Meditation linked to boosted heart health, new study finds

Our thoughts can sometimes be a stream of noise, an avalanche coming down a mountain that makes us run and hide—makes us focus on surviving. When we eliminate the noise, we can see our circumstances and situations much clearer, as if we switch from foggy to clean glasses.

If our brains were like our cars, after running for too long we would eventually be out of fuel.  On top of that, if we ask too much from our minds, our minds, like our cars, might overheat and stop functioning (i.e., exhaustion). When our minds are not functioning properly, our whole system goes in short circuit and this takes a toll, over time, on our health.

On June 30, a new study was published in The American Journal of Cardiology about the cardiovascular benefits of meditation. Though more research is need, the scientists wrote:

“After adjusting for age, sex, BMI, race, marital status, cigarette smoking, sleeping duration, and depression, meditation was independently associated with a lower prevalence of hypercholesterolemia, compared with those who did not meditate.”

This new finding echoes the recent conclusions of other noted experts.

"Not only can meditation improve how your heart functions, but a regular practice can enhance your outlook on life and motivate you to maintain many heart-healthy behaviors, like following a proper diet, getting adequate sleep, and keeping up regular exercise," said Dr. John Denninger, the director of research at the Harvard-affiliated Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, in 2018, following similar research.

How does mediation, specifically, help our hearts? Mediation lowers our heart rate, because it deepens the breathing, suppresses cortisol and adrenaline, lowers our cholesterol, and boosts our immune system.

When we are in a meditative state, we give our brains a rest or a break. Yes, it demands focus and concentration, but it is an exercise through which we can create a pause for our minds from our cacophony of thoughts.

We liberate our minds from our own noise—our own anxious, scattered thoughts—by choosing to focus only on one thing.

Like a runner trying to run a 5K this requires practice, training, and it might frustrate you at the beginning. If you habitually focus on the end result, you will not only be able to eliminate the noise your recurring worried thoughts create, but you will also welcome awareness, and clarity, into your reality. 

Awareness is one of the main elements that will show you another path to follow, a path where intuition is your guide and anxiety is diminished.

Through the practice of meditation, we allow ourselves to create a space between our thoughts and emotions. In that space we gain the ability to control our thoughts and we can act instead of reacting.  When we are in reaction, or “survival mode,” we use our default settings. 

Even though survival mode makes us act fast to protect ourselves, it has a compounded impact in our everyday lives. When we constantly react to situations, when we react and don’t think through, we often get ourselves into situations that don’t contribute to who we are, or who we are striving to become.   

Tying this back to the new study that linked meditation to improved heart function, when we are able to control the space or gap between emotions and thoughts, we can proceed with not only improved wellbeing, but the clarity, focus and precision that seems intertwined with it.

Our bodies are our prime engine. By achieving inner peace, we are also providing our bodies the same energy to focus and concentrate on what they are programmed to do.