The Neuroscience Behind Meditation
then doing that over and over — can reshape behavior.”
tested with stressful multitasking before and after the eight-week period. The individuals in the meditation group were able to sustain their focus longer and reported feeling less stressed than both of the other groups. So what’s actually happening here? Well, to put it simply, those meditators were actively changing the way their minds form connections. Our brains are constantly being molded and reshaped by our surroundings, often by things we are completely unaware of. Each time we impulsively follow a habit pattern, that reaction is etched into our brains more deeply. But when a person sits down to meditate, they begin to consciously reject these knee-jerk impulses. As Newsweek writer Zoe Schlanger puts it, “Learning how to interrupt one’s reaction pattern — and
Though it’s often lumped in
with other New-Agey “self- help” ideas, neurological evidence indicates that meditation deserves a closer look. Take one trial
Research indicates that this “stillness of mind” can result in better attention, reduced susceptibility to addiction, and even “reduce the cognitive decline associated with normal aging,” according to one study published in the Neurobiology of Aging journal. happiness,” writes London School of Economics scholar Paul Dolan. It just makes sense that actively directing your attention should improve your quality of life — and the science backs it up. If you’re intrigued, check out apps on sites like calm.com or buddhify, which offer both guided and unguided meditation tracks for beginners. “What you attend to drives your behavior, and it determines your
reported on by Newsweek and conducted by a
computer scientist and neuroscientist at the University of Arizona, for
instance. In the trial, 45 participants were split into three groups. One group took eight weeks of body relaxation training, one group had no training whatsoever, and one group took “mindfulness-based meditation training.” Then they were
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