Five Great Benefits of Meditation for Boomers and Retirees

​Meditation is a Mainstream Movement

Many cultures have practiced various types of meditation for thousands of years. Meditation transcends individual religions and national affiliations. Although some people still consider meditation to be an activity for hippies and dreamers, meditation has gone mainstream in the Western world over the past few decades. So much so, in fact, that some of the most influential people in the world of business and industry dedicate time out of their very busy lives to practice it. Just a few of these people include:

• Rupert Murdoch (Chairman and CEO of Fox News Corp)
• Bill Ford (Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company)
• Ray Dalio (Founder of Co-CIO of Bridgewater Associates)
• Oprah Winfrey (Chairwoman and CEO of Harpo Productions Inc.)

Padmasree Warrior, the CTO of Cisco Systems, claims meditation is “Almost like a reboot for your brain and your soul,” She also says “It makes me so much calmer when I’m responding to emails later.” 

Maybe you have tried to meditate at some point, or maybe this is the first article you are reading about it. Regardless of your familiarity with meditation, here are five great benefits of meditation for boomers and retirees just like you.

​Five Great Benefits of Meditation for Boomers and Retirees

There are many wonderful benefits of practicing meditation in general. However, there are five really great benefits of meditation for boomers and retirees. They are:

1. Increased Health and Wellness. Meditation has been scientifically proven to help decrease heart rate, stress and inflammation while increasing immunity, mood and emotional stability. In fact, Dr. Michael Irwin, the head of psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA found that breast cancer survivors partaking in a certain type of meditation experienced significant down-regulation of the genes that lead to inflammation, and up-regulation of the genes that help protect the body from viral infections. According to Dr. Irwin’s research, the lower the body’s inflammation levels were, the lower the risk for cancer recurrence was in his female test subjects. 
2. Refashioning Neural Pathways. We sometimes forget how much power we have as human beings to control the thoughts that shape our everyday realities. According to recent neuroscientific findings, certain types of meditation have been shown to actively rewire the brain’s neuroplastic networking. “Neuroplasticity” refers to how our brains decode incoming stimuli to conform to our expectations for how reality looks and functions. Rewiring our neural pathways can help boost mental awareness and foster a more empowered, positive outlook on life. This can not only lead to increased cognitive awareness, but also an appreciation for many little things in life we might have taken for granted for most of our lives up until now.
3. Learning to Live in the Moment. Many people spend their entire lives working toward something, but not necessarily appreciating the moments they spend doing said work. As we age, we see more and more people who have worked so hard for what they have lose the ability to enjoy what they have earned for one reason or another. Certain types of meditation can help block out external influences that keep people focused on the future, in order to help them fall totally in the love with the present moment(s) they are given instead. 
4. Projecting Our Thoughts into Reality. Certain types of meditation can directly affect physical reality outside of one’s own head…. Seriously! In numerous clinical trials, Stanford Physicist William Tiller’s test subjects altered the electromagnetic frequencies of electrical devices they were not in the same room as, nor in any direct contact with at any point. This means their minds were able to physically affect matter outside of their own heads. Think about the implications of being able to project thoughts into conscious reality, and then realize how much power we actually have to control the realities outside of our own heads in kind.
5. Meditation Helps Increase Global Cultural Awareness. We live in a world that grows smaller and more intimate everyday. This is a trend that will only increase as technology keeps bringing people closer together. People who choose to open their minds and hearts to other cultures, ethnicities, religions and social backgrounds are better positioning themselves for happiness and harmony inside, as well as with their human neighbors near and far alike. In fact, a clinically validated experiment in Washington D.C. during the summer of 1993 demonstrated that those who partake in certain types of meditation can positively affect their human brethren by the thought intentions they emit where the reduction of social strife is concerned.

​Choosing the Type of Meditation That’s Right for You

​There are many different types of meditation. The only way to know which type of meditation is right for you is to try different types until you find the one you feel works best. There are many organizations and groups that instruct people just like you in meditation techniques. 

One of these organizations is The Human Radio Educational Research Project. The Human Radio is dedicated to helping its students work on their own evolutionary development through a proprietary, deliberately scaffolded visualization meditation curriculum. This organization works with folks of all cultural, religious, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds promoting human empowerment and compassion both inside of one’s self, as well as with one’s human brothers and sisters near and far alike. They rely on donations and the money they bring in from their services to sustain their global presence. You can learn more about The Human Radio by clicking here. You can also try out their introductory visualization meditation exercise in the comfort and privacy of your home on their website, or on YouTube by clicking here. 

No matter what person or organization you choose to help you learn meditation, or what type of meditation you find works best to enhance and enrich your life, the mounting body of scientific evidence only keeps bolstering what many people have intuitively known for thousands of years…. that we are all the masters of our own destinies. People who choose to take the reins of their own destinies with the help of meditation are facilitating their own holistic health and happiness above and below, inside and out alike.

---

*Retired Brains and The Human Radio Educational Research Project do not claim meditation of any type can diagnose, treat or cure any illness, disease, ailment or condition. The information contained in this blog article is anecdotal based on the available body of clinical evidence supporting the effectiveness of certain types of meditation. Links to this evidence can be found throughout this article. As with any lifestyle choice you make, be sure to do your own research before beginning or altering your daily routine…. and if need be, to consult a professional in order to help you decide the best course of action for your own life where meditation, or any other prescriptive activity is concerned.