Meditation is often spoken about as a way to calm the mind, reduce stress, or find inner peace. Yet beneath its popular image lies a rich and diverse set of practices that span thousands of years, cultures, and philosophical traditions. Today, meditation is studied in neuroscience laboratories, prescribed in clinical psychology, and practiced in homes, schools, and workplaces worldwide. To understand meditation fully, it helps to move beyond simplified definitions and explore its deeper purpose, its many forms, its scientifically supported benefits, and how it differs from mindfulness.
‘Whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. What is soft is strong.’
Lao Tzu
What is meditation? What does meditation do? What are the benefits of meditation?
What Is Meditation?
There can be so much information on meditation with so many varying forms. What is meditation?
Meditation is a broad family of practices designed to train attention, awareness, and the relationship we have with our inner experience. At its core, meditation involves intentionally directing the mind—toward an object, sensation, thought, or open awareness—in order to cultivate clarity, emotional balance, and insight.
Historically, meditation emerged within spiritual and philosophical traditions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and later Christian contemplative practices. In these contexts, meditation was not primarily about relaxation but about understanding reality, suffering, selfhood, and meaning. In modern psychology and health sciences, meditation has been reframed as a mental training practice that can influence cognition, emotion regulation, and physiological stress responses.
Rather than “emptying the mind,” meditation teaches us to notice what the mind is already doing—thinking, reacting, judging—and to relate to these processes with greater steadiness and awareness.
Different Types of Meditation
Meditation is not a single technique but an umbrella term covering multiple approaches. Each type works with attention and awareness in a slightly different way and may serve different psychological or existential needs.
1. Focused Attention (Concentration) Meditation
Focused attention meditation involves directing attention toward a single object, such as the breath, a candle flame, or a repeated sound (mantra). When the mind wanders—which it inevitably does—the practitioner gently brings attention back to the chosen focus.
This practice strengthens attentional control and is often recommended for beginners. Over time, it can reduce mental distraction and enhance cognitive stability.
Examples: breath awareness, mantra meditation, counting breaths.
2. Loving-Kindness (Metta) Meditation
Loving-kindness meditation focuses on cultivating attitudes of warmth, compassion, and goodwill toward oneself and others. Practitioners silently repeat phrases such as “May I be safe” or “May you be at peace,” gradually expanding the circle of care from self to loved ones, strangers, and even difficult relationships.
Research suggests this practice can increase positive emotions, empathy, and social connectedness, making it particularly valuable for individuals struggling with self-criticism or relational stress.
3. Body Scan Meditation
In body scan meditation, attention moves systematically through the body, noticing physical sensations without trying to change them. This practice builds interoceptive awareness—the ability to sense internal bodily states—and is widely used in clinical settings.
It is especially helpful for stress reduction, chronic pain management, and reconnecting with the body after trauma or prolonged stress.
4. Open Monitoring (Awareness) Meditation
Open monitoring meditation involves observing thoughts, emotions, and sensations as they arise, without focusing on a single object. The aim is not to control experience but to develop a non-reactive, observing stance toward inner life.
This type of meditation supports insight into habitual mental patterns and is closely linked to contemplative traditions that explore the nature of self and consciousness.
5. Transcendental and Mantra-Based Practices
Some forms of meditation involve silently repeating a specific mantra to allow the mind to settle into a state of deep rest. These practices emphasize effortless attention rather than active monitoring and are associated with reductions in physiological stress markers.
The Benefits of Meditation: What Science Tells Us
Over the past three decades, meditation has been extensively studied across psychology, neuroscience, and medicine. While outcomes vary depending on practice type and individual differences, several benefits are consistently supported by high-quality research.
1. Stress Reduction and Nervous System Regulation
Meditation has been shown to reduce activity in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, lowering cortisol levels and supporting parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) nervous system activity. This helps the body recover from chronic stress and may reduce symptoms of anxiety and burnout.
2. Emotional Regulation and Mental Health
Regular meditation practice is associated with improved emotional awareness and regulation. Meta-analyses indicate moderate effects for reducing symptoms of anxiety, depression, and emotional reactivity, particularly when meditation is practiced consistently over time.
Meditation does not eliminate difficult emotions but changes how individuals relate to them—shifting from avoidance or rumination toward acceptance and clarity.
3. Cognitive Function and Attention
Studies using behavioural tasks and neuroimaging suggest meditation can improve sustained attention, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. These effects are especially pronounced in focused attention and open monitoring practices.
4. Brain Structure and Function
Neuroscientific research has found structural and functional changes associated with long-term meditation, including increased cortical thickness in regions linked to attention, self-regulation, and interoception (such as the prefrontal cortex and insula).
5. Existential and Meaning-Related Benefits
Beyond symptom reduction, meditation can support deeper reflection on values, purpose, and identity. Many practitioners report increased self-understanding, a greater sense of coherence, and improved capacity to tolerate uncertainty—an aspect often overlooked in purely clinical discussions.
Meditation can be a great way to de-stress and improve our health with benefits.
Mayo Clinic, 2020 shares;
The emotional benefits of meditation can include:
- Gaining a new perspective on stressful situations
- Building skills to manage your stress
- Increasing self-awareness
- Focusing on the present
- Reducing negative emotions
- Increasing imagination and creativity
- Increasing patience and tolerance
According to Richard J. Davidson, PhD, 2021;
“One is that we now know that we can use certain structural parameters of the brain to estimate a person’s brain age. So all of our brains are aging. Some people have brains that are aging faster than their chronological age. Other people have brains that are aging more slowly compared to their chronological age. If you take a thousand people and you look at the correlation between their brain age and their chronological age, you’ll see it’s a very high correlation, but there are some people that are off the diagonal, that is whose brains are aging more quickly or more slowly compared to their chronological age. It turns out that long-term meditators have brains that are aging more slowly compared to their chronological age. And so in a very real way, we can say that these practices are beneficial for our brain health, and they actually help us to cope with the age-related changes in a more adaptive way.”
Meditation vs. Mindfulness: What’s the Difference?
Although the terms are often used interchangeably, meditation and mindfulness are not the same thing.
Meditation: A Practice
Meditation is a formal practice—a structured period of time intentionally set aside to train attention and awareness. It usually involves sitting, lying down, or moving in a deliberate way, with a specific method or orientation.
In short, meditation is something you do.
Mindfulness: A Quality of Awareness
Mindfulness refers to a way of relating to experience—paying attention to the present moment with openness, curiosity, and non-judgment. Mindfulness can be cultivated through meditation, but it can also be practiced informally in daily life: while eating, walking, working, or engaging in conversation.
In short, mindfulness is a way of being.
How They Work Together
Meditation is one of the primary ways mindfulness is developed. Formal meditation strengthens the capacity for mindful awareness, which can then extend into everyday situations. However, not all meditation practices explicitly focus on mindfulness, and not all mindfulness requires sitting meditation.
Understanding this distinction helps reduce pressure: mindfulness does not require constant calmness, and meditation is not about achieving a particular mental state.
If mindfulness feels confusing or overwhelming, you may find our article on how do you practice mindfulness meditation for beginners especially helpful.
Is Meditation Right for Everyone?
While meditation is generally safe, it is not a universal solution. For some individuals—particularly those with unresolved trauma or severe psychological distress—certain meditation practices may initially intensify difficult experiences. In such cases, guided practice, shorter sessions, or professional support can make meditation safer and more supportive.
Meditation is best approached not as a performance or productivity tool, but as a relationship—with attention, with experience, and ultimately with oneself.
References
3 Epigenetic Reasons to Meditate Your Stress Away | What is Epigenetics?
135 Meditation Quotes (wisdomquotes.com)
Meditation: Take a stress-reduction break wherever you are – Mayo Clinic
The History and Origin of Meditation (positivepsychology.com)
The following peer-reviewed and authoritative sources support the claims discussed in this article:
Goyal, M. et al. (2014). Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Internal Medicine.
Tang, Y.-Y., Hölzel, B. K., & Posner, M. I. (2015). The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience.
Davidson, R. J., & McEwen, B. S. (2012). Social influences on neuroplasticity: Stress and interventions to promote well-being. Nature Neuroscience.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-based interventions in context. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice.
Creswell, J. D. (2017). Mindfulness interventions. Annual Review of Psychology.
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