Por que meditar? A experiência subjetiva da prática de meditação

Abstract

Meditation, characterized as the training of full attention to the consciousness of the present moment, has been associated with greater mental, emotional and physical well-being. This study aimed at investigating how practitioners of the passive meditation - silent and sitting - perceive the impact of their training on their daily lives. A total of 105 participants, whom had been going to a meditation center in the city of Porto Alegre for at least one month, answered an open question investigating how meditation reflects on their lives. Through content analysis six categories representing the effects of meditation were identified: cognitive, emotional, physical, spiritual, social and others. Through Poisson regression some factors associated with the categories identified were observed. It has been concluded that the subjective experience of meditation can influence life in many ways, especially concerning cognitive and emotional benefits, and that this practice could be a tool for a healthy psychological development.