September 2, 2016.
According to a study conducted by a team of researchers at the University of California in the United States, meditation is more effective in overcoming stress than the holidays, however pleasant they may be.
Meditate to overcome stress
Returning to work is very often synonymous with stress. But instead of counting the days between you and your next vacation, turn to meditation. According to a study, published in the medical journal Translational Psychiatry, meditating would have beneficial effects on our metabolism in the long term, whereas the holidays would induce a psychological well-being in the short term.
To reach this conclusion, the American researchers suggested to a hundred women to spend a week of vacation in a hotel complex. Half of the participants benefited from meditation and yoga sessions during this week. To measure the stress level in each of them, the researchers took blood samples and asked them a number of questions. before and after the stay, then a month and ten months later.
Meditating is more effective in the long run
Result: after the week’s vacation, the participants were more relaxed, this rest had in fact had a strong and immediate impact on the molecular networks associated with stress and on the immune pathways. But the researchers found that in the long run, women who meditated while on vacation experienced fewer symptoms of depression and less stress in the weeks that followed.
” The molecular signature of meditation, in people who practice it regularly is quite distinct and more durable than those of the holidays, for people who do not practice meditation », Analyzes Elissa Epel professor of psychiatry at the University of California and author of the study. “ It would also be the pledge of healthy aging “.
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