MEDITATION

MEDITATION FROM A NEUROSCIENCE PERSPECTIVE
 

Recent discovery highlights that the brain isn't hardwired or fixed even in adulthood, it is constantly changing throughout a person's life. Everything we do changes the brain in some way. When we practice a skill, the brain regions we use actually grow bigger, and when we don’t use parts of our brain, these regions shrink. This is what scientists call neuroplasticity. (Craimer 2021)  So how does meditation change the physical structure of our brain? Here are some thoughts...
 

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• INCREASED INTER-CONNECTIVITY
  Meditation increases the white matter in the brain which is the part that sends and receives information between different parts of your brain. It develops the channels of communication between them. The corpus callosum is a huge bundle of white matter fibers that connect the right and left hemispheres to your brain. A couple of studies have shown an increase in white matter density in the sagittal stratum and corona radiata which is linked to a better mood. These increases in white matter enable better communication between different parts of the brain. This could help explain how meditation increases our ability to regulate intense emotions and stress. 
   

• YOUNGER BRAIN AGE
  As we get older, our brains lose mass. one study that compared the brains of meditators with non-meditators by age found that the cortical thickness of 40-50-year-old meditators was the same as that of non-meditators aged 20-30. In addition to this overall effect, meditation leads to increases in grey matter in key brain regions. For example, meditators have increased volume in brain areas linked with attention, sensory awareness, global body awareness, and visual processing. This fits with the logic of neuroplasticity. The more we use certain abilities, the larger the brain structures related to those abilities become.
   

• CALMS THE BRAIN
  We can understand that meditation helps regulate stress...Some skeptics see meditation as just a glorified form of relaxation. But an increasing amount of evidence is showing that practicing meditation causes physical changes in specific parts of the brain that govern the stress response. One clear indicator of this is the finding that the amygdala is smaller in meditators than in non-meditators. The amygdala works like a trigger to fire off the body’s fight or flight response. A smaller amygdala might indicate a reduced tendency to freak out in the face of stressful situations. There is also evidence that meditation enlarges several brain areas responsible for regulating emotion. For example, meditators have a larger than normal lower region of the hippocampus, an area shown to act like a brake to stop the release of stress hormones.
   

• HIGHER PAIN THRESHOLD
  Looking at the participant’s brain scans, researchers found that the dorsal anterior cingulate of the meditators was thicker. This increased thickness was correlated with reduced sensitivity to pain. We know from other studies that this area of the brain is central to the emotional response to pain. So perhaps the greater size of this region allowed the meditators to tolerate a higher temperature by unconsciously regulating their response to the painful stimulus.
   

• POSITIVE BRAIN WAVES
  To detect rapid changes in brain activity, scientists use EEG sensors... it allows scientists to detect rapid electrical fluctuations called brain waves. Alpha waves are the soft lighting of consciousness. In alpha, we feel relaxed and available, not overly fixated on any specific thought or action, yet awake and alert. Mindfulness meditation has been shown to boost alpha levels in the brain, even outside of actual meditation. This could be part of why we sometimes feel calmer and more relaxed after a session, and why long-term meditators report feeling more at ease overall.
  
  *THE ABOVE IS AN EXCERPT FROM THE CALM WEBSITE WRITTEN BY AVI CRAIMER. LINK BELOW IN THE SOURCES SECTION.

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Practicing meditation can positively stimulate the brain and also helps to rejuvenate your body, prolonging life. A 2010 study performed by researchers at the University of California at Davis showed that practicing intensive meditation can increase the body's supply of the enzyme telomerase. As we age, the 'caps' at the ends of DNA strands called telomeres can deteriorate and lead to cell damage. The enzyme telomerase strengthens telomeres, making sure that both DNA and cells remain healthy.  But this isn't the only job of telomerase. The same study revealed that people with higher levels of telomerase also experienced more happiness and resistance to disease. So these people not only live longer, healthier lives but also experience more contentment. (Chopra + Tanzi 2013)

 

I hope you will take up this practice and see the benefits for yourself if you haven't started this practice yet. I didn't think that I could do this before I started my practice as I always had an extremely busy mind but it was exactly what I needed. It helped train my focus and brought me to the present, with my mind not constantly thinking about the past nor fretting about the future. I experience very little anxiety lately due to this practice and other practices in the MNSTR Method. If you have any thoughts or questions about this page or would like to share what your meditation practice is like, feel free to CONTACT me with the subject line: Meditation.

 

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SOURCES:

Avi Craimer, *The Neuroscience of Meditation, Calm Website <https://blog.calm.com/blog/the-neuroscience-of-meditation>

Deepak Chopra + Rudolph E. Tanzi, Super Brain: Unleashing the explosive power of your mind to maximize health, happiness, and spiritual well-being

Dr. Mclean Bolton, The Voice (NAMI publication) <https://mpfi.org/how-does-mindfulness-change-the-brain-a-neurobiologists-perspective-on-mindfulness-meditation>