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Home > Wellness > Yoga & Meditation > How Mindfulness Meditation Changes Your Brain

How Mindfulness Meditation Changes Your Brain

Updated on August 4, 2021
7 min read
By Lori Golden, MA, CPT, CYT, CCHT | Certified Personal Trainer, Yoga Instructor

In this article:

  • The Idea Behind Mindfulness Meditation
  • Does Meditation Reduce Stress and Depression?
  • Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation
  • Meditation for Insomnia Relief
  • Meditation for Managing Common Medical Conditions
  • Does Meditation Prevent Genetic Damage?
  • Meditation Is Good for Your Immunity
  • Mindfulness Meditation is Like Taking Your Brain to the Gym for a Workout
  • Practicing Mindfulness Meditation
  • The Best Way to Practice Meditation
  • Origins of Mindfulness
  • Helpful Tips
  • Final Word

If you’ve ever wondered how to get out of a mental rut, change the way you think, increase your memory, concentrate, or have more positive emotions. It may be easier than you think!

benefits of meditation

Studies reveal that meditation and mindfulness meditation, specifically, can change the brain in powerful ways. (1) Practicing even small moments of mindfulness meditation regularly can increase your ability to manage difficult emotions and improve your learning ability. (1)

The Idea Behind Mindfulness Meditation

Sometimes, the word mindfulness creates confusion. Are you supposed to focus on a single thing or clear your mind? Mindfulness means fully attending to what’s happening and what you’re doing in the present moment, non-judgmentally.

It means purposely paying attention and being fully aware of what is happening both inside yourself (physically and mentally) and outside yourself, in your environment.

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Purposely paying attention may sound simple, yet it’s natural for people to become easily distracted. Your mind tends to wander, and you begin thinking or fixating on other things, causing you to lose touch with the present moment. Mindfulness also means having this awareness without judgment or criticism.

Does Meditation Reduce Stress and Depression?

practicing meditation can help reduce stress and depression

Yes. Mindfulness meditation brings about positive psychological changes and thus helps reduce stress, depression, and anxiety. (2)

People with anxiety often get distracted with overpowering thoughts, unable to differentiate between a problem-solving thought and unnecessary worry.

Mindfulness meditation can help a person concentrate on the present situation and lowers lactate levels in the blood, thus preventing anxiety attacks. (3)

Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation

When you practice mindfulness meditation, you create more space from your thoughts and increase present moment awareness. As this happens, you become less reactive.

A benefit to this shift in awareness is a stronger connection to your inner wisdom that guides you to make choices that bring about a better balance in your life. When you are out of balance, illness and disease can occur more easily. Therefore, practicing mindfulness helps to keep your body and mind in a better balance. (4)

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The common benefits of mindfulness meditation to the body and mind include:

  • Reduced stress and anxiety
  • Lowered blood pressure
  • Improved heart health
  • Better cognitive function
  • No insomnia
  • Delayed brain aging
  • Better immunity (3)
  • Improved mood
  • Prevention of genetic damage
  • More energy

Meditation for Insomnia Relief

practicing meditation can help fight insomnia

Meditation can help fight insomnia as it helps increase sleep duration, improves the ability to fall and stay asleep, and aids in overall sleep quality. (5)

Practicing meditation reduces the arousal signals in the brain, thus helping you sleep. Also, meditation has no side effects or associated risks, and it can be safely tried. Therefore, meditation is an easily accessible and cost-friendly practice that can help treat insomnia in people of all ages. (5)

Meditation for Managing Common Medical Conditions

Regularly practicing meditation has a positive impact on your mental, physical, and spiritual health.

Meditation thus helps your overall health, including improving various health conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure, (3) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

It also helps decrease the intensity and frequency of tension-related pains, such as ulcers, headache, insomnia, muscle pain, or joint pain.

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Does Meditation Prevent Genetic Damage?

The effects of meditation are not limited to the mind but penetrate deep into the brain stricture and functioning of genes.

It has been observed that around 172 genes in people who meditated regularly for 8 weeks had a change in expression. These genes were involved in the regulation of blood pressure, inflammation, glucose metabolism, and circadian rhythms. (6)

This wide range of molecular and genetic differences also enables faster recovery from a stressful situation. (7)

Meditation Is Good for Your Immunity

practicing meditation helps strengthen the immune system

The immune system interacts with the brain through chemical messengers in the blood. A weakened immune system increases the risk of infection and disease.

Meditation has immunomodulatory impacts on your body. It influences various immune cells and their response to pathogens. Meditation also helps reduce inflammation levels and thus decreases the burden on your immune system. (8)(9)

Mindfulness Meditation is Like Taking Your Brain to the Gym for a Workout

The regular practice of mindfulness meditation appears to strengthen the brain and enhance connections in several regions of the brain. (10) So, your brain can be strengthened like a muscle.

Here are four key ways mindfulness meditation changes your brain:

  • It reduces activity in the amygdala, a region of the brain known as the “fight or flight” center that regulates how much stress you experience and your emotional response to fear. (11)
  • The amygdala also decreases in size, resulting in a reduction in stress levels. (11)
  • Regular practice of mindfulness meditation increases the density of gray matter in the brain, improving brain connectivity in areas that affect memory, self-awareness, and compassion. (12)
  • As you practice meditation, the prefrontal cortex is strengthened, resulting in more processing power for concentration and better decision making. (13)

Practicing Mindfulness Meditation

Thankfully, you don’t need to spend several hours a day, silently meditating to change your brain. The key is a regular (daily) practice, such as:

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  • Doing breath awareness meditation
  • Performing mindful stretches (such as yoga)
  • Taking a meditative nature walk

The brain benefits come from consistency of practice, so make this a daily ritual, a designated time for self-care, even if it is just 10 minutes each day.

The Best Way to Practice Meditation

best way to practice meditation

Try this breathing meditation:

  1. Sit in a comfortable position or lie on your bed or another comfortable place.
  2. Relax your shoulders, and then close your eyes to help you focus on your breath.
  3. Breathe in slowly through your nose, and then exhale slowly through your nose or softly through your mouth.
  4. Put one hand on your chest and the other hand on your stomach.
  5. Gradually deepen your breath and focus on the flow of your breath in and out slowly until you feel your stomach expand or rise (as you inhale) and fall inward (as you exhale). This belly movement should feel more dramatic than your chest movement, which remains more still.
  6. After you get the hang of this, if you’d like, you can then focus on the word “peace” as you inhale (and the belly expands) and the word “relax” as you exhale (and the belly falls inward).

Practice this breathing meditation for 5–10 minutes, 1–2 times per day.

Origins of Mindfulness

Mindfulness has originated from the Buddhist concept of sati, which preaches present moment awareness. (14)

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Jon Kabat-Zinn played a major role in bringing mindfulness from east to the west. (15) He developed a mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program that aims at reducing stress levels in people.

Mindfulness meditation has now become a popular practice to lower stress and increase emotional well-being. Its effects on brain health and cognition are being researched.

Helpful Tips

  • Lie on your back with knees bent to make the practice easier.
  • Start with 5–10 minutes of practice, and then gradually increase the amount of time.
  • Make it a habit by practicing once or twice a day, at the same time, to help create a routine.

Final Word

Mindfulness meditation is a method of training your brain to hold onto a thought spatially. Meditation helps remove negative feelings and reduces anger, stress, worry, and doubt. Practicing mindfulness meditation helps improve your mental, physical, and spiritual well-being.

References
  1. Moore A, Gruber T, Derose J, Malinowski P. Regular, brief mindfulness meditation practice improves electrophysiological markers of attentional control. Frontiers in human neuroscience. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3277272/. Published February 10, 2012.
  2. Chételat G, Lutz A, Arenaza-Urquijo E, Collette F, Klimecki O, Marchant N. Why could meditation practice help promote mental health and well-being in aging? Alzheimer’s research & therapy. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6015474/. Published June 22, 2018.
  3. Sharma H. Meditation: Process and effects. Ayu. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4895748/. Published 2015.
  4. Van Dam NT, van Vugt MK, Vago DR, et al. Mind the Hype: A Critical Evaluation and Prescriptive Agenda for Research on Mindfulness and Meditation. Perspectives on psychological science: a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5758421/. Published January 2018.
  5. Black DS, O’Reilly GA, Olmstead R, Breen EC, Irwin MR. Mindfulness meditation and improvement in sleep quality and daytime impairment among older adults with sleep disturbances: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA internal medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4407465/. Published April 2015.
  6. Bhasin MK, Denninger JW, Huffman JC, et al. Specific Transcriptome Changes Associated with Blood Pressure Reduction in Hypertensive Patients After Relaxation Response Training. Journal of alternative and complementary medicine (New York, N.Y.). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5961875/. Published May 2018.
  7. Buric I, Farias M, Jong J, Mee C, Brazil IA. What Is the Molecular Signature of Mind-Body Interventions? A Systematic Review of Gene Expression Changes Induced by Meditation and Related Practices. Frontiers in immunology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5472657/. Published June 16, 2017.
  8. Morgan N, Irwin MR, Chung M, Wang C. The effects of mind-body therapies on the immune system: meta-analysis. PloS one. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4079606/. Published July 2, 2014.
  9. GM; BDSS. Mindfulness meditation and the immune system: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26799456/.
  10. Hölzel BK, Carmody J, Vangel M, et al. Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry research. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3004979/. Published January 30, 2011.
  11. Laneri D, Schuster V, Dietsche B, Jansen A, Ott U, Sommer J. Effects of Long-Term Mindfulness Meditation on Brain’s White Matter Microstructure and its Aging. Frontiers in aging neuroscience. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4712309/. Published January 14, 2016.
  12. Hernández SE, Suero J, Barros A, González-Mora JL, Rubia K. Increased Grey Matter Associated with Long-Term Sahaja Yoga Meditation: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study. PloS one. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4777419/. Published March 3, 2016.
  13. Singleton O, Hölzel BK, Vangel M, Brach N, Carmody J, Lazar SW. Change in Brainstem Gray Matter Concentration Following a Mindfulness-Based Intervention is Correlated with Improvement in Psychological Well-Being. Frontiers in human neuroscience. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3927233/. Published February 18, 2014.
  14. Xiao Q, Yue C, He W, Yu J-Y. The Mindful Self: A Mindfulness-Enlightened Self-view. Frontiers in psychology. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5645519/. Published October 13, 2017.
  15. Shapero BG, Greenberg J, Pedrelli P, de Jong M, Desbordes G. Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Psychiatry. Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5870875/. Published 2018.
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