12 Things That Happen To Your Body When You Meditate

Slimmer waistline

Weight loss is one of the areas where research on the effects of meditation is not quite as robust, but anecdotally, the evidence is strong. ‘A lot of students tell me that their nervous eating goes way and they become more in touch with their bodies and gravitate toward what is good for them and away from what is not when they start to practice TM,’ Butler says. There is some evidence that an increase in the stress hormone cortisol can sabotage weight loss methods.

But ‘the fight or flight response that occurs when our bodies are primed for stress settles down and the restfulness kicks with TM,’ he explains. ‘This produces blood chemistry changes, and levels of the stress hormone cortisol can drop 30 to 40 when people start to practice TM. It is the opposite of the fight- or- flight response.’ There are other natural ways to augment weight-loss efforts including inhaling or applying these seven essential oils.