How Can Meditation Change Your Brain?
How often does your mind wander? Why do we do it, and what is the cost?
Every human being will not be able to constantly fully pay attention to what you intend to pay attention to. We get distracted with our own voices in our heads, thinking about the past and how we could’ve done better. Or thinking about the future of making multiple scenarios on how we could do better.
In this age and time, we are so easily distracted by the overload of information, and technologies that are fighting for our attention. Notifications and social media designed to make you scroll infinitely and consume large amounts of their content on a large amount of our time, costing us our finite resource of time.
We, Millenials, are one of the most vulnerable generations to not live in the present moment. Social pressure from family and friends, work-related stress, competition on and out of social media, has been unconsciously driving us to the point that it is easy to be overwhelmed by all the things we have to juggle and show up as the best version of ourselves that we can be.
I said ‘human beings’, because mind-wandering is scientifically proven as an experience inherently done in our brain, and if you are gracefully given a healthy brain (like everyone else) you will have your mind wander from time to time. this phenomenon is called the Default Mode Network.
Default Mode Network is what happens in your brain when you are not fully paying attention or focusing on the task in front of you — whether when you are in a conversation with someone, or when you need to work or study.
It is what you experience when you suddenly realize you are either thinking of the past, future, or of another person — without intending to think about it, it just does.
You’ll realize that when you are not focused, more often than not — your mind will be thinking “I should’ve said this instead to this person” or “I’m going to eat burgers for lunch” instead of solving whatever you need solving.
When we have our attention scattered everywhere, it decreases our productivity and may very well increase our stress levels and time to accomplish a task.
Scientifically, when we are focused on accomplishing a task, the Default Mode Network turns off, and vice versa. The brain region that is associated with the Default Mode Network is the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). PCC helps us do tasks that are related to the self, to others, remembering the past, thinking about the future. While mPFC is found to help us process information and decision making related to ourselves.
If we get distracted, most likely our mind will be wandering (even longer than we thought it would be), and would not only be a cognitive cost, but also a cost to our resources such as energy and time.
Why can meditation help?
This constant tug between the past and future is what is keeping us from being present. And when we are not fully focusing on our present, we will not get the best result compared to if we were fully focused instead. And this is where practicing meditation can help.
We see there is a growing hype for well-being, and one of the activities are carving out time to meditate. World-class-performers, literally people who are best at what they do, usually have a form of meditation practice built within their day.
If we want to strive and be the better version of ourself, can we be a little more curious on how this ancient-form of practice makes ourself be better at what we do?
Meditation is the conscious effort to stay present and being in the present.
Often we picture meditation associated with a monk living in the wilderness close to nature, or people sitting down with their eyes closed saying “OMMM” very loudly until you run out of breath, or it can be associated with a religion or society, like Buddhism and Zen. But I personally try to detach this practice with organized religion.
What meditators have in common is that they consciously try to focus on the present. And most easily by paying attention to our breath or bodily sensations.
We train to think of thoughts like clouds that pass by — not as things we should anchor ourselves to.
Once we attach our self to these thoughts, our mind will create more narratives and it will create this downward spiral. By consciously thinking of thoughts as it really is, like thoughts. This way, practicing meditations trains us to not always attach our sense of selves to the past or the future that we are thinking about, but just as it is.
I like to think of practicing meditation like going to the gym, as a workout for our mind or our brain muscles.
Practicing meditation is mentally strengthening for you as studies have found that people who take up meditation also experienced:
- more creativity from balanced Corpus Callosum
- reduce depression and strengthens memory from improved Hippocampus
- increases your Emotional Intelligence and become more compassionate and kinder to others in Temporoparietal-junction
- reduces anxiety from calming the Amygdala.
- And many other cool things!
“Altered traits” by Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson, is one of the good books that extensively explains how meditation physically changes your brain. And that it is due to neuroplasticity, where your brain changes and adapts when neurons strengthen over time with practice, very similar to what doing a strength workout at the gym can do to our muscles. It can change the physical structure.
How can you start meditating?
Meditation is a process to anchor your attention to something neutral for a longer period of time then what you are used to. And this is best done when someone is guiding you through the process. If you do it on your own, there will be more probability of you quitting after the first few minutes because either your mind wanders or you do not feel direct result (most of us are impatient for results).
- Meditation classes — For beginners, I would suggest attending a class that’s specific to meditation. If you are in Jakarta, I would recommend The Golden Space Indonesia and Jeda Wellnest. If you are in Bali, I would recommend The Yoga Barn. If you are in Amsterdam, I would recommend Delight Yoga. If you are anywhere else in the world, you can search on google for meditation classes near to you. These classes can take anywhere between 30–90 minutes and a meditation teacher or guide, will explain to you why meditation works, what form they are practicing today, and will be there for you if you want to ask questions after class.
- Yoga classes — Meditation and mindfulness practice closely relate to yoga classes. Yoga is a form of moving meditation and it also aims to bring awareness and attention to your breath which usually gives you a more sense of calmness.
- Apps — Once you’ve experienced meditation in longer period of time, you can use 5–10 mins of your time a day on Headspace, Calm, Balance, Insight Timer (and in that order when you are a beginner). If you can’t do it at home in the morning, maybe on your way to work (if you are not driving), or just before you sleep.
So are you willing to pick up the practice and see how it may change your brain and your life?
Namaste,
#MindfulMillenials
