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Meditation and Psychology

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Meditation and Psychology
Abstract
Meditation is a practice that is found in some form across religions and continents, it is a concept that has been around for ages. Meditation has many positive effects on its participants ranging from the emotion level through increased positive emotions, better emotional regulation, and better socioemotional adaptability, cognitive level by modifying our perception of pain and stress, and on the physiological level by altering our heart rate, altering our brain functioning, and actually altering some of our brain structure to better deal with pain. Meditation is not mysticism but rather science that is starting to be uncovered.

Introduction Meditation is a practice that is found in some form across religions and continents, it is a concept that has been around for ages. If this is such an enduring concept across time what is meditation. Meditation has many forms and practices, but for the basis of this paper the answer to that question lies in one psychology study were the established the three common core criteria needed in meditation. The three core criteria a meditative practice needs are; first a defined technique, second logic relaxation, and third it has to be a self-induced state. The study was done with people who engage in various forms of meditation and of an entire list those three were rated the most essential criteria in any form of meditation. So now that there is a working definition, what effect does mediation have or is it simply a spiritual waste of time? In one journal they scientists presented the idea of meditation being able to enrich western psychology through cognition and attention, mental training and development. In this paper we shall examine its effects by looking at the emotional, cognitive, and physiological effects of meditation and let the facts speak for themselves.
Emotional Effects If mediation brings peace to mind, body, and soul, how does it affect to our emotions? A study was done on a computer company by



References: Cahn, B., & Polich, J. (2006). Meditation states and traits: EEG, ERP, and neuroimaging studies. Psychological Bulletin, 132(2), 180-211. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.2.180 Fredrickson, B Hutcherson, C. A., Seppala, E. M., & Gross, J. J. (2008). Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. Emotion, 8(5), 720-724. doi:10.1037/a0013237 Oman, D., Hedberg, J., & Thoresen, C Perlman, D. M., Salomons, T. V., Davidson, R. J., & Lutz, A. (2010). Differential effects on pain intensity and unpleasantness of two meditation practices. Emotion, 10(1), 65-71. doi:10.1037/a0018440 Sahdra, B Sarang, P., & Telles, S. (2006). Effects of two yoga based relaxation techniques on heart rate variability (HRV). International Journal Of Stress Management, 13(4), 460-475 . doi:10.1037/1072-5245.13.4.460 Sze, J Wegner, D. M. (2011). Setting free the bears: Escape from thought suppression. American Psychologist, 66(8), 671-680. doi:10.1037/a0024985 Zautra, A

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