When someone mentions meditation to a very active student, this is the usual reaction: “I could never sit still and do nothing.” If that’s how you feel about meditation, then that’s exactly why you need it!

Throughout your studies, you can be subjected to more stress than you ever anticipated. You get one class to take after another and one paper to write after another. In between studying and friendships, it could feel like you can’t get time for yourself. Meditation will give you that time. Even if it’s just for 10 minutes per day, meditation helps you calm down and learn more about yourself. There are tremendous benefits of meditation for students.

Still not sure? Check out this list of 7 real benefits you’ll get from meditation, especially for students!

1. Meditation Improves the Capacity of Your Working Memory

When you’re studying, you feel like you’re just glimpsing through the information without actually remember anything you read? That’s because your mind wanders. You’re thinking about that party you’re about to go to while you study. When you go to that party, you feel guilty about not studying enough, so you can’t even have fun like you’re supposed to do.

Your mind is prone to distractions of all kinds. It randomly wanders away. Meditation can help you train it. That’s not just a claim; it’s a fact.

One study showed that mindfulness (with meditation as its integral part) is an effective way to improve cognitive functions and improve the capacity of working memory. The scientists noticed reduced mind wandering among participants who were prone to distractions prior to the mindfulness training.

2. Meditation Helps You Focus

Maintaining focus is one of the biggest struggles for most students. The classes are just too long and the papers are just too boring to keep your attention. With proper and regular meditation, you can improve your ability to focus.

A research study proved that. This one is called Meditation increases the depth of information processing and improves the allocation of attention in space. To get to those findings, the researchers observed meditation practitioners in controlled environment. The meditators showed enhanced depth of processing information and were able to allocate and relocated their attention in a much faster way.

3. Meditation Relieves Stress

This is probably one of the most important benefits you’ll experience from meditation. You’ll notice it as soon as you start practicing, but meditation will have long-term effects if you’re consistent in your practice.

Meditation makes you more resilient to stress. With regular practice, you train your mind how to stay calm under challenging circumstances. You could certainly use such a superpower during exam week.

4. Meditation Reduces the Feeling of Fatigue

Life is too tiring right now? It clearly is when you have so much to do within a single day!

Researchers showed that brief meditation sessions reduce fatigue and boost your ability to pay attention. The participants of the study had no prior experience in mediation, but they reported feeling less tired and more attentive after only 4 days of meditation training.  

So after an extremely challenging day, just sit in a comfortable position, close your eyes, and meditate. You can choose any style of meditation as long as you know how to do it. This practice will help you deal with fatigue, but you’ll still need your healthy sleep every night.

5. Meditation Boosts Your Immunity

You know that you have to stay healthy, so you’ll be able to study and attend classes. When you’re getting frequent colds, that’s an impossible goal to achieve.

As it turns out, meditation also improves your body’s immune functions. Researchers found a significant boost in antibody titers to influenza vaccine among the subjects who practiced meditation.

6. Meditation Keeps Your Brain Young

The human brain is getting weaker as it ages. For example, it’s much easier for a 7-year-old child to learn a foreign language than for a 50-year-old person to learn the same language. It’s not because the child has more time; it’s because they have a younger, more perceptive brain.

With all that information your brain processes during your studies, it’s important to keep it in shape. Meditation helps with that.

7. Meditation Boosts Your Self-Confidence

Do you feel nervous about taking part in discussions during class? Are you hesitating to ask or answer questions? That’s because you lack self-confidence. Even when you know something, the thought of speaking up in front of all those people may be terrifying.

If you suffer from social anxiety and fear of public speaking, meditation can help you become more self-confident. One study showed that practitioners with social anxiety experienced increased self-esteem and decreased anxiety as effects of mindfulness-based meditation.     

For whatever troubles you experience at college, meditation may be the answer. The good news is that it doesn’t take much of your time and it’s easy enough for anyone to practice it. You only need to try. There’s nothing you could possibly lose and you have a lot to gain!

By Silvia Woolard

Silvia Woolard is a professional writer at UK Best Essays and a novice entrepreneur from Phoenix. In her free time, she writes and works in a field of popular psychology and marketing. Read Silvia at her Twitter.

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