Research on The Effect of Yoga and Meditation On Mental Health

A large number of studies have been conducted to find out the impact of yoga and meditation on human body and mind and shows that yoga and meditation can bring structural changes responsible for calming emotions, better memory and lower stress. A combination of chemical changes taking place such as changes in brain physiology and a reduction in stress hormone cortisol.

The doctors from the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuron sciences (NIMHANS) have been working on the effects of yoga and meditation on the brain for over three decades. Now their focus is on the Buddhist traditions of meditations like mindfulness meditation.

The garden of Samadhi Centre is a voluntary organization which aims to integrate scientific understanding of mind with traditional contemplative practices like yoga and meditation. The researchers also collaborating with the Garden of Samadhi Center which is a voluntary organization which aims to integrate scientific understanding of mind with traditional contemplative practices like yoga and meditation.

The Advanced Centre for Yoga in NIMHANS is using yoga and its applications to help psychiatric disorders like depression and schizophrenia and neurological disorders like epilepsy. Regular practice of yoga and meditation can help people with schizophrenia, depression, anxiety etc. It can also reduce the symptoms of schizophrenia.

B.N Gangadhar, programme director, Advanced Centre of Yoga at NIMHANS says “There is emerging evidence that can lead the way to study yoga and meditation as a science rather than a mere religious ritual and that is what we are aiming at.” He also pointed out “We are comparing the therapeutic effects of yoga with conventional drugs. In our investigations, there is a high degree of evidence that yoga does have a significant therapeutic effect in conditions like depression, memory loss and so on”

Yogic view of why our body is under the control of mind

Our body is made up of innumerable living cells. According to the modern science, our blood consists of more than 75,000,000,000 healthy cells which floats in it and carry the oxygen to all parts of the body to nourish them. These cells takes the nourishment from the blood and provide it to all the organs and tissues, infuse our digestive system, keep the heart-beat, heal up the wound and stop bleeding. These cells perform all these functions automatically.

According to yoga, each living cell contain another subtle cell which controls the biological cell and the yoga system believe that these cells can perform all such functions because each cell is intellectually developed to some extent. In spite of this intellectual development of these cells, the human mind exercises control them. They therefore obey the orders of the conscious as well as the subconscious mind. Thus the body is in a natural way, under the influence of mind. It is therefore easy to infer from this that for the health and proper growth of the body, healthy mental attitude and sound mental health is essential. It is evident that the body is under the control and direction of the mind.