“By charting new pathways in the brain, mindfulness can change the banter inside our heads from chaotic to calm.”
– Jennifer Wolkin
Meditation changes the brain
All your thoughts, worries, personality traits and opinions which form the unique person that you are, are all happening inside your brain. Essentially, you are your brain. So in changing the brain through meditation, you are changing yourself. When you meditate, you are releasing, accepting, relaxing, shifting, breathing and just being.
When you emerge from this meditative state, you start fresh, in a sense. A huge cleansing wave of clarity has washed over you and taken with it all the debris which cluttered your prior existence. Meditation gives you a new existence. One much more capable of nurturing peace and joy.
BBN reports of a study on meditation conducted by Sara Lazar, senior author at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Psychiatric Neuro-imaging Research Program (that was a mouthful!). Sara also happens to be the instructor of psychology at Harvard Medical School.
The study demonstrated very clearly that changes in the brain structure may underly some of the reported improvements. Lazar concluded that people are not just feeling better because they are spending more time relaxing – meditation really does change the brain.
Re-wire your brain with meditation
In fact, there’s now a lot of science backing the claims that meditation and conscious thought-redirection through acts of mindfulness can totally re-wire our brain. And that’s great news! Richie Davidson, neuroscientist at the Centre for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, along with this colleagues, want us to know three things:
- You can train your brain to change
- The change is measurable
- New ways of thinking can change it for the better.
This is only a tiny portion of all the talk and reports of the ways in which meditation can change us and help us. The science, great minds with insight, and studies of brain activity is all there for us to witness and learn from. The verdict is in, and we can move forward without a doubt that entering states of meditation and leading a life geared to mindfulness can, and will change us. We will never change if we don’t want to, nor if we fail to try. Nothing good can grow it’s roots if we refuse to let go of that which can’t be amended, reversed or withdrawn.
Meditation is acceptance
Life will buzz on around you and within you. Your next move is up to you. The way you feel is completely within your power.
This beautiful song by Imogen Heap – the visuals and lyrics – should help you get in the right mood to just “be still”.
You know where to find me
When you’re on your way out
All bustle and busy
Enough is enough
Because life’s sweet assemblages
Equate to driftwood away
Be still with me
Sources: BBN Community, Mindful
The enlightenment courses
At the School of Natural Health Sciences we offer diploma correspondence courses in Meditation, Mindfulness, Stress Management, Yoga and Professional Relaxation Therapy among over 50 other holistic subjects. Our goal has been to bring the best of the holistic health world into one area which is highly accessible, affordable and enjoyable!
Our distance-training methods are stress-free, deadline-free and commute-free! Become qualified in what matters, and what you love doing!
- Check out our full A-Z course list to see our full range of holistic health courses –
- Check out our worldwide accreditations
- Contact us with any questions, we’d be delighted to hear from you!
