Benefits of Meditation for Seniors

Meditation Is becoming a progressively popular technique amongst people focusing on their mental wellbeing. Recent studies have shown the benefits regular mindful mediation practices can have on people living with certain medical conditions such as dementia, heart disease, COPD and high blood pressure.

The practice of mindful meditation involves slowing down racing thoughts, letting go of negative feelings and promoting sensations of calmness. It can be used to identify and cope with body pain, ease feelings of anxiousness and depression and help with sleep.

Leading health foundations such as The Mental Health Foundation, NICE and Cancer research UK suggest meditation as a form of dealing with feelings of depression, anxiety and even body pain.

More benefits of meditation include:

• Increase in feelings of self-worth and confidence
• Improve sleep
• Improve digestion
• Reduction in feelings of stress
• Help control pain
• Increase attention span

Having time to yourself and focusing on your feelings is a healthy exercise. Find a comfy area in your home and try a meditation exercise to see if it can benefit you. Download our free meditation guide PDF to follow some beginner’s meditation techniques perfect for seniors.

A recent study on the effects meditation has on the reduction of stress and cognitive impairment found that meditation can lead to improved sleep and a decrease in depression. Participants followed a Kirtan Kriya meditation program for 12 minutes a day. Kirtan Kriya was also found to increase blood flow to areas of the brain involved in cognitive and emotional regulation.

A pilot study conducted to see the effects of mindfulness meditation on people living with COPD found benefits to meditating with the condition. Participants who took part in a meditation intervention group reported significantly less dyspnea (shortness of breath) compared to the participants that did not take part in the meditation. They also reported significantly less anxiety sensitivity.

A study conducted on congestive heart failure patients looked into meditation and CHD mortality. Half the patients took part in a meditation program and half did not. After 6 months the meditation group reported being able to go on longer walks and scored higher in the improvement of depression scores and quality of life measures than the non-meditation group. Through these 6 months, the meditation group also had lower instances of hospitalisations compared to the other group.

For more information on the different types of meditation and the benefits it can have for people living with medical conditions visit our Meditation for senior health page.

If this article has inspired you to try out meditation go ahead and download our free beginners guide to senior meditation PDF. It’s packed with 5 different meditation techniques perfect for beginners and talks you through how to prepare for a meditation session.