Meditation – A Miracle Drug or a Waste of Time ?
What if you were told that to combat ageing , anxiety , low self-esteem , cognitive decline , as well as others ailments by just closing your eyes for twenty minutes a day and thinking about virtually nothing ? This is what many meditation practices , online meditation forums , and meditation apps promise . But is it just hocus pocus and a rip off or is there actual scientific evidence behind these toogood-to-be-true claims ?
When on the search for scientific proof for the benefits of meditation , the large majority of what you come across can be mounds of inconclusive theories and often no apparent pattern amongst results of different scientific studies . Scientists have only been researching meditation for around two decades , and it is apparent that the methods used are still in their infancy . Very few long-term studies are available since experiments investigating the effects of meditation are difficult to carry out - considering scientists are finding difficulty controlling the variables . However , there is a consensus among scientists that there are 3 main areas that are positively affected by meditation : attention , emotion regulation , and ageing .