The Effects of Meditation on the Brain
By Josh McKinney | He/Him/His | Bellingham, Washington
June 12, 2020
Intro
There’s an old saying in Zen Buddhism, “Better an inch of practice than a foot of preaching.”1 It’s fitting to me that this expression comes from the Zen School, a Buddhist sect known for their dedication to meditative practices, because the practice of meditation embodies this quote. Meditation is all about practice.
I’ll be the first person to tell you that I have trouble following my own advice on meditation and that’s for one simple reason. Beginning meditation is hard. It’s true. Meditation may sound easy -- just sit down and empty your mind -- but anytime I sit down to meditate I’m faced with an endless barrage of distracting thoughts. My struggles with meditation had me wondering how it worked, and it led me to three guiding questions. What is meditation? What are the psychological effects of habitual meditation? And lastly, what are the effects of meditation on the brain?
What is Meditation?
Meditation is any practice where you train attention and awareness in order to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm state. In other words, similar to how physical exercise trains and strengthens the body, meditation trains the mind. While there are many different variations of meditation, the one I will be covering is mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness meditation is training yourself to live in the moment and to slough off anxieties about the past and future. Just like how physical exercise should be done consistently in order to maintain strength and endurance, meditation should be done regularly to stay in a mindful state.
What Are the Benefits of Meditation?
Regularly practicing meditation can lead to improved attention and memory, as well as a decrease in stress, anxiety and depression. Some studies have even shown that meditation reduces pain2 and improves sleep3. Everyone responds to meditation differently, so it benefits some people more than others. That being said, meditation is becoming an increasingly implemented approach in helping people’s mental well being.
How Does Meditation Affect the Brain?
According to this4 article from the Harvard Gazette, a scientist by the name of Gaëlle Desbordes ran a two month study5 looking at meditation’s effects on the brain. Desbordes had two groups of subjects, one group that would meditate regularly for two months and a control group that wouldn’t. The subjects would have their brains scanned by an MRI while doing simple tasks, once before and once after the two month period. The study found that on average the group that meditated had a less active amygdala compared to both their initial MRI and both of the control group’s MRIs. The amygdala plays a key role in how the brain processes emotions. This suggests that two months of regular meditation can increase the brain’s emotional stability.
Another study6 found that Zen practitioners with extensive mindfulness meditation practice had a higher tolerance to pain than those without meditation training. When the Zen practitioners were hooked up to fMRIs and submitted to heat stimulated pain their MRIs showed a dissociation between the part of the brain that senses pain and the part that appraises pain. In other words, they could still sense the pain but their feelings of actual discomfort were reduced. The subjects without any previous meditation practice showed no dissociation whatsoever.
How to Meditate
Now how do you practice mindfulness meditation? Since the goal of mindfulness meditation is to empty your head of thoughts and be present, any method that works for you to accomplish this state of mind is good practice. If you don’t know what works for you, then this is a tried and true way to practice mindfulness meditation. Find a quiet place where you can meditate peacefully. Start by sitting cross-legged with your back straight and your hands resting comfortably in your lap. If sitting cross-legged is uncomfortable for you, sit in whatever position that you're most comfortable. You can even meditate on your couch as long as you have good posture. Once you’re settled down switch your attention to your breath. Take deep, slow breaths and relax. You can count your breaths or you can try to clear your mind completely. It’s completely normal for thoughts to come up in your head, especially in the beginning, when that happens just try to acknowledge the thought and switch your attention back to your breath. Your meditation sessions can go as long as you want them to. I recommend starting out by meditating for 30 minutes a day 3-4 times a week but do whatever works for your life. Just keep in mind that meditating with consistency is the most beneficial way to do it.
My Takeaway
Picking up meditation is not the same as picking up a book and reading it. It takes patience, practice and persistence. While the specific benefits of practicing meditation are debated, numerous scientific studies have shown that routinely practicing meditation can lead to improved mental well-being and a lasting effect on the brain.
References:
1. Austin, James H. Zen and the Brain: toward an Understanding of Meditation and Consciousness. MIT Press, 2005.
2. Zeidan, Fadel, et al. “Brain Mechanisms Supporting the Modulation of Pain by Mindfulness Meditation.” The Journal of Neuroscience : the Of icial Journal of the Society for Neuroscience, Society for Neuroscience, 6 Apr. 2011, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3090218/.
3. M;, Martires J;Zeidler. “The Value of Mindfulness Meditation in the Treatment of Insomnia.” Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine, U.S. National Library of Medicine, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26390335/.
4. Powell, Alvin. “Harvard Researchers Study How Mindfulness May Change the Brain in Depressed Patients.” Harvard Gazette, Harvard Gazette, 27 Aug. 2018, news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/harvard-researchers-study-how-mindfulness-may-change-the-brain-in-depre ssed-patients/.
5. Desbordes, Gaëlle, et al. “Effects of Mindful-Attention and Compassion Meditation Training on Amygdala Response to Emotional Stimuli in an Ordinary, Non-Meditative State.” Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Frontiers Media S.A., 1 Nov. 2012, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3485650/.
6. Zeidan, Fadel, et al. “The Neural Mechanisms of Mindfulness-Based Pain Relief: a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Based Review and Primer.” Pain Reports, Wolters Kluwer, 7 Aug. 2019, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6728003/.
