37 Unexpected Ways Meditation Can Drastically Improve Your Quality of Life

“Happily, the benefits of training in meditation arrive long before mastery does.” – Sam Harris, Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion

I was recently in a business mastermind group and we were discussing the idea finding flow in your work.

One of the other participants brought up that they had been meditating for a while and it had improved all areas of their life, especially their concentration at work.

Another member of the group interrupted: “but hold on? How would meditation help you concentrate at work? Unless I guess if you were a bit less stressed?”

A few of the others there who had obviously spent some time meditating looked as shocked as I was.

It was at that point that I realized that not everyone is actually aware of the benefits of meditation.

Whilst western psychology has finally adopted meditation as a legitimate therapy, a lot of the public emphasis has been placed on stress reduction, which may have taken away from some of the other very impressive benefits.

Here are 37 life changing benefits of meditation that you may not be aware of.

Note: I’ve tried to include references to scientific research for as many as possible, but where there is only anecdotal evidence – meaning lots of meditators agree to having experienced these benefits, but there is no research into the area – I have put an asterisk.

1. Improve your ability to detecting body language
2. Improve your ability to negotiate*
3. Decrease your anxiety
4. Decrease panic attacks
5. Improve your mood and emotional intelligence
6. Improve your ability to focus
7. Strengthen your immune system
8. Allows you to more easily get into the flow state at work*
9. Works as well as antidepressants
10. Improves your learning and knowledge retention capacities
11. Lower High Blood Pressure
12. Increase empathic intelligence
13. Improve sleep and combat insomnia
14. Decrease in feelings of loneliness
15. Enhances ability to kick addictions such as smoking
16. Manage ADHD
17. Make you more energy efficient*
18. Improve your self esteem
19. Reduce dependence on caffeine*
20. Reduces risk of heart disease and stroke
21. Control over your autonomic nervous system
22. Clear up skin conditions such as acne*
23. Improved cognitive functioning*
24. Improve fertility
25. Helps relieve asthma and arthritis
26. Improved decision-making abilities
27. Better hearing and cognitive abilities
28. Improves sex life*
29. Improve your memory
30. Improve social relationships*
31. Improve self-confidence
32. Makes you live longer*
33. Slowing of Neurodegenerative diseases
34. Enhanced creativity
35. Improve pain threshold and helps with pain management
36. Helps become less defensive in your personal relationships*
37. Improve self-acceptance

Have you had any experience meditating? Are there any benefits you think we’ve left out? Let us know in the comments!

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Ben is a freelance writer, and the co-creator of Project Monkey Mind— head over to the blog to learn more about Spiritual Meditation.