Vipassana meditation: A unique contribution to general health

Pages: 1499-1503
Shraddha Sharma (Department of Psychology, SNDT, Mumbai, Maharashtra)

Present study was conducted to study the effects of vipassana meditation on general health of subjects. It was hypothesized that vipassana meditation would have significant effect on general health and its dimensions. The general health of subjects included somatic symptoms, anxiety and insomnia, social dysfunction, and severe depression. Initially 124 subjects were contacted and among them 20 participated in final sample. For control group, 20 subjects were randomly selected. All subjects were in the age range of 30-38. General Health of the subjects was measured with the help of General Health Questionnaire-28 (Goldberg, 1978). t test was applied to test the significance difference between pre and post scores of both the groups. It was found in result that Practice of vipassana meditation is effective in reducing somatic symptoms, anxiety, insomnia, social dysfunction and depression. It improves the overall general health of the subjects.