Until you’ve experienced first-hand the benefits of a regular meditation practice, it can be difficult to commit to the routine. In fact, initially, you may not even fully understand why you should spend time crossed-legged and alone with yourself every day.

Science is now able to position meditation as one of the most positive activities you can do to improve intelligence, health and happiness. Here are the facts:

1. Lowers stress

All of us are affected by stress in some way. Finding mechanisms and systems to cope with and control stress is critical to our health and happiness. Meditation’s impact on stress is widely documented. In one study, researchers evaluated the effects of two separate types of meditation performed daily for eight weeks. The groups that meditated not only reported lower levels of stress but also increased levels of forgiveness and acceptance, and decreased time spent procrastinating.

2. Changes the brain

Several studies have demonstrated that meditation changes the brain, literally. Over time, daily meditation is associated with increased grey matter density in the brain stem and increased cortical thickness.

3. Calms you down

Traits of a great leader include coping under pressure and assessing and responding to difficult situations. Meditation can enhance these skills by lowering cortisol and helping you to focus, deal with difficulty and control your reactions in challenging situations.

4. Makes music sound better and food taste finer

Meditation amplifies the senses, allowing you to savour food and better absorb music. When we relax we are able to better focus on the things we are experiencing – and nothing facilitates relaxation like meditation. Aside from the pleasure, enjoying food mindfully can help reduce mindless eating, which can assist with weight loss.

5. Helps with mental focus

Focus is a rare quality in today’s world, where everything seems to move so fast and we are surrounded by simple, easy to digest information. Yet, it is real focus that is required to create ground-breaking work and achieve personal success.

In numerous papers, meditation has been shown to increase performance in cognitive memory tests. Think of it this way: You will get home faster if there are no cars on the road than you will during peak hour.

6. Will help improve memory

Meditation acts as a protective force for the brain’s neural activities and thereby helps to reduce memory loss.

7. Will help improve performance

In his book Tools of Titans, Tim Ferriss breaks down the habits of 200 top performers, including actors, chess prodigies, politicians and sports stars. Among these top performers, he found that 80% had some daily form of mindfulness or meditation practice.

Meditation can help you boost your confidence and concentration – both precious commodities – and this can dramatically improve your performance, whatever your chosen field.

8. Boost immunity

Stress and negative thinking can have a detrimental effect on our immune system, creating an environment that is increasingly susceptible to illness and disease. At a base level, improving our emotional regulation through meditation can support our immune system.

Deepak Chopra argues that a meditative mind is capable of so much more – even of creating the cancer-fighting molecule interleukin-2. Research also indicates that mindfulness increases activity in areas of the brain that act as our immune system’s command centre.