Many practitioners and intuitives tout the benefits of meditation techniques, saying that they can connect the mind, body and spirit like few other exercises can.
A team of scientists from Harvard Medical School and Justus Liebig University sought to identify just what it is about meditation that gives regular practitioners the ability to feel less pain and concentrate more intently.
After reviewing a number of articles and research papers on meditation exercises, the study authors identified four components that help make the mind-body practice so special: attention regulation, body awareness, emotion regulation and sense of self.
The researcher said they hope their findings will "enable a much broader spectrum of individuals to utilize mindfulness meditation as a versatile tool to facilitate change – both in psychotherapy and in everyday life."
Author and philosopher Ilchi Lee uses meditation to strengthen his mind to the point where he is able to think only in positive terms, pushing negativity away before it can even reach his consciousness. He says that if every person on the planet participated in this kind of activity, we may one day witness world peace.
