How meditation affects the brain

What first comes to your mind when you hear the word "meditation"? Surely, this calm, tranquility, zen... We know that meditation helps to clear our consciousness improves concentration, soothes, teaches live consciously and gives other advantages as the reason, and body. But what really makes the meditation with our brain from a physiological point of view, to achieve this effect? How does it work?

You can skeptical, others sing the praises of meditation and praise her favor, but in reality the situation is such that Daily meditation for 15-30 minutes has a huge impact on how the your life, how you respond to situations and how to interact with people.

It is difficult to describe in words, if you do not at least try. From a technical point of view, meditation allows us to change our minds and do a magical things.

Who is responsible for what

Parts of the brain that are affected by meditation

• The lateral prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain that allows you to see things more rationally and logically. it also calls the "assessment center". It is involved in the modulation of emotional reactions (which comes from the fear of the center or other parts), automatically overrides behavior and habits, and reduces the tendency of the brain to take things "to heart" by modulating part of the brain that is responsible for your "I".
  instagram viewer
• The medial prefrontal cortex. Part of the brain that is constantly appeals to you, your point of view and experience. Many people call it the "Center I", because this part of the brain processes the information that is directly related to us, including the time when you want to think about the future, think about themselves, interact with people, empathize with others or trying their understand. Psychologists call this Avtoreferalnym Center.

The most interesting thing in the medial prefrontal cortex is that it actually consists of two sections:

• Ventromedial medial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC). She is involved in the processing of information related to you and to the people who, in your opinion, are similar to you. This is exactly the part of the brain, which can make it so that you will take some things too much to heart, it can cause you to worry, cause anxiety or enter you into stress. That is, you yourself stress drives, when you start to worry too much.
• Dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). This part of the process information about people whom you consider different from themselves (that is quite different). This is a very important part of the brain involved in empathy and maintaining social ties.

So, we still have a brain and islet amygdala:

• Island. This part of the brain responsible for our bodily sensations and helps us keep track of how much we will be conscious of what is happening in our body. She is also actively involved in the experiences in general and compassion to others.
• The amygdala. This is our security system, which since the days of the first people we launches the program "fight or flight". This is our center of fear.

Brain without meditation

If you look at the brain before people began to meditate, we can see a strong neural connections within the Center and between the Center I I and parts of the brain that are responsible for bodily sensations and feeling fear. This means that as soon as you feel any anxiety or fear of bodily sensations (itching, tingling, etc.), it is likely that you will respond to it as a concern. And it is because I am your center handles a huge amount of information. Moreover, the dependence of the center makes it so that in the end we are stuck in our thoughts and we get in a loop, for example, we remember that we have felt it once and if it could mean something. We begin to touch in mind the situation of the past and we do it again and again.

Why is this happening? Why our center I allow this? This is because the connection between our assessment center and the Center I'm pretty weak. If the Evaluation Center operated at full capacity, it could adjust the part that is responsible for making things to heart, and to increase the activity of the part of the brain that is responsible for understanding other people's thoughts. As a result, we have weeded out all unnecessary information and take a look at what is happening more sensibly and calmly. That is our Assessment Center can be called our Center brakes Ya

The brain during meditation

When meditation is your constant habit, there are several positive things. Firstly, a strong link between the Center and I bodily sensations weakened, so you stop distracted by a sudden feeling of anxiety or physical symptoms and do not get into their mental loop. That's why people who meditate often decreases anxiety. As a result, you can look at your feelings are not so emotionally.

Secondly, formed a strong and healthy relationship between the evaluation center and bodily sensations / fear centers. This means that if you show up bodily sensations, which may mean a potential danger, you start to look at them from a rational point of view (but do not start to panic). For example, if you feel pain, you start watching them, their decline and renewed and eventually take the right, balanced decision and not get hysterical, starting to think that you exactly what's wrong, drawing a picture in my head almost own funeral.

And, finally, meditation connects useful aspects (those parts of the brain that are responsible for people's understanding, not like us) I Center with bodily sensations, which are responsible for empathy, and makes them stronger. This healthy relationship enhances our ability to understand where you came from other people, especially those people who you can not intuitively understand because you think or perceive things differently (usually, it is people from other Cultures). As a result, your ability to put yourself in the place of others, that is to really understand the people increases.

Why is the daily practice

If you look at how meditation affects our brains from a physiological point of view, we get a rather interesting picture - it strengthens our Evaluative Center soothes hysterical aspects of our Center I and reduces its association with bodily sensations and reinforces its strong part responsible for understanding others. As a result, we are no longer so emotionally react to what is happening and to make more rational decisions. That is, through meditation, we do not just change our state of consciousness, we will physically change your brain for the better.

Why is the constant practice of meditation? Because of these positive changes in our brain are reversible. It's like with maintaining good physical shape - it requires constant training. Once we cease to do, we are back to square one and to restore again takes time.

Just 15 minutes a day can completely change your life the way you even can not imagine.

A photo: Shutterstock