Feeling Relaxed Before and After the Practice of Meditation: A Study
Abstract:
Mental relaxation is an emotional state achieved due to less tension and absence of negative feelings in life, which can contribute to better mental health. Better psychological well-being through relaxation and reduc tion in tension can be achieved by practicing the mindfulness method of meditation. The study reported in this article was undertaken among a randomly selected sample of 50 meditators from Kozhikode District of Kerala State in India using a questionnaire containing the measure of relaxation, and the characteristics of the respondents, namely, sex, age, marital status, whether experienced any health problems during the past six months, and period of meditation practice. A higher score for relaxation indicates more feeling of relaxation and vice versa. The data was analysed as scores, proportion of respondents reporting and through statistical test. The results reveal that the respondents have felt more relaxed after starting meditation, when compared to before doing meditation. The effect of more period of meditation practice in helping the respondents to feel more relaxed is also evident under the study. However, the characteristics of the respondents such as sex, age, marital status and health problems do not contribute to the changes in their feeling of relaxation in life. It will be worthwhile to promote the adoption of practices such as meditation, yoga etc. among more people in order to help in overcoming psycho-somatic problems, which have more chances of affecting people in today’s busy and stressful life. This can also help in not becoming dependent on medical treatments for such problems, which could probably have side effects in the long run. Further, the transfer of results of studies on the favour able effects of meditation, yoga etc. may probably help to reduce the problem of people discontinuing such useful practices, which is evident in the society up to some extent.
