Meditation not only reduces stress, but literally changes your brain
Meditation not only reduces stress, but literally changes your brain Scientists are increasingly understanding the beneficial effects of meditation: more compassion and quality of life and less stress, depression, anxiety, pain and insomnia. The American neuroscientist Sara Lazar has done extensive research on it. Her most startling finding: After eight weeks of meditation, the brain changes and new gray matter is created. Lazar discovered that meditation can literally change your brain. People who meditate have more gray matter in the insula, auditory cortex and frontal cortex compared to a control group. Empathy and Compassion As we age, our frontal cortex shrinks; it becomes more and more difficult to remember things. Lazar found that 50-year-olds meditating in the prefrontal cortex have just as much gray matter as 25-year-olds. To see the short-term effects of meditation, a group of people was subjected to a mindfulness program for eight weeks. After those eight weeks, the brain volume of people learning to meditate had increased in four areas: the posterior cingulate cortex, which is involved in mind wandering; the left hippocampus, which aids in learning, cognition, memory, and emotions; the temporal-parietal junction, which is associated with empathy and compassion; and a part of the brainstem called the pons, where a large number of neurotransmitters are produced. The amygdala, the fight-or-flight part of the brain that plays an important role in anxiety and stress, became smaller in the people who took part in the program. You can compare meditation to exercise. By exercising we stay healthy, we can cope better with stress and we live longer. Meditation has similar effects, according to the Harvard scientist. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years now,” Lazar said. “It has had a big impact on my life. It helps me ground. It reduces stress. It helps me think clearly. And I have more empathy and compassion towards people.” Source: The Washington Post
Attention please!
Attention please! The average attention span of a goldfish is nine seconds. Researchers at Microsoft have found that for humans this has dropped from 12 seconds to 8 seconds due to our digitized lifestyle! The researchers in Canada surveyed 2,000 participants and studied the brain activity of 112 others. They discovered that since the revolution of mobile telephony (from about the year 2000) our average time during which we can focus our attention undivided on a task has decreased from 12 seconds to 8 seconds. “People with a decidedly digital lifestyle have a hard time in an environment that requires long-term attention. It is difficult for them to filter out irrelevant stimuli – they are more easily distracted by different media outlets, ”says the report. However, according to Microsoft researchers, this should not be seen as a setback of our human mind. It indicates that the human ability to “multi-task” has simply improved. Multi-tasking is the rapid switching between simple tasks by the brain, so we can deal better and better with an over-activated brain. Our brains adapt to the possibilities of new technologies. It should be noted here that other scientific research has shown that multi-taskers have less control over their working memory and are distracted by almost everything in daily life. This takes a lot of energy! The question is also, do we maintain our ability to focus longer when necessary? Some scientists fear the negative influence of the internet and continuous connectivity on our brains. The volatile and irregular reading style that people use online makes it more difficult for us to focus on a normal book for a long time. The ability to think deeply and process complex information is closely related to this type of long-term attention. Another reason to limit your endless connectivity regularly, as you could read in one of our other blogs. Bravo, you have been able to concentrate for more than 8 seconds to read this article, there is still hope