Don’t you want to look young and youthful regardless of the years passing by? With so many over the counter anti-ageing products available in the market, it becomes a difficult task to choose the best one. This is where a simple, cost-free yet effective solution comes up; Meditation.
How Does Meditation Help?
How can we say that just sitting with our eyes closed and probably focusing on our breath makes us look younger and defy the universal law of ageing? Seems so mythical and unrealistic right? But keep reading and this article will make you believe and say that yes, meditation will be my anti-ageing regimen! Let us start and look at some of the factors which meditation targets that are also the causes of ageing.
1. Stress is Equal to Ageing
Stress is one of the main reasons behind your ageing symptoms. Yes! This means the load at your workplace, increasing social pressure, not being able to meet deadlines at work, or an annoying child. All this is making you look old.
Suppose you see a pack of wolves running towards you. Of course, this is not a realistic situation but imagine. So, your brain recognizes this as a stressful situation, and your immediate bodily response would be to run for your life and definitely not fight the wolves. This is your flight response. Along with this, there are many things happening in your body. Your heart rate increases, your breathing becomes heavier, your digestion slows down because your body needs to allocate resources to different actions. As a result, fat and glucose are released into your bloodstream to give you energy. All these actions taken together internally damage your body.
In today’s world, we are constantly moving from one stress inducing situation to another and the flight or fight response is not always the perfect solution. Now, as we know, frequent encounters with stressful situations cause some amount of physical damage to our bodies which ultimately leaves us looking older than our actual age.
Here it is, stress being directly related to ageing.
2. Telomeres and Stress
First of all, what are telomeres? The protein caps at the end of each chromosome in your body are called telomeres. When the cell divides, the chromosomes replicate, in turn shortening these telomeres. When the telomere becomes too short, cells are unable to divide and replicate which causes ageing and age-related diseases. There are several reasons behind the accelerated process of shortening of these telomeres such as smoking, drinking, lack of sleep and an unhealthy lifestyle.
Thus began the research to find out ways that would slow down or prevent the process of shortening of these telomeres and ultimately slow the ageing process, inside the body as well as outside. Interestingly, studies also found out that stress is related to telomeres, and increased stress results in faster shortening of the telomeres. So whenever you are late to work, and your boss shouts at you, somewhere inside your body the telomeres are indirectly making you age. Weird, yet true.
So on a larger level, the best way to reduce the signs of ageing would be to reduce the levels of stress.
And what better way to reduce stress than mere meditation.
Still, is Meditation an Anti-Ageing solution?
Most people practice meditation to manage stress in their life. In fact, the main benefit of meditation is reducing stress.
Still confused how meditation which helps reduce stress, can slow ageing? Let us look at an example. All of us know Lord Buddha- the meditator. He is said to have lived 80 years of his life in the 5th century BCE and even after this, he didn’t die of old age! Makes sense?
Here are some results of studies conducted to help prove this point.
• A study found out increased telomere length and increased activity of an enzyme called telomerase, which rebuilds telomeres after cell division; in people who did intensive meditation.
• Zen meditators were found to have longer telomeres on average as compared to people of similar age.
Also, people try to suppress certain painful memories which are difficult to overcome and this causes major stress to them such as a major accident, or the death of a loved one. Zen meditators focus on acceptance of such incidents rather than suppressing them. This was found to be helpful in the long run and also slow the signs of ageing.
Thus, meditation can definitely prove helpful if you are looking for an anti-ageing regimen.
Added Benefits of Meditation
Besides reducing stress, there are other advantages of using meditation to reduce the signs of ageing which would leave you satisfied with meditation being your best road to choose.
1. No money!
All of us know about the hefty amounts of money an anti-ageing treatment demands from us. But why spend loads of money when there is a completely free alternative available to it? You can reduce all those signs of ageing such as grey hair, wrinkles and sagging skin without spending any money from your pocket.
2. No side-effects!
You must be aware of the tretinoin cream available for the treatment of acne and pimples by affecting the growth of skin cells. This is a popular choice for people looking for a flawless and youthful looking skin. But being a chemical-based solution, this includes a number of side-effects such as skin dryness, scaling, redness, or burning.
But meditation involves no such side-effects, just a little time from your daily routine, in fact, no more than just 15 minutes.
3. Happier you!
Mediation is said to make you feel happier and thus believed to slow ageing as well.
4. Improved concentration span, reduced feelings of anxiety, and a better sleeping pattern is observed in people who regularly meditate.
5. You need not go anywhere. You can simply sit in the comfort of your house and meditate into a younger looking self.
Meditation Would be My Anti-Ageing Regime!
So, you cannot remove the everyday stress from your life. Neither can you stop ageing. But after looking at the benefits of meditation and how it can be your perfect ‘anti-ageing mantra’, you can definitely choose meditation as your regimen to reduce the signs of ageing without going for a chemical treatment which may cause harm to you in the long run.
Happy Meditation!
