/SIG/ - Self-Improvement General - Meditation Edition

Hey, I posted meditation article on 4chan some time ago and I decided on improving and posting it here so more people can read it. I also plan on posting new short meditation exercises every day, but I am going to talk about it at the end of the article.

Why You should start meditating.

**1) It helps in fighting addiction(in a long-term perspective) better, than any other method that exist:**

http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/1839290

> "At the 6-month follow-up, however, both RP and MBRP participants had a significantly reduced risk of relapse to drug use and heavy drinking compared with TAU participants, with RP showing an advantage over MBRP in time to first drug use. Among participants reporting alcohol use, MBRP and RP participants reported significantly fewer days of heavy drinking compared with TAU participants. At the 12-month follow-up, MBRP participants reported significantly fewer drug use days and higher probability of not engaging in heavy drinking compared with RP participants."

+ Anecdotal evidence from reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Meditation/comments/73o1cl/anyone_stopped_or_reduced_their_desire_of_alcohol/


**2) It grows prefrontal cortex(concentration and attention) and decrease gray matter in Amygdala(stress) and decrease feeling of pain**

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/what-does-mindfulness-meditation-do-to-your-brain/

> "MRI scans show that after an eight-week course of mindfulness practice, the brain’s “fight or flight” center, the amygdala, appears to shrink. This primal region of the brain, associated with fear and emotion, is involved in the initiation of the body’s response to stress."

> "As the amygdala shrinks, the pre-frontal cortex – associated with higher order brain functions such as awareness, concentration and decision-making – becomes thicker."