Practicing meditation has shown favourable results in reducing insomnia, craving for addictives, and even averting relapse. It has also been found that people who meditate tend to slow down the rate of cellular and bodily aging. At the body level, meditation has the effect of reducing blood pressure in addition to curing irritable bowel syndrome. But would you believe it changes the structure of our brain in just 8 weeks? Let’s find out.
Researchers all around the globe have conducted various studies to find out the impact meditation has on our bodies and the brain. Out of the many research we came across, certain studies suggested changes in the structure of the brain that resulted from practicing meditation. The influence of meditation is such that it helps us cope with various conditions, especially the ones caused by stress.
Meditation and the brain
1. A Harvard research, ‘When the Science Meets Mindfulness’ , talks about how practicing mindfulness changes the brain in depressed patients. The image below is an fMRI which shows the diminishing impact meditation had on the activation of amygdala when exposed to emotionally challenging photographs before (left) and after (right) practicing meditation.
Gaelle Desbordes found, “The scans still detected changes in the subjects’ brain activation patterns from the beginning to the end of the study, the first time such a change — in a part of the brain called the amygdala — had been detected.”
2. In another article published by Harvard, Catherine Kerr, co-lead author of the report, mentioned “Mindfulness meditation has been reported to enhance numerous mental abilities, including rapid memory recall.” Their research suggests evidence indicating how meditation can “help people better regulate a brain rhythm”
3. More than 100 research alone has been conducted on the impact of practicing SKY breath meditation. Improvement of brain functionality and reduction in stress-related diseases have been some of the key findings of the research.
4. A particular section has been dedicated to the effect of practicing meditation on the structure of the brain by the NCCIH. One such particular study mentions that adults who practiced meditation had “more folds in the outer layer of the brain” which in turn improved “their ability to process information.”
5. Forbes online published an article which listed six scientifically proven benefits of practicing mindfulness, where they pointed out the improvement in cognitive ability of a person a result of meditation.
6. A very intensive study performed by Max Planck Institute and as published by Science Advances, used three different types of meditation processes viz. Presence, Affect and Perspective, in different age groups and studied them for a period of nine months. The results showed that training under Presence Module improved attention and focus, Perspective Module enhanced overall performance, and the Affect Module “led to increased compassion ratings after watching neutral and emotionally distressing videos.”
7. A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine included 49 adults who experienced trouble sleeping. According to their findings, “mindfulness meditation appears to have a role in addressing the prevalent burden of sleep problems among older adults by remediating their moderate sleep disturbances and deficits in daytime functioning. …Pending future replication of these findings, structured mindfulness mediation training appears to have at least some clinical usefulness to remediate moderate sleep problems and sleep-related daytime impairment in older adults.”
Why meditate?
With the world coping with a pandemic, feeling restless and anxious has become more common than ever. Increased work pressure, screen-time and the cutting down on sleep hours has left us vulnerable to all kinds of diseases - not only on the physical stance but also on the mental level.
Meditating for about 20-25 minutes daily can help one deal with all kinds of negative emotions. The calmness in the mind has become a key as well as a mandatory ingredient to leading a healthy life.
