If you’re a patient of mine or if you’ve heard one of my talks, you know how important I believe meditation is. Meditation is a very old practice known to calm your brain and nervous system. Focusing on your breath can help regulate your emotions and reduce feelings of anxiety, depression and stress.
Using different breathwork techniques and perhaps pairing them with moving meditation like yoga or tai chi, you can allow thoughts to enter and release them without judgement always returning your attention to your breath.
A regular meditation practice can improve your emotional and physical well-being while resulting in neurological benefits including increased volume of the brain’s grey matter, improved connectivity, the formation of new neural pathways and reduced activity in the ‘me’ center.
Here are 7 incredible ways your brain benefits from meditation…
Contributes to Changes in Brain Structure
Research has shown that over time meditation can lead to an increase in regional brain grey matter. This can result in improved learning and memory as well as emotional regulation.
Meditation also decreases the brain cell volume in the amygdala which is responsible for your feelings of stress, fear and anxiety. This can lead to decreased stress. Meditation also shifts our perspective and feelings towards a more positive mindset leading to an improvement in our mood and psychological well-being.
Reduced Activity in the Brain’s “Me Center”
Meditation is known to help the wandering mind and thoughts, i.e. the monkey mind or the “Me Center” of the brain. This is when a part of our brain is just on. We are not thinking about anything useful or specific. Our minds are just jumping from one thought to another.
This often happens when we are not happy or ruminating and overthinking about the past or future. Studies show that meditation helps in calming and quieting the mind. This helps stop or at least reduce the activity in the “me center,” letting go of wandering thoughts.
Can Act as an Anti-Depressant for Anxiety and Depression
Meditation is known to help reduce and manage symptoms of anxiety and depression along with reducing cortisol levels to reduce stress. In many cases it is as effective as anti-depressant medications. It works well with professional mental health counseling and medications to help reduce mental health problems like anxiety and depression.
Reduces Anxiety
Not only can meditation greatly reduce anxiety by quieting wandering thoughts and rumination, it can also help reduce social anxiety by bringing changes to the parts of the brain that are involved in attention and which help manage and ease symptoms of social anxiety.
Improves Concentration and Attention
You may have heard that the average human attention span these days is shorter than that of a goldfish — 8 seconds! (Nine seconds for the goldfish!) Short attention spans have been attributed to the constant social media and email notifications we receive every few seconds. Meditation can help train your mind to focus. A key part of meditation is focusing on your breath. This helps train your brain to concentrate, improving your attention and cognitive skills.
Helps Your Brain Age Better
A study showed that people who had been meditating for 20 plus years had more grey matter volume in their brain. The grey matter volume loss that normally occurs with age slows in those who meditate daily as compared to people who do not meditate. This helps preserve your brain and helps it age well, increasing longevity and life expectancy.
Don’t think it’s too late to start meditating now to reap rewards.
Meditation Can Help Fight Addiction
Meditation can help your brain’s self-control regions. This can ultimately aid in letting go of the addiction to unhealthy habits like smoking, drinking, binge eating — anything that may be addictive. People who practice mindful meditation are more likely to quit smoking due to its ability to decouple the craving from the actual smoking. Separateing the two so that one does not lead to the other helps you reduce the cravings.
Meditation has a great deal of research supporting its many benefits. It’s certainly worth adding to your routine if you want to boost your brain health and function. Try it to let go of unhealthy habits like overthinking, rumination and addiction and to reduce stress, depression and anxiety. If you’re just starting, set aside 5 minutes each day to quiet yourself and calm your mind. Begin by breathing deeply, releasing all those thoughts that wander through your mind. Bring your attention back to the present moment. This will gradually become easier. Soon enough, you will be ready to increase the duration and build your meditation practice for a healthier brain.
