Meditation has always been a center of attention for many people and medical science due to its vast benefits in the health field.
In this post, we will discuss does meditation changes the personality of a person? If yes! Then how meditation affects the different traits of human personality?
there is a term called “big five personality traits” in scientific language that indicates the five traits openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism for convenience use acronym OCEAN.
So if one can prove that meditation influence these 5 trains OCEAN, then indirectly, meditation can change your personality.
Scientific evidence suggests that consistent practice of meditation changes your personality; it leads to better involvement with people, increased creativity and concentration, and a level of positive emotions this links to a high state of openness, conscientiousness, and extraversion. in addition, meditation helps to reduce neuroticism and provide emotional stability too.
Notice the phrase “consistent practice of meditation develops personality changes”; the more you practice meditation, the more your personality will get change. Irregularity might not produce any significant results.
Remember, these five personality factors represent the two extremes; a person may lie in between polarities.
For example, one has an ability to learn and adapt to new ideas so that you may include one in the high openness trait of personality. On the opposite, one has a rigid and traditional mindset; then you can include one in a low openness trait of personality.
These five dimensions are remarkably universal scale to define different personalities of people. One experiment on people from 50 different cultures suggests that these five traits could be accurately used to describe their personalities.
Let’s understand the five traits of personality and how meditation can desirably change them, but remember the benefits that will be disclosed emphasize on the consistent practice of meditation, not just a few days of exterior practice.
Meditation effects Openness
First, understand what openness is?
People who have high openness characteristics often tend to adopt new changes fast, open to learning new things. They find happiness in trying something adventurous, creative, and challenging. Moreover, they have a creative imagination and out of box thinking capability.
On the other hand, people with low openness lend to more stiffness in turns of accepting new changes or ideas. They have a traditional mentality and lack imagination; they dislike enjoying new things and abstract thinking.
Here are some scientific proofs that show how regular practice of meditation affects this trait in a positive context. Meditation can improve imagination, creativity, and problem-solving skills.
- One research of mindfulness meditation found the positive influences of MM on one’s creativity, leading to insight into problem-solving skills. It suggests mindfulness meditation helps to reduce habitual behavior patterns and habitual responding faculties, and that becomes a key factor for problem-solving.
- Meditation promotes neuroplasticity; in other words, it helps the brain to reorganize or rewire from old behaviors or thinking patterns to new ones. It makes the moulding process easy and fast.
For instance, if you want to adopt a positive attitude among peers, meditation can help you reshape your old personality positively by creating new neural patterns faster than ordinary people.
So you can say consistent meditation practice leads to openness by helping us to accept and endorse new changes and ideologies.
Meditation impacts Extraversion
Extraversion or extroversion is referred to engaging socially with enthusiasm, talkativeness, and a high amount of emotional expressions.
The people who are having high extraversion seems more energetic in social situations and social gathering. They like to start conversations, meet new people, and enjoy being the center of attention who have a large circle of peers and acquaintances. Also, they are less concerned about others they speak with without thinking about others.
On the other side, people having low extraversion traits tend to be shy socially and prefer solitude; they don’t like social gatherings, especially with strangers, and feel exhausted even in small talks. They think twice before speaking and avoid being the center of attraction.
Let me share some scientific studies that endorse meditation can change this personality trait.
- One study of mindfulness shows that people who were using the mindfulness meditation mobile app for just 2 weeks experienced low feelings, loneliness, and solitude and increased the level of social contact compare to non-practitioners. Moreover, it has shown significant improvement in social relationships.
- Another study of loving-kindness meditation revealed that LKM increases positive emotions, interpersonal relationships, and complex understanding of other people.
Regular practice of meditation brings you nearer to your true nature or union with nature. That means you involve with people and the environment as a social being and spread love, kindness, joy, and compassion to others.
Meditation helps to feel better for you as well as for people around you. It gives you a new perception of understanding others from a different perspective that helps create a connection with new people and strengthen relationships with acquaintances.
Meditation effects Conscientiousness
Let you know what precisely the conscientiousness trait means by giving exposure to people’s behavior.
People who are high conscientious tend to be more disciplined and organized in life. They like to have a schedule, plans, and goal-oriented behavior, and they spend enough time preparing and managing their tasks and feel proud competing for essential tasks.
High conscientious people pay close attention to details and mindfully do their jobs. Also, they are conscious about what their behaviors affect other people.
Here are some scientific proofs that evaluate how meditation affects this dimension of personality in a positive context.
- Researchers and medical science prove that meditation helps to improve self-awareness, lengthens the attention span, and stops compulsive thinking and feelings. This eventually leads better productivity, efficacy, and self-control.
- A study of meditation and yoga suggests that one can improve non-judgemental awareness by focusing attention, creating a relaxed state, and developing mindfulness through meditation and yoga.
- Another study of mindfulness proved that brief mindfulness meditation improves the attention in novices where participants listened 10 minutes meditation tape and performed tasks with improved attention and enhanced accuracy compared to other ones.
- A similar study suggests that regular practice of meditation may reverse your abnormal brain patterns, which in the context of mind wondering, poor thoughts, and behavior.
- To support the argument, the last study of guided meditation reviewed that brief daily meditation enhances attention, mood, memory, and emotional regulation in novices. As per their experiment, even 13 minutes of daily guided meditation or podcast listening for 8 weeks could bring significant results.
Meditation impacts Agreeableness
This characteristic includes cooperation, trust, kindness, helpfulness, and other attributes while connecting with other people.
The high agreeableness possessing people have more concern about other people, they like to work in cooperation and feel care, kindness, and sympathy for others. They enjoy helping and contributing to others when they need help.
While those who are low in agreeableness tend to be less concerned about other people, they believe in competition and aggression and don’t care what other feel. They may insult others without thinking much and show very little interest in other’s problems.
Here are some scientifically proven studies on how meditation can affect this personality trait.
- One study of kindness-based meditation suggests the positive effects of KBM on overall well-being and social interaction. Practitioners were found to reduced depression and increased compassion, kindness, mindfulness, and relaxation.
- Another study from the mindfulness and loving-kindness meditation workshop reviewed that people with these practices showed an increased level of positive emotions and emotional well-being in 9-weeks. The regular practice of meditation helps for accumulating positive emotions day by day.
Related Article: Loving-kindness Meditation Script
So, the above pieces of evidence conclude that meditation changes the human personality significantly in a constructive manner. Improved agreeableness in people develops a healthy society where everyone supports each other and works with cooperation.
Meditation effects Neuroticism
Neuroticism trait includes negative emotional behavior such as anxiety, sadness, depression, and moodiness.
People with high neurotic traits often find stressed out, upset, and victims of mood swings and also struggles a lot to overcome those. They worry about many things and situations that they couldn’t control then become anxious or depressed.
On the other side, people with low on this train are emotionally balanced and resilient. They worry less which they couldn’t control, and gently accept the circumstances. They can handle difficult situations with a calm and relaxed mind.
For reviling scientific researches, I think you have enough pieces of evidence to convince yourself that yes! Meditation will surely improve this personality trait too.
Although, I have some researches that show that meditation reduces the neuroticism trait and builds a healthy personality.
- One study shows that transcendental meditation techniques are more appealing than usual or alternative treatments to control anxiety and more significantly improved results found in patients with high anxiety levels.
- A similar study of mindfulness meditation suggests the reduced level of anxiety and depression in people who were suffering from chronic pain. According to them, mindfulness meditation can be beneficial for stress-related disorders.
- At last, this study found that employees who used the mindfulness meditation app for 8 weeks felt reduced in job strain and distress and increased well-being.
Regular practice of meditation not only helps to grow within, but it also affects the outlook. However, it’s obvious that when your mind is in a state of bliss, joyfulness, and kindness, it may influence your outer appearance too.
Some research studies and personal experiences support that consistent meditation practice may benefit your skin, facial skin, and hair. In some cases, it also helped to overcome skin and hair-related problems.
Bottom line
Meditation will change your personality if you practice it consistently. Many research studies and scientific experiments indirectly suggest that meditation could positively affect the big five traits of personality openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
in addition, meditation may assist in developing outer personality by nourishing your skin, hair, and face due to its positive effects on inner beauty.
About Post Author
