Despite all the studies that show that meditation helps to be more mindful and less stressed, I can't help thinking that perhaps the most important part of regular meditation is having time to actively relax, alone and without distraction.
On the other hand, it doesn't really matter. Much of meditation is conscious relaxation.
This tiny (n=83) study suggests that meditation can have a small benefit over other relaxation techniques:
"mindfulness meditation may be specific in its ability to reduce distractive and ruminative thoughts and behaviors, and this ability may provide a unique mechanism by which mindfulness meditation reduces distress."
Mastering meditation takes years, so this 4 week experiment really isn't very meaningful.
@koos It's also amazing to me that no one ever seems to have any negative experience meditating in all these articles and studies. My experiences meditating were horror shows at first. None of these people have any darkness in them?
@SuzanEraslan mmh. I started looking for adverse effects of meditation and found this: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/23/is-mindfulness-making-us-ill
TL;DR it's not uncommon to mainly get negative effects and if you have a mental condition it can be dangerous.