Meditation is a form of alternative medicine that promotes relaxing and mental calmness through the use of controlling or suspending thoughts for a certain period of time. Since meditation involves physical and mental relaxation, it’s a great way to relieve stress.
When some people hear about meditation as a way to relieve stress, they laugh and think it’s a bunch of baloney. They think that meditation is not a viable solution to eliminating stress. But research has shown that meditation works and is a practical technique for stress management.
The most notable research on meditation’s usefulness in relieving stress was done in 1968 by Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard University. He conducted a series of experiments on popular meditation techniques and published his findings in the book “The Relaxation Response.” He discovered that meditation has a “real effect on reducing stress and controlling the fight-or-flight response.” Dr. Benson wrote that meditation increased the skin’s resistance to damage or infections, slowed the heartbeat and breathing rate, and reduced oxygen consumption.
Meditation is all about...