Meditation and Longevity
When it comes to longevity, many people may believe that the only things to worry about when making decisions relating to living longer and slowing their aging are calorie-related. Previously when covering things you can do to help you live longer, we have only really covered such activities. We have covered how diets such as the Blue Zones diet and intermittent fasting may affect longevity, as well as which exercises are believed to be best for longevity. With this said, while important, there is more to affecting biological age than just watching what types of calories you consume, how much you consume, how you consume it, and how you burn it off. This article covers meditation as it relates to longevity. With your surrounding environment being a large part of what affects epigenetics, there is reason to believe that calming activities such as meditation and yoga could be beneficial in regards to longevity.
We have all heard of it, but what exactly is meditation and how do you do it?
Let’s be honest, for the majority of us who have never attempted meditation before, we just think of meditation as the cross-legged pose with your arms resting on your lap and your hands forming a circle by touching your index fingers to your thumbs. In reality, there is more to meditation than just this. According to David Gelles with the New York Times, there are several forms of meditation besides the basics, including walking meditation and mindful eating, which could be useful for people who are also trying to affect their longevity through diet and exercise.
When covering the basic form of meditation, Gelles writes that all that is necessary is to find a comfortable place to sit, close your eyes, take deep breaths, and focus on one part of your body. Gelles writes that this only needs to take 10–30 minutes, and can help you be mindful throughout the day.
How do the benefits of meditation help increase your lifespan?
To begin, one Healthline article points out 12 science-based benefits of meditation. Among these include stress reduction, anxiety control, creating a more positive outlook on life, and helping you become more kind. Anyone who read our Blue Zones article would understand why these are benefits of meditation are important to us. For those unaware of Blue Zones, Blue Zones are parts of the world where it is statistically proven that people tend to live longer than other populations. People who live in Blue Zones and follow the Blue Zones guidelines place great value on personal and social relationships, allowing them to be more kind, more accepting, and live happier lives. The reason that this is of relevance to meditation is that some of the benefits associated with meditation can be seen in those who follow Blue Zones guidelines. With the idea that meditation can help reduce stress comes the idea that it can help deal with mental issues such as depression and anxiety. For those who struggle with depression and/or anxiety, meditation could potentially help control these issues and help you with improving relationships, something which is of great value to the Blue Zones followers who tend to live longer lives.
As a final point, one person followed by many who partake in meditation is Deepak Chopra, who himself has touched on his beliefs in how meditation can help improve your biological age. Chopra writes that meditation can help with longevity due to the fact that the deep breathing involved in meditation causes heart rate and blood pressure to drop, reducing stress. As touched on earlier, this helps to control stress-related illnesses such as anxiety which can rapidly increase your biological age. In addition to this, Chopra points out that meditation has been proven to help prevent heart disease.
Takeaways
Meditation is a risk-free option for those who wish to improve their biological age. While it may not be for everyone, I would encourage people are exploring options to improve their biological age to at least research it and maybe even try it out for ten minutes every day over the course of a week or so, just to see if it’s for you. If you are interested in guided meditation Deepak Chopra offers an app that could be helpful for you. Additionally, Headspace is another popular app that many use for meditation.
In any case, it may be worth your time to look into and try out meditation. If you try meditation and are interested to see how it has affected your biological age, consider checking out AgeRate. At AgeRate, we offer a biological age test with personalized insights to help you live your best life and improve your biological age. We believe that meditation is an excellent option for those wishing to destress and potentially prevent long-term mental and heart-related issues, and our age test could help you find out for yourself if meditation is the right biological age decreasing method for you.
