A while back I wrote about a study that showed aerobic exercise increased the brain’s hippocampal volume in older women, which increased memory performance.
Now, another study has confirmed that meditation is good for your brain. This Harvard study used MRI scans to document, for the very first time in medical history, how meditation produced massive changes inside the brain’s gray matter. Senior author Sara Lazar, of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program and a Harvard Medical School instructor in psychology states, “This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these reported improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they are spending time relaxing.”
Wow! I have felt that for years, and certainly Eastern traditions have known that for centuries, but now even Western science has proven it to be true. Color me happy!
The participants of this study spent an average of 27 minutes each day practicing mindfulness exercises, and that is all it took for a major increase in gray matter density in the hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with self-awareness, compassion, and introspection. MRI’s were done before they started this eight week course and again after. In previous studies this group also found that experienced meditators have a thickening of the cerebral cortex in areas associated with attention and emotional integration.
“It is fascinating to see the brain’s plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life,” says Britta Hölzel, first author of the paper and a research fellow at MGH and Giessen University in Germany. I agree!
Imagine – 8 weeks to better brain health!
If you would like to take a more active role in improving your brain health by learning meditation techniques, let me know! You can get a few friends together and I’ll come to your home to teach the group, or you can click HERE to learn about an individual program!
Mindfulness exercises do not mean that you have to sit in an uncomfortable position for an hour and “clear your mind.”There are many techniques to help you meditate. For instance, prayer is often a meditation. There are mantra meditations, visualizing yourself in your “place of calm”, e.g., a beach or the woods.
Contact me today and we’ll discover what works for you!
