Meditation Changes the Brain

A group of Harvard neuroscientists interested in mindfulness meditation reported that brain structures change after only eight weeks of meditation practice. According to Sara Lazar, Ph.D., the study’s senior author, “Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day.”  In one study, 16 people were enrolled in an eight-week mindfulness program in which participants spent an average of 27 minutes a day practicing some form of mindfulness ((body scan, yoga, and sitting meditation), as well as practicing mindfulness informally in everyday activities such as eating, walking, washing the dishes, taking a shower, and so on. All participants reported significant improvement in specific measures of mindfulness, such as “acting with awareness” and “non-judging.”

What Did Scientists Discover?

MRI scans of everyone’s brains were taken before and after they completed the meditation training, with the final results displaying increased gray matter concentration within the left hippocampus, the posterior cingulate cortex, the temporo-parietal junction, and the cerebellum. These are brain regions involved in learning and memory, emotion regulation, sense of self, and perspective taking. With ongoing practice the brain’s “fight or flight” center, the amygdala in the limbic area, tends to shrink, helping regulate stress and anxiety. The “functional connectivity” between these regions – how often they are activated together – also changes.

Neuroplasticity Happens!

The connection between the amygdala and the rest of the brain gets weaker, while the connections between areas associated with attention and concentration get stronger. In other words, our more primal responses to stress seem to be superseded by more thoughtful ones. Britta Hölzel, another author on this study commented, “It is fascinating to see the brain’s plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life.”  This happened after just 8 weeks!

Is This You?

Do you struggle with monkey-mind? Is your brain also a little unsettled, restless, capricious, whimsical, fanciful, inconstant, confused, indecisive, or uncontrollable? How inspiring is it to know that establishing a regular practice can generate these kinds of changes, no matter how old you are, busy you get in life, or how difficult meditation seems for you?