Should students learn how to meditate? Are there some important meditation benefits for students that need to be known? The short answer to these questions is YES. Guided meditation can even be great for children.
If regular practice happens (this means at meditating at least once per day), students end up noticing improvements in many different important aspects. To highlight this, here are some reasons why you do want to learn how to meditate as a student and gain the presented benefits.
Meditation Increases IQ Levels
This is surely something that many do not know. Students that practice meditation gain a huge plus in the fact that brain function is increased. The really high increases happen in practical intelligence, IQ and creative thinking. IQ is measured by someone’s ability to reason when faced with novel situations, which is also often referred to as fluid intelligence.
Lower Academic Stress
Students that frequently meditate will get higher grades. This is, in part, because of the lower stress levels that affect the individual. Just look online and you will see many stories of students that are so stressed that they just cannot continue. One of the strongest benefits associated with meditation for students and practically everyone is the fact that stress is reduced.
We should also add that students that meditate will be more alert, will have higher physical resistance and will be more concentrated during exams.
Efficiently Using Your Brain
Meditation is going to make our brains sharper but it also creates a higher harmony. It was shown that the university students that meditate will have some changes in fibers located in brain areas that are regulating behavior and emotions. These are important changes that will lead to much better intellectual and cognitive performance.
Academic Achievement Improvements
Students that meditate have considerably better academic performance. In fact, there was one study that showed that 41% of the students that actively included meditation into daily practice ended up getting better grades in both English and Math. This percentage may seem small for some but it is actually quite a lot. It is always important to get good grades in school. If meditation might help you to get better grades, why not try it?
Improved Focus
Meditation helps you to stay calmer. This is really useful for students. Around half of students that meditate will have reduced anxiety, stress and even ADHD symptoms. This is practically because meditation increases focus. When the student is more focused, a chain reaction happens. It is easier to focus on all tasks and brain processing is increased. Language-based skills also get improved.
Reduced Anxiety And Depression
This is, perhaps, the most important benefit of meditating that can be mentioned. Unfortunately, student life is so much more stressful than it used to be. The number of students that are actively fighting anxiety and depression is much higher than what you might think right now. It was even proven to be suitable for PTSD.
Meditation leads to big reductions when looking at depressive symptoms. This is true for every single person, not just for students. It is particularly useful when faced with clinical cases. Psychologists often recommend meditation for people that are depressed. It was shown to work in over 50% of cases. This means it should at least be tried.
Never underestimate the negative effects of depression and anxiety for students! Try to help the students that are faced with anxiety and depression.
Destructive Addiction Reduction
Enjoying life is something we all want to do so nobody can blame students for having fun. However, not being involved in addictive behavior is something that is necessary for success. There were studies done on adults and students that showed daily meditation reducing antisocial behavior and substance abuse problems. Transcendental meditation was particularly shown to be 2 to 3 times more efficient than the drug education and prevention programs.
Lower Cardiovascular Disease Risk
When students regularly meditate they gain important health benefits, like reduced anxiety, depression and blood pressure. This can be quite important on the long run. It was shown that in the case of students that are at higher hypertension risk, blood pressure was reduced after some months of meditation. This even leads to around 50% lower hypertension development risk in the future.
Students Are Happier
Last but not least, students that meditate are just simply happier. There is a higher score on self-esteem, affectivity and even emotional competence. Just talk to people that regularly meditate! You will quickly figure out the fact that they are simply happier than others. This is what meditation does to you and for a student, being happy should be a part of daily life.