Did you know that just sitting and breathing mindfully can have a huge impact on your brain? Yes, that is right, come let us find out.
Meditation is good for the brain in many ways
We’ve all learned that meditation helps with mental focus, stress reduction, and anxiety reduction. However, how does meditation help the brain? Mindfulness practice has been shown in studies to cause positive physiological changes, strengthening the connection between meditation and the brain.
Meditation has become more mainstream in recent decades. People are learning to understand the strength of the present moment by working with their minds, following their breath, and working with their minds. Meditation groups are springing up in colleges, neighbourhoods, senior centres, and other places.
As mentioned in a recent Business Insider article titled “Silicon Valley is fascinated with meditation, and there’s new evidence it changes the brain for the better,” it has become so popular that even the business community has entered the trend.
Psychology research has verified what any meditator already knows:
Meditation is beneficial for both the body and the soul. Science can now back up these arguments by demonstrating how meditation affects the incredibly complex organ located between our ears.
Meditation seems to nourish the parts of the brain that lead to happiness, according to new scientific evidence. Furthermore, it seems that daily practice deprives the brain’s stress and anxiety-related areas of nourishment.
How meditation effect’s the brain?
Posterior Cingulate
The posterior cingulate is linked to wandering thoughts and self-relevance, or the degree of subjectivity and self-referential information processing. The posterior cingulate seems to be associated with a reduction in mind-wandering and a more rational sense of self.
The ability to stay attuned to the present moment without judgement, remorse, or anticipation is one of the most powerful effects of meditation on the mind, as is the ability to experience perceptions and feelings that appear in the mindstream without necessarily identifying with them. Meditation appears to increase posterior cingulate density.
The Temporo Parietal Junction
We like to think of ourselves as decent people who are compassionate, moral, and just. Empathy and compassion, as well as our sense of perspective, are linked to the temporoparietal junction of the brain, or TPJ. The posterior cingulate focuses on “me,” while the TPJ shines a light on “everything else.”
When we put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, for example, the TPJ becomes more active. A stronger TPJ, when coupled with other benefits of meditation such as reduced stress and increased perception of the present moment, will help us become the good people we strive to be.
Pons
Many of the neurotransmitters that help control brain function are generated in this busy and essential region of the brain. The word pons, which means “bridge” in Latin, refers to its location in the centre of the brain stem. The pons is involved in a variety of important functions, including sleep, facial expressions, sensory input processing, and basic physical functioning. Meditation changes them.
Amygdala
The amygdala is another part of the brain that changes as a result of meditation. It does not, however, grow in size; rather, it shrinks. In the minds of expert meditators, the amygdala—that pesky corner of the brain that causes feelings of anxiety, fear, and general stress—is physically smaller.
The smaller it is, the less likely it is to control our emotional responses, especially in “fight-or-flight” situations. It’s no surprise that incorporating a regular meditation routine into our lives makes us feel so good.
Left Hippocampus
This is the part of the brain that facilitates learning. Emotional regulators associated with self-awareness and empathy, as well as cognitive capacity and memory resources, are all found here. Gray-matter density rises as the cortical thickness of the hippocampus increases in length, according to research, and both of these essential functions are nurtured.
The practise of meditation brings you genuine joy, wellbeing and balance in life. Meditate and Levitate to the next dimension.