I have made a summary of an article entitled The brain of the meditator of the journal Research and Science January 2015. It is worth reading the original and in its entirety. The brain of the meditator For almost 15 years of various American universities have conducted studies on practitioners of meditation. Brain images were performed in which the possible cognitive and emotional benefits were evaluated.
It seems that according to the results it can be an effective treatment for depression and chronic pain, in addition to cultivating feelings of general well-being. All this is thanks to neuronal neuroplaciticity. This is the brain's ability to transform itself through experience. It seems that meditating there are certain regions of the brain that are enlarged and neuronal connections are rearranged .10253745_784838298207710_5114852406187489196_n What is meditation? According to the scientists who conducted the experiments refer to the cultivation of basic human qualities such as achieving a more stable and clear mind, the balance excites a sense of benevolence and even of Love and compassion. These qualities that remain latent if an effort is not made to develop them. The principles of meditation are very simple. It can be done anywhere. No special equipment or clothing is necessary.
The conditioning of the mind requires freeing it from automatic conditioning and internal confusion. The three most common types of meditation in Buddhism are: Focused attention. It aims to control and focus the mind in the present moment and stay alert to distractions. Consciousness or mindfulness tries to cultivate a state of mind that corresponds less viscerally to the emotions, thoughts and sensations that take place in the present moment to prevent them from falling into a spiral without control.
The cultivation of compassion and benevolence that promotes the altruistic perspective towards others. Under the scanner in the first type of mediation: FB_IMG_1426322825797 Wendy Hasenkamp, at Emory University used neuroimaging techniques to locate the areas that were activated during this type of meditation.
They detected four phases in the cognitive cycle: An episode of distraction A moment of awareness of distraction Reorientation of attention Resumption of focused attention . In each of them there is a specific brain region involved. In the first areas related to internal models of the world based on long-term memories of oneself or others.
In the second, the area related to the identification of new subjects. And so in the other two. The meditators who had more than 10, 000 hours showed more activity in the areas related to care. They focus with less effort. The second type of meditation in the laboratory. It is about full consciousness . The person remains aware of what happens without worrying excessively about any perception or thought, returning to his object of attention every time the mind is distracted. As awareness of what is around increases, routine irritants (an angry coworker, a restless child at home ...) become less disturbing. And a feeling of psychological well-being develops.
With this state of realizing a pleasant sensation, I was able to reduce the inappropriate emotional response and help to leave behind negative feelings. Something that can be especially useful in the treatment of pain. It has been found that although the intensity of pain does not decrease, it is less bothersome. Brain activity decreased in areas related to anxiety (the insular cortex and tonsil) and in the period prior to painful stimulation. It also increases the ability to control or increase basic physiological responses (inflammation or hormone levels) to tasks that are socially stressful, such as giving a speech in public or doing mental calculations in front of a severe jury. Sleep patterns also improve. When they feel sad or worried, patients with depression can deliberately follow and observe negative thoughts and emotions and control them when they arise spontaneously and thus decrease the obsession they produce. Experiments support that along with therapy, patients with depression reduce their risk of relapse.
Compassion and benevolence This form that cultivates attitudes and feelings of kindness and compassion towards others. The somatosensory and insular cortex that participates in empathy responses and other emotions are significantly activated. Other areas that have to do with putting ourselves in the situation of the other are also activated. They realized, in the experiments also that compassion and altruistic love were associated with positive emotions. And they suggested that emotional wear or tear was in fact a kind of fatigue from empathy. A door to consciousness
Meditation explores the nature of the mind, which allows studying the states of consciousness and the subjective states of mind from the point of view of the meditator. It seems that expert meditators can maintain at will a few steps of gamma waves between 25 and 42 Hz. Coordination of brain oscillations could play a crucial role in the construction of temporary neural networks that integrate cognitive and affective functions during learning and learning. conscious perception, a process that can lead to lasting changes in the circuits of the brain. Meditation also produces volume in certain areas of the brain, which may reflect alterations in the number of neuronal connections.
It has also been concluded that the meditation of mindfulness causes the volume of the tonsil, involved in the processing of fear, to decrease. There are also data that support that meditation mitigates inflammation and other types of biological stress that occurs at the molecular level. As well as the slowing down of the aging processes due to increased telomerase activity that lengthens the DNA segments. After fifteen years of experiments, there is evidence that meditation has a significant impact on the biological processes critical to physical health.
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Important news for the change. The benefits of meditation
