Meditation is an extreme form of concentration. It allows your mind to focus on one thing while detaching you from everything else. Some of the most successful people in the world attribute meditation to be one of their key reasons for creating a better life for themselves. It helps in regulating your wellbeing and works wonders on your concentration and IQ, as well. Meditation is an essential art to pick up in life if you aim to reach for the stars.

1. Increase in Focus

Studies have shown that meditation increases the ability to focus for longer periods of time at a sustained rate. This benefits you in many ways, including being able to pay attention in class longer, thus improving the chances of retaining concepts better. In addition to this, those who meditate have a higher rate of success in taking quizzes and exams. Better focus also benefits students outside the classroom — mainly in extracurricular activities such as sports and art. The act of visualization is a form of meditation that many professionals use in order to perform at a high level.

2. Improved Memory

Since meditation is not yet picked up by everyone, several studies have shown an increase in grey matter in the hippocampus region of the brain that is responsible for learning and memory. An enhanced memory allows students to retain more information, which of course, lends itself to better grades in exams. But this is not the extent of the benefits of better memory. It also helps in creating and solidifying relationships with others. In addition, a good memory means an increased ability to understand many different ideas and thoughts at once. This is a skill that is useful in carrying through conversations. Furthermore, it is a skill that comes in handy in the workplace and the world in general, where information is everything.

3. Reducing Anxiety and Stress

Stress can cause digestive issues, headaches, insomnia, depression, and anger, among various other symptoms. Under conditions of chronic stress, people may suffer from viral infections like the flu. Tragedies, traumatic events, and even minor failures can cause an onset of stress that seems never-ending. This is especially true in teenagers and students, who go through emotional rollercoasters due to hormonal changes and stress-inducing events such as moving away from home to college or breaking up with a significant other. Meditation is one way to confront emotions and deal with these stressful events in a healthy way. It helps in relaxing the mind and allows you to further channel your emotions better.

4. Reducing Fatigue

Meditation sessions reduce fatigue and improve concentration. It also helps in maintaining a high amount of energy throughout the day. It helps in improving your lifestyle and regulates your daily activities which, in turn, improves your state of being and boosts your confidence. It relieves you of fatigue that gets accumulated in your daily life.

5. Improves Immunity

Immunity is something that is found lacking in today’s youth because of the tremendous amounts of stress and work that they have to undertake. Shuffling between classes, coaching classes, and unit tests while maintaining a healthy social life is quite an arduous task. More often than not, our daily activities drain the life out of us and we succumb to sickness, physically or mentally. Adequate exercise, a healthy diet, and a regular sleeping schedule are all constituents of sustaining a healthy way of living. Practicing meditation for a little while is found to help in improving the immunity levels of a person.

In order to optimize your health by reducing stress and increasing cognitive performance, it is important to embrace a healthy diet, an adequate amount of exercise, a regular sleep schedule, and meditation. While it has not been in the conversation until very recently, meditation is just one piece in the overall puzzle of a healthy lifestyle. But practicing meditation every day for some time will benefit you tremendously and you will start to see a better version of yourself emerge from within.