Weight loss is just the beginning!

A few more perks you experience when you harness the power of your brain

Findings from Harvard Medical School reveal that meditation increases gray matter in brain regions associated with learning and memory. And in a study at Wake Forest University in Raleigh, North Carolina, meditators scored up to 10 times better on a working memory task compared to people who didn’t practice the technique— benefits that were noted after just four daily 20-minute sessions. Patients who used hypnosis before examinations of an infected bladder experienced 75% less discomfort and needed half the amount of painkillers as those who had not used hypnosis, according to researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine. And in a study conducted at SUNY Upstate Medical University, short daily sessions of self-hypnosis reduced severe chronic back pain by 80%. In research conducted at the University of Brussels in Belgium, 57% of patients with moderate to severe hair loss that hadn’t responded to conventional treatments (including medication) experienced increases in hair growth of up to 75% after four sessions that combined meditation and hypnotherapy. They also reported significant decreases in depression and anxiety and improvements in self-esteem.

ENHANCE SLEEP

A study published in the journal Sleep found that meditation increased insomnia sufferers’ sleep time by 44 minutes. And participants in a UCLA study who practiced meditation daily noted upticks in sleep quality that were 154% greater than those of their nonmeditating counterparts. Plus, their next-day energy levels rose by 32% and moods improved by 56%.