Role of meditation on the essence of self in the psychological profile, quality of life and lifestyle - a comparative study.
Clinics (Sao Paulo, Brazil) – January 01, 2025
Source: PubMed
Summary
Regular meditation practice transforms more than just mental state - it reshapes entire lives. Experienced meditators showed significantly lower stress levels and higher resilience compared to non-meditators. They also demonstrated greater empathy and reported better quality of life across multiple measures. Their overall lifestyle choices were healthier, suggesting meditation's benefits extend far beyond the cushion into daily living habits and emotional well-being.
Abstract
Meditation has been shown to influence physical and psychological health and well-being, modulating stress response, resilience, emotional regulation, mood, empathy, compassion, and improving quality of life. The authors aim to characterize the psychosocial profile of experienced practitioners of Meditation on the Essence of Self, the Gurusakásha, whose technique is based on visualization and mantra from the Indian tantric tradition. Meditation experts (n = 23) were paired to an age-, gender- and educational level-matched control group (n = 29). Clinical data (presence of baseline diseases, use of medications, habits), stress level (PSS), resilience (CD-RISC), subjective mood states (VAMS), empathy (IRI), quality of life (WHOQOL-BREF), and general lifestyle profile (PEVI) were compared between groups. Experienced meditators had lower levels of perceived stress, and better scores on resilience, empathic concern, quality of life, and lifestyle profile suggesting that Meditation on the Essence of Self improves health and well-being. These results suggest that experienced meditators on the Essence of Self have higher levels of psychological well-being and quality of life when compared to non-meditators.