The Benefits of Meditation on Brain Health
We have all heard that meditation can help one gain perspective, relieve stress, and calm nerves. However, in what specific ways does meditation improve brain health? Mindfulness training has been shown to result in beneficial physiological changes that strengthen the link between meditative states and the brain.
Meditation has entered the mainstream in recent decades. Individuals are devoting more time to mental exercises, such as focusing on the breath and practicing mindfulness, to better understand and appreciate the significance of the present. It seems like everywhere you look these days, there are many meditation centers near you offering it. Even the business world has joined the trend, as detailed in a recent Business Insider article titled "Silicon Valley is obsessed with meditation, and there's new evidence it changes the brain for the better."
The Mind-Body Connection: Meditation's Brain-Body Benefits
Hippocampus left
Specifically, it is this part of the brain that facilitates learning. Mood regulators like self-awareness and empathy sit here, along with the cognitive tools necessary for learning and memory. Meditation has been shown to increase gray-matter density in the hippocampus, leading to improvements in memory, focus, and other cognitive abilities.
Inferior Cingulate Gyrus
Both daydreaming and the degree to which information processing is subjective and self-referential are linked to activity in the posterior cingulate. The more developed and robust the posterior cingulate, the less likely it is that your thoughts will wander and the more grounded your sense of self will be in reality.
Meditation has many beneficial effects on the mind, but two of the most crucial are developing a nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment and learning to detach from the thoughts and feelings that arise in response to external stimuli. The density of the posterior cingulate appears to increase with meditation. Sometimes it is not possible to do it on my own, look out for meditation centers near you and follow the practices with professionals.
Pons
A large number of the neurotransmitters that play a role in controlling brain activity are synthesized in the Pons, making it a highly active and significant region of the brain. The pons, or bridge, is the Latin word for the middle section of the brain stem. The pons plays an important role in a wide range of vital processes, such as those related to sleep, facial expressions, sensory processing, and basic physical activities. The pons becomes fortified through meditation.
The Temporo Parietal Junction (TPJ)
This is where your temporal and parietal brains meet.
We fancy ourselves to be kind, compassionate, and fair individuals. The TPJ, or temporoparietal junction, is a region of the brain involved in empathy and compassion. One way of putting it is that the TPJ highlights external stimuli while the posterior cingulate highlights internal ones. When we try to understand another person's perspective, we engage the TPJ. The positive changes in our lives that come from meditating, such as reduced stress and increased awareness of the here and now, can help us become the kind of people we aspire to be because of the enhancements to our TPJ.
Amygdala
In addition to the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala also undergoes structural and functional changes as a result of regular meditation practice. But instead of growing, it contracts. Expert meditators have a smaller amygdala, the area of the brain responsible for emotions like anxiety, fear, and stress.