Zazen Meditation: 5 Health Benefits You Need to Know

Zazen meditation is a discipline and religious practice of Zen Buddhism.

The aim of Zazen is to suspend all judgemental thinking by sitting in silence. It has several health benefits. Here are 5 benefits of Zazen meditation:

1. Improves cognitive function: Zazen develops mindfulness through concentration and it also decreases occurrence of depression. Being akin to your own thoughts and harmoniously processing them with external stimuli increases cognitive alertness and the secretion of serotonin and dopamine. 

2. Higher tolerance to pain: MRIs show that people who practice Zazen have higher tolerance to pain than those who do not.

3. Improves emotional intelligence:  Regular Zazen meditation practice improves emotional intelligence and promotes good decision-making even under pressure.

4. Alleviates stress and anxiety: Internal awareness gained through Zazen reduces the density of grey-matter in the brain which causes stress and anxiety.

5. Improves psychomotor response: Our psychomotor vigilance may buffer sometimes as a result of exhaustion and lack of sleep. Thus, hand-eye and overall body coordination might lag at times. Doing zazen meditation everyday clears our thoughts with stressors that may seriously affect our psychomotor response.