Mindfulness: How meditation can build mental resilience
Meditation can teach you to roll with the punches and build mental resilience. Here's how
By | MATT EVANS | www.fitandwell.com
If there’s one thing we’ve all needed in 2020, it’s resilience. This year has thrown up tough challenges for so many people, it can feel very overwhelming at times. However, the practice of being resilient to stress – staying calm not just under pressure, but being able to roll with the long-term waves of anxiety – is an enormous benefit in these turbulent times.
Meditation can help. A study conducted by researchers from the National University of Natural Sciences in Seoul, South Korea, looked at the practice of meditation and its effects on stress resilience.
Published in the scientific journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, the study’s participants underwent a four-day meditation course before being measured on their reactions to stress. The results were very encouraging.
The study found “meditation causes an immediate enhancement in resilience that is sustained. Since resilience is known to be associated with the preventative effect of various psychiatric disorders, the improvement in stress-related neural mechanisms may be beneficial to individuals at high clinical risk.”
