Meditation, mindfulness and the brain

Meditation can help us better manage the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that naturally rise up in the mind. This is because meditation is not a passive activity - it is actively changing the shape and structure of the brain:

The amygdala

The amygdala is thought of as a ‘primal’ region of the brain associated with fear and emotion, involved in the initiation of the body’s response to stress and anxiety. We often liken the amygdala to the human brain’s alarm system. Studies show that the amygdala becomes smaller in size and density with regular meditation, and that during stressful or anxious reactions there is less activity, referred to as ‘negative affective processing’

The prefrontal cortex

The prefrontal cortex is the area of the brain that we most associate with willpower and impulse control, as well as awareness, concentration, and decision-making. As such, it plays a role in controlling the impulses that sometimes lead us away from our goals. The prefrontal cortex helps with regulating emotions, regulating distractions and being able to make good intentional choices. Research from several different studies has shown that meditation practice increases the density of both grey matter and white matter in the prefrontal cortex (i.e. it becomes denser), and also increases the connection between the two hemispheres. Meditation studies have consistently demonstrated a direct impact on willpower, impulse control, and concentration ability

The hippocampus

Frequent meditators have increased density in the hippocampus, an area of the brain that helps us regulate stress responses. The hippocampus is important for helping the body learn from stressful experiences and shut down the stress response after a traumatic experience or an episode of anxiety or fear. Research has shown that the hippocampus tends to become bigger and better connected among people who regularly meditate

The brain stem

The brain stem, at the very base of the brain, helps us regulate what happens in the autonomic nervous system. As such it is associated with stress resilience and stress recovery. Regular meditators have changes in the brain stem that help them with the ability to self-regulate and recover more quickly from stressors.

Meditation, mindfulness and being present

Due to the brain changes outlined, meditation helps us to become present in more of our everyday lives, outside of the time set aside for intentionally meditating.

We can think of meditation as a tool that helps us develop the psychological trait of mindfulness, which in turn naturally causes us to be in a more present state, more often. Some people seem to have the natural trait of mindfulness, but for many of us we need to train and cultivate it.

Presence is a mental process, a non-reactive state free of any judgement which has clearly been shown in studies to be an important factor in managing anxiety, depression, and have feelings of overall contentedness and wellbeing.

The opposite of presence is something referred to as ‘mind-wandering’, where we are either in the past, the future, or distracted by and ruminating on our thoughts. Often these thoughts have a certain narrative or are negative and create an emotional response we can get lost in, usually without realising it has happened. Mind-wandering has been clearly demonstrated to lead to feelings of unhappiness. People who are more often present than mind-wandering have been shown to have less of a harsh internal dialogue, and more often experience feelings of calmness.

References:

Luders E, Kurth F, Toga AW, Narr KL and Gaser C (2013) Meditation effects within the hippocampal complex revealed by voxel-based morphometry and cytoarchitectonic probabilistic mapping. Front. Psychol. 4:398. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00398

Luders, Eileen, Toga, Arthur W., Lepore, Natasha, Gaser, Christian. The underlying anatomical correlates of long-term meditation: Larger hippocampal and frontal volumes of gray matter. NeuroImage, Volume 45, Issue 3, 15 April 2009, Pages 672-678, doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.12.061

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Benjamin Nelson, Suzanne Parker, Elissa Epel, Dan Siegel. The science of presence: A central mediator of the interpersonal benefits of mindfulness. (In press). In K.W. Brown, J.D. Creswell, & R.M. Ryan (Eds.), Handbook of Mindfulness: Theory and Research. Guilford Press.

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