Meditation or vacation for stress?

It makes sense that having a holiday from work and your daily grind can reduce your stress levels. When it comes to a vacation though, do you add some meditation in to your vacation? This is worth pondering because both vacations without meditation and meditation vacations can alter your stress levels at a genetic level according to a new study.

The new study involved women aged 30-60 and around two-thirds of participants were not meditators. The women stayed at a California resort for six days and half of them simply had a vacation while the others took part in a daily meditation program that involved mantra meditation, yoga, and self-reflection exercises. The meditation program had been designed by Deepak Chopra although he had no role in the actual study.

As a further comparison the researchers studied a group of experienced meditators who were at the retreat.

The analysis involved examining 20,000 genes both before and after the resort experience.

The results showed that everybody showed changes in gene activity after a week at the resort. The greatest changes in gene activity related to stress and immune function. All groups showed improvements up to one month later but the first-time meditators showed fewer symptoms of depression and showed less signs of stress for a longer period of time. Those who were regular meditators showed greater improvements in antiviral activity.

Of course, all sorts of vacationers received benefits so taking time out is always a good thing but if you want some added immune and mood effects, whether you be experienced or not, adding some meditation to your vacation will be a good thing.

Source: Translational Psychiatry