What
Is Meditation?
Meditation is a mind and body
practice that has a long history of use for increasing calmness and
physical relaxation, improving psychological balance, coping with illness, and
enhancing overall health and well-being. This practice links the mind and body while bringing long term focus to the
interactions among the brain, mind, body, and behavior.
There are many types of meditation, but most
have four elements in common: a quiet location with as few distractions as
possible; a specific, comfortable posture (sitting, lying down, walking, or in
other positions); a focus of attention (a specially chosen word or set of
words, an object, or the sensations of the breath); and an open attitude
(letting distractions come and go naturally without judging them).
What Science Says
About the Effectiveness of Meditation
Many studies have investigated meditation for
different conditions, and there’s evidence that it may reduce blood pressure, symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, depression, insomnia, as well as, assist with pain control, and addiction including smoking cessation. Now with the modern tools available to neuroscientists we have even more evidence of the impact of meditation on the actual brain structure.
Meditation and
the Brain
Some research suggests that meditation may
physically change the brain and body and could potentially help to improve many
health problems and promote healthy behaviors.
Research Studies
- In a 2012 study, researchers compared brain images from 50
adults who meditate and 50 adults who don’t meditate. Results suggested that
people who practiced meditation for many years have more folds in the outer
layer of the brain. This process (called gyrification) may increase the brain’s
ability to process information.
- A 2013 review of three studies suggests that meditation may
slow, stall, or even reverse changes that take place in the brain due to
normal aging.
- Results from a 2012 NCCIH-funded study suggest that meditation
can affect activity in the amygdala (a part of the brain involved in processing
emotions), and that different types of meditation can affect the amygdala
differently even when the person is not meditating.
-
Sara Lazar and her team at Harvard found that mindfulness meditation does actually change the structure of the brain: Eight weeks of Mindfulness-Based
Stress Reduction (MBSR) was found to increase cortical thickness in the hippocampus,
which governs learning and memory, and in certain areas of the brain that play
roles in emotion regulation and self-referential processing. There were also decreases in brain cell volume
in the amygdala, which is responsible for fear, anxiety, and stress – and these
changes matched the participants’ self-reports of their stress levels,
indicating that meditation not only changes the brain, but it changes our
subjective perception and feelings as well. In fact, a follow-up study by Lazar’s team found that after
meditation training, changes in brain areas linked to mood and arousal were
also linked to improvements in how participants said they felt — i.e.,
their psychological well-being.
Just a Few Days of Training
Improves Concentration and Attention
Having
problems concentrating impacts everyone from school age on up – we all know that with an ADD diagnosis or not lack of focus can have devastating results on a young person's success in school. For adults, equally harmful to career and life issues.
Interestingly but not
surprisingly, one of the central benefits of meditation is that it improves
attention and concentration: One recent study found that just a couple of weeks of meditation
training helped people’s focus and memory during the verbal reasoning section
of the GRE. In fact, the increase in score was equivalent to 16 percentile
points. Since the strong focus of attention (on
an object, idea, or activity) is one of the central aims of meditation, it’s
not so surprising that meditation should help people’s cognitive skills on the
job, too – but it’s nice to have science confirm it. And everyone can use a
little extra assistance on standardized tests and work place concentration.
Meditation Reduces Anxiety —
and Social Anxiety
A
lot of people start meditating for its benefits in stress reduction, and
there’s lots of good evidence to support this rationale. There’s a whole newer
sub-genre of meditation, mentioned earlier, called Mindfulness-Based Stress
Reduction (MBSR), developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of
Massachusetts’ Center for Mindfulness (now available all over the country),
that aims to reduce a person’s stress level, physically and mentally. Studies
have shown its benefits in reducing anxiety, even years after the initial 8-week course. Research has also shown that mindfulness
meditation, in contrast to attending to the breath only, can reduce anxiety –
and that these changes seem to be mediated through the brain regions associated
with those self-referential (“me-centered”) thoughts. Mindfulness meditation
has also been shown to help people with social anxiety disorder:
a Stanford University team found that MBSR brought about changes in brain
regions involved in attention, as well as relief from symptoms of social
anxiety.
NCCIH-Funded Research
NCCIH-supported studies are investigating
meditation for:
- Teens experiencing chronic, widespread pain, such as
from fibromyalgia
- Stress reduction for people with multiple sclerosis
- Post-traumatic stress disorder, headaches, reducing
blood pressure.
For More Information
NCCIH
Clearinghouse
The
NCCIH Clearinghouse provides information on NCCIH and complementary
and integrative health approaches, including publications and searches of
Federal databases of scientific and medical literature. The Clearinghouse does
not provide medical advice, treatment recommendations, or referrals to
practitioners.
Toll-free in the
U.S.:
1-888-644-6226
TTY (for deaf and
hard-of-hearing callers):
1-866-464-3615
Web site:
nccih.nih.gov
E-mail:
[email protected](link sends e-mail)
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