There are different ways to meditate, and since it’s such a personal practice, there are probably more than any of us know about. A couple is usually focused heavily on scientific research, though. These are focused attention or mindful meditation. You focus on one specific thing — it could be your breathing, a sensation in your body, or a particular object outside of you. This type of meditation is to focus intensely on one end and continually bring your attention back to that focal point when it wanders.
The other type of meditation often used in research is open-monitoring meditation. This is where you pay attention to all of the things happening around you — you notice everything without reacting.
What happens in your brain when you meditate?
This is where things get interesting. Using modern technology like fMRI scans, scientists have developed a more thorough understanding of what’s taking place in our brains when we meditate, kind of similar to how scientists have previously looked at measuring creativity in our brains.
The overall difference is that our brains stop processing the information as actively as possible. We start to show a decrease in beta waves, which indicates that our brains are processing information, even after a single 20-minute meditation session if we’ve never tried it before.
How meditation affects us.
Now that we know what’s going on inside our brains let’s take a look at the research into the ways it affects our health. It’s, in fact, very similar to how exercising affects our brains.
Better focus
Because meditation is a practice of focusing our attention and being aware of when it drifts, this improves our focus when we’re not meditating, as well. It’s a lasting effect that comes from regular bouts of meditation.
Less anxiety
This point is pretty technical, but it’s exciting. The more we meditate, the less anxiety we have, and it turns out this is because we’re loosening the connections of particular neural pathways. This doesn’t sound good, but it’s not.
What happens without meditation is that there’s a section of our brains that’s sometimes called the Me Center (it’s technically the medial prefrontal cortex). This is the part that processes information relating to ourselves and our experiences. Typically the neural pathways from the bodily sensation and fear centers of the brain to the Me Center are robust. When you experience a scary or upsetting sensation, it triggers a strong reaction in your Me Center, making you feel scared and under attack.
When we meditate, we weaken this neural connection. This means that we don’t react as strongly to sensations that might have once lit up our Me Centers. As we weaken this connection, we simultaneously strengthen the connection between what’s known as our Assessment Center (the part of our brains known for reasoning) and our bodily sensation and fear centers. So when we experience scary or upsetting sensations, we can more easily look at them rationally.
More compassion
Research on meditation has shown that empathy and compassion are higher in those who practice meditation regularly. One experiment showed participants images of other people that were either good, bad, or neutral in “compassion meditation.” The participants could focus their attention and reduce their emotional reactions to these images, even when they weren’t in a meditative state. They also experienced more compassion for others when shown disturbing images.
Part of this comes from activity in the amygdala — the part of the brain that processes emotional stimuli. During meditation, this part of the brain usually shows decreased activity, but in this experiment, it was exceptionally responsive when participants were shown images of people.
Another study in 2008 found that people who meditated regularly had more robust activation levels in their temporal, parietal junctures (a part of the brain tied to empathy) when they heard the sounds of people suffering than those who didn’t meditate.
Less stress
Mindful meditation has been shown to help people perform under pressure while feeling less stressed. A 2012 study split a group of human resources managers into three, one third is participating in mindful meditation training, another third is taking body relaxation training, and the last third gave no movement at all. A stressful multitasking test was given to all the managers before and after the eight-week experiment. In the final test, the group that had participated in the meditation training reported less stress during the examination than the other groups.
Meditation VS Inite
Research shows that meditation is capable of a lot. However, its influence is more directed at the physiological state of a person.
Meditation can improve memory and the ability to concentrate, but many factors influence it. Therefore, it is wrong to expect meditation to become a magic pill.
Do not forget that to achieve results; you need to work and improve yourself regularly. Inite will help you with this!
Inite is a unique motivational game based on a scientific approach. We teach you how to hack the system of life and put ideas into practice. When you work on an idea, you increase intelligence, as well as develop logical and creative thinking. Meanwhile, your body produces dopamine and increases psychological endurance.
Become happier, healthier, and smarter with Inite!
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