potential mental illness
- Better, more sociable behavior
- Less aggressiveness
- Helps in quitting smoking, alcohol addiction
- Reduces need and dependency on drugs, pills & pharmaceuticals
- Need less sleep to recover from sleep deprivation
- Require less time to fall asleep, helps cure insomnia
- Increases sense of responsibility
- Reduces road rage
- Decrease in restless thinking
- Decreased tendency to worry
- Increases listening skills and empathy
- Helps make more accurate judgments
- Greater tolerance
- Gives composure to act in considered & constructive ways
- Grows a stable, more balanced personality
- Develops emotional maturity
Spiritual benefits:
- Helps keep things in perspective
- Provides peace of mind, happiness
- Helps you discover your purpose
- Increased self-actualization.
- Increased compassion
- Growing wisdom
- Deeper understanding of yourself and others
- Brings body, mind, spirit in harmony
- Deeper Level of spiritual relaxation
- Increased acceptance of oneself
- Helps learn forgiveness
- Changes attitude toward life
- Creates a deeper relationship with your God
- Attain enlightenment
- greater inner-directedness
- Helps living in the present moment
- Creates a widening, deepening capacity for love
- Discovery of the power and consciousness beyond the ego
- Experience an inner sense of "Assurance or Knowingness"
- Experience a sense of "Oneness"
- Increases the synchronicity in your life
Meditation is also completely FREE! It requires no special equipment, and is not complicated to learn. It can be practiced anywhere, at any given moment, and it is not time consuming (15-30 min. per day is good). Best of all, meditation has NO negative side effects. Bottom line, there is nothing but positive to be gained from it! With such a huge list of benefits, the question you should ask yourself is, "why am I not meditating yet?"
From: http://www.ineedmotivation.com/blog/2008/05/100-benefits-of-meditation/