What are the Benefits of a Contemplative Practice?

By Nancy Rynes, author of Awakenings from the Light

Article copyright Nancy Rynes, 2023

Do you want to feel better overall, have deeper sleep, less anxiety, and improve your ability to learn and focus? Or maybe you want to boost your ability to think creatively, feel more compassion for others, or achieve a deeper sense of inner peace?

Meditation and other contemplative practices, such as deep prayer, spiritually-focused chanting and singing, and even drumming, have been scientifically studied for decades and been shown to have a multitude of benefits to our physical, mental, and spiritual health. In addition, they provide the basis for other, more advanced explorations of the spiritual world such as out-of-body experiences, energy work, and various healing techniques. 

In my experience with my energy-session clients, I have found that the more aware, compassionate,"present", and energetically clear they are, the more likely they are to have a regular contemplative practice of some kind. Many of these clients participate in advanced meditation techniques, or regularly gather with a group of like-minded individuals in order to practice together. And for myself, I cannot do what I do as an energy worker without being able to go into a meditative state. For me, contemplation and meditation are part of my daily life.

Mental Health Benefits of Contemplative Practices

I want to start out this next series of articles by exploring some of the ways that meditation and related contemplative practices can improve our lives. Let's look at mental and emotional health benefits first: 

1. Stress Reduction: Contemplative practices such as mediation can help reduce the levels of the stress hormone cortisol, leading to lower levels of anxiety throughout your body and boosting your mood. Long-term, high levels of cortisol (i.e., chronic stress), have been shown to increase the risk of depression, anxiety, digestive problems, headaches, muscle tension, heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke, sleep problems, and much more. Anything you can do to reduce chronic stress will help your body AND mind immensely.

2. Improved focus and concentration: Regular meditation practice has been scientifically linked to better cognitive function, including improved attention, memory, and mental clarity. 

3. More happiness and increased emotional well-being: Meditation and similar contemplative practices have been shown to increase feelings of happiness, compassion, and other positive emotions while reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety.

4. Increased mindfulness: Meditation can help improve mindfulness, that oh-so-present buzzword you hear so much about today. What is mindfulness? It simply means your ability to be fully aware of  and focused on your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings in there here and now...without also trying to do things in your mind like build a grocery list and plan tomorrow's schedule at the same time.

5. Increased self-awareness: Regular meditation practice can help you become more aware of your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, leading to greater self-awareness and self-reflection.

6. Increased resilience: Meditation can help increase resilience (your ability to recover from a setback) and the ability to cope with stress and adversity.

7. Improved learning and focus: Recent scientific studies have shown a positive correlation between contemplative practices and improved focus and ability to learn. Meditating before a lecture, for example, increased students' ability to retain the information.

9. Increased creativity: It might not be a surprise that contemplative practices can help boost creativity. I think stress reduction is a part of the increases we see in creativity, but changes to how we perceive ourselves and our connection with the Divine universe likely play a part too. One of the values that I see in my own contemplative practices is a stronger connection to the universe around me and less of a focus on my own chattering mind. It is this greater connection to the energy of the universe that, I believe, allows me to bring much more creativity into my art and writing.

Physical Effects of Contemplative Practices

Now that we've seen some of the mental health benefits, let's check out how meditation and related practices can help us physically: 

1. Lowering blood pressure: Studies have found that meditation can help lower blood pressure, reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke. How? Likely through lowering levels of the stress hormone, cortisol.

2. Boosting the immune system: Regular meditation and contemplative practice may enhance immune function, helping the body fight off infections and diseases. Again, probably because of its ability to reduce cortisol.

3. Managing chronic pain: Are you dealing with chronic pain? Meditation might be able to help. Meditation can help reduce the perception of chronic pain and improve coping mechanisms, making it valuable for individuals with chronic pain conditions.

4. Promotes better sleep: Meditation can help calm the mind and body, which can lead to better sleep and improved sleep quality. I personally have battled insomnia most of my life (yes, even as a child). Contemplative practices now make it easier for me to fall asleep.

5. Reduces inflammation: Chronic inflammation is linked to a number of health conditions, including cancer and heart disease. Meditation has been shown to reduce inflammation in the body, again probably because of its ability to reduce chronic levels of high cortisol.

Spiritual Effects of Regular Contemplative Practice

Now we get to the deeper benefits of meditation and contemplative practices: our connection to our spiritual source (God, Creator, etc.), and our ability to live our lives with purpose, compassion, and intention. 

There are numerous spiritual benefits associated with regular meditation practice. Let's look at some of them now:

1. Increased self-awareness: Meditation helps you to become more aware of your thoughts, emotions, feelings, physical sensations, and reactions. This is called self-awareness, and this increased self-awareness can help you to identify limiting patterns in your thoughts and behaviors, figure out ways to work through them, and develop a deeper understanding of yourself.

2. Greater sense of inner peace: Through regular contemplative practices, you can learn to recognize, then let go of, negative or limiting thoughts and emotions that may be causing you stress or anxiety. This can lead to a greater sense of inner peace, calmness, and even joy.

4. Increased compassion and empathy: Meditation has been used for millenia to foster increased compassion and empathy for others, for the natural world, and for the universe as a whole. Contemplative practices can help you to develop greater compassion and empathy towards others around you. By focusing on cultivating feelings of love and kindness, you can improve your relationships with those around you, and also how you relate to all creatures on the planet.

5. Greater connection with Source: Contemplative practices can help you to connect with your inner self and with your Higher Power or spiritual force. This can lead to a greater sense of connection with all beings, and a greater sense of purpose and meaning in life.

I credit my daily practices of meditation, prayer, and contemplation with helping me achieve a state of calm, centered presence; more happiness and joy; and a greater sense of connection to every being on this planet. 

In the coming articles we will explore a variety of contemplative practices from around the world, and give you a template as to how you can find the practices that help you the most.

Blessings,

Nancy

Additional References

American Osteopathic Association. "Yoga and meditation reduce chronic pain: Participants in an eight-week mindfulness-based stress reduction course reported significant improvement in levels of pain, depression and disability." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 October 2020.

Association for Psychological Science. "Meditation helps increase attention span." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 16 July 2010. 

American Academy of Sleep Medicine. "Meditation May Be An Effective Treatment For Insomnia." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 15 June 2009.

Experimental Biology 2018. "Even a single mindfulness meditation session can reduce anxiety: People with anxiety show reduced stress on the arteries after 1-hour introductory session." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 23 April 2018.

George Mason University. "Meditating before lecture leads to better grades." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 9 April 2013. 

Georgetown University Medical Center. "Mindfulness meditation training lowers biomarkers of stress response in anxiety disorder: Hormonal, inflammatory reactions to stress were reduced after meditation training, in rigorous NIH-sponsored trial." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 24 January 2017.

Michigan State University. "How meditation can help you make fewer mistakes: Meditating just once proves to make a difference." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 11 November 2019.

University of California - Los Angeles. "Meditation May Increase Gray Matter." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 May 2009.

University of California - San Diego. "Mindfulness meditation reduces pain by separating it from the self: UC San Diego study reveals neural circuitry supporting mindfulness-induced pain relief." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 8 July 2022. 

Universiteit Leiden. "Meditation makes you more creative." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 19 April 2012.

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