For many years meditation has been seen as a very good tool for helping control stress. However this was more speculation, based on observations, thoughts and feelings. In more recent times, research and scientific theories seem to back up the notion that meditation can help with stress.

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), “Practicing meditation has been shown to induce some changes in the body…Some types of meditation might work by affecting the automatic nervous system.” The sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic nervous system are two divisions of the autonomic nervous system of the body. The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for our reaction to stress or fear and is more commonly known as the “fight-or-flight” system. The parasympathetic nervous system is active during times of rest and associated with “rest and digest”. The NIH goes on to say, “It is thought that some types of meditation might work by reducing activity in the sympathetic nervous system and increasing activity in the parasympathetic nervous system.”

One theory, presented by Daniel Goleman & Tara Bennett-Goleman suggests that meditation works because of the relationship between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. In very simple terms, the amygdala is the part of the brain that decides if we should get angry or anxious, and the pre-frontal cortex is the part that makes us stop and think about things.

The prefrontal cortex is very good at analyzing and planning, but it takes a long time to make decisions. The amygdala, on the other hand, is simpler and older in evolutionary terms. It makes rapid judgments about a situation and has a powerful effect on our emotions and behaviour, linked to our survival needs. For example, if a human sees a pretador leaping out at them, the amygdala will trigger a fight or flight response long before the prefrontal cortex responds.

But in making snap judgments, our amygdalas are prone to error, such as seeing danger where there isn’t any. This is particularly true in our modern society where social conflicts are far more common than encounters with predators, and a basically harmless but emotionally charged situation can trigger uncontrollable fear or anger, leading to conflict, anxiety, and stress.

Therefore meditation can not only help us reduce our stress levels in the short term, but it can also improve our brains in order to more effectively deal with stressful situations in the future. Regular practice of meditation can help reduce our stress levels to very manageable levels.

Studies done by Yale, Harvard and Massachusetts General Hospital have shown that meditation increases gray matter in the brain and slows down the deterioration of the brain as a part of the natural aging process.

The experiment included 20 individuals with intensive Buddhist ‘insight meditation’ training and 15 who did not meditate. The brain scan revealed that those who meditated had an increased thickness of gray matter in parts of the brain that are responsible for attention and processing sensory input. The study also showed that meditation helps slow down brain deterioration due to aging.

Another study involving the participation of a group of colleges students, who were asked to use a meditation technique called integrative body-mind training, concluded that “meditating may improve the integrity and efficiency of certain connections in the brain” through an increase in their number and robustness. (Science Daily 22 August 2010)

Dr. James Austin, a neurophysiologist at the University Of Colorado, reported that Zen meditation “rewires the circuitry” of the brain in his book ‘Zen and the Brain’ (1999). This has been confirmed using functional MRI imaging, a brain scanning technique that measures blood flow in the brain.

These studies all clearly indicate that meditation is good for the brain, can slow down its aging process, and can even positively influence it in a physical way. That’s why its a very good idea to put aside even just a small amount of time every day to meditate.

While meditation and hypnosis do share similarities they are not the same thing. Both meditation and hypnosis share many of the same techniques such as visualization and focusing awareness on a single point in the initial stages. It’s in the next stage that they tend to split apart.

In most cases people who use hypnosis do so with a very specific goal in mind whether it’s to lose weight, quit smoking, increase confidence, etc. Meditation is different in this regard as the aim is typically to relax and achieve a heightened sense of awareness.

With meditation and hypnosis it’s not a case of using one or another. Under the right guidance both are skills that can be used to greatly improve your life. Neither is “better” or “safer” than the other so don’t be afraid to experiment with either.