Meditation Can Change How Your Brain Functions—Here's How
How Meditation Changes The Brain
Meditation is an age-old practice that we've all heard is beneficial for your mood and mindset, but there is much more to meditation than taking a few moments a day for self-care. Meditation has a profound impact on both the body and the brain. Studies have shown that mediation can make positive structural changes within the brain, improve health biomarkers, and change brain activity patterns.
Throughout our hectic days, our minds often go in a thousand different directions. What should I make for dinner? Did I send the follow-up email? Is my partner still mad after the argument that we had? Centering your mind and bringing your focus inward seems like a daunting task, and starting a meditation practice can be difficult. When I first started meditating, I always felt like I was doing it "wrong" because I often had thoughts come up (and this still happens!) Meditation gets easier with practice, so I always recommend committing to at least 30 days. Over time, you will experience the long-term benefits and structural improvements of your brain.
What is meditation?
Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness and achieve a mentally clear, emotionally calm, and stable state.
There are many different types of meditations, but here are some of the most popular:
Love and Kindness Meditation
Transcendental Meditation
Guided Visualization Meditation
Mantra Meditation
Zen Meditation
Now let's dive into how meditation can measurably change your brain. Studies showed that meditation increases the amount of gray matter in your brain. (1) Gray matter is involved in movement and sensory perception, including emotions, decision making, speech, and hearing. As we age, we lose gray matter tissue in the brain, so not only is meditation encouraged for improving your current gray matter tissue, but it will help maintain healthy gray matter in your later years (if the practice is continued.) More is better when it comes to gray matter, and meditation is a brain anti-aging practice.
(1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3004979/
Another study showed that meditation also increases the cortical thickness of the hippocampus. The hippocampus is responsible for regulating emotions and our memory. (2)
This same study also found that meditation can decrease the amygdala volume, which is the area of the brain that is primarily responsible for fear and stress. Meditation can have an instant effect on anxiety, stress, and fear, but with continued practice, the areas responsible for fear and stress will become less powerful, while areas associated with positive emotions and behaviors will become powerful.
(2) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3004979/
The points above describe how meditation can change the tissue concentration in your brain. Now let's move onto how meditation can change the activity in your brain or how your brain is firing. Changing how your brain "fires," or more specifically, how your neurons in your brain fire, is called Neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout your life or in other words, you can change the way you think and how you respond emotionally.
Here is a real-life and personal example of neuroplasticity in action: I grew up in a very emotionally toxic household; I always felt that I had to defend myself. Because most emotions directed at me were negative, I developed a negative mindset and automatically defensive response. As I entered adulthood, I recognized that I continued to project a defensive and negative attitude and response to my new relationships, even though these relationships were positive and far from my childhood traumas. I did this because negativity and defensiveness were hardwired in my brain. The activity centers and structures in my brain responsible for stress, anxiety, and fear, were overactivated. At this point, I knew I needed to make a substantial change. This is where neuroplasticity came in. I committed to daily meditations, affirmations, and visualizations, to rewire my brain to process interactions differently. I was able to calm the overactive centers in my brain and change how I respond to situations.
Meditation is an essential tool in our rewiring process.
Another study performed brain scans on a group of participants going through a highly stressful stage of life, then taught them a meditation practice. (3) The follow-up brain scans showed more activity in the brain region related to a resting state within three days. After a 4-month follow-up, the same individuals underwent a blood draw, and their lab results showed lower inflammation levels, which is linked to stress.
Meditation will also improve your focus. Immediately after meditation, you will feel more focused, but the practice will take effect in the ventral posteromedial cortex, a brain region-related wondering/random thoughts. Brain scans of individuals who meditate show more stability in their ventral posteromedial cortex versus those that do not. Increased stability in this brain region leads to improved focus.
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/32/15/5242 (3)
A few essential tips to start your meditation practice - start small, commit to only a few minutes a day, and work your way up to 15-20 minutes or more. I always suggest that you "stack" your practice with other daily tasks, so it becomes a habit such as - meditate right after waking or meditate after a shower or journaling. It is backed by science that you are more likely to stick with habits when you stack them together. Choose a time and place that makes the most sense for you. If you're willing to wake up 20 minutes earlier or have slower mornings, plan to meditate each morning. If you know you have hectic mornings, plan for the evening. Choose a space that you can make sacred, where it is just your time that can be a meditation cushion, your couch, or anywhere that you feel comfortable. Lastly, many great apps help you kickstart your practice, such as headspace, breath, and insight timer.