How Meditation Alters the Brain (𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍)

Here's how meditation changes the brain — structurally and functionally

For a long time, I dismissed meditation as spiritual woo-woo.

How could closing your eyes and focusing on your breathe or thoughts or whatever make any difference?

To my "rational" (and ignorant) mind, it made no sense.

Sometime last year, I read up on the science of meditation. And it made me feel stupid for ignoring it all these years.

So for over a year, I've meditated almost daily. I'm not going to talk about the (life-changing) benefits I've experienced. Because your mileage may vary.

I'll talk about what changes in our minds when we meditate regularly.

You can then extrapolate these changes to your life and decide whether it's something worth committing to.

Let's start with how meditation changes the brain's 𝙙𝙚𝙛𝙖𝙪𝙡𝙩 𝙢𝙤𝙙𝙚 of operation.

There's a network of interacting brain regions, called the Default Mode Network (DMN), that is considered responsible for our inner chatter.

It's called the "default mode" network because it's active by default when you're in a resting state and not engaged in any activity.

This is why we have a natural tendency to ruminate about the past or worry about the future.

The DMN is the part of the brain that you can blame for overthinking.

And it's even more engaged when we make self-referencing judgments.

"I don't have X, I'm not good enough."
"I'll never be able to achieve X because I'm Y."
"If only I had X, things would be perfect."

In eastern traditions, this part of our mind is often referred to as the monkey mind. The monkey mind inhibits your ability to live in the present.

Brain scans show that, in experienced meditators, the main nodes of DMN (medial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex) become relatively deactivated.

When the DMN is quiet, your present-moment awareness and ability to focus your attention outward is enhanced.

This makes it easy for you to lose yourself in work and achieve flow.

More importantly, it does wonders for your psychological well-being.

There's a reason why Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy is very effective for the treatment of anxiety, addiction, and depression.

While the activity in the DMN is reduced, the Tempoparietal junction (TPJ) — which is associated with empathy, perspective-taking, and social cognition — shows increased activity.

This is not surprising because when we're less self-absorbed, we give a higher quality of attention to the people around us.

We become better listeners and notice things which we would have otherwise missed.

𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙘𝙞𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨

MRI scans following an 8-week mindfulness program showed that meditation literally shrinks your amygdala.

Amygdala is called the "fear center" of the brain. This is where stress and anxiety originate.

Not only does the amygdala get smaller, but it's resting-state functional connectivity with the rest of the brain also gets weaker.

This explains the reduced stress reactivity among meditators. Remember that stress is the leading cause of a lot of mental and physical illnesses.

While the amygdala shrinks, the hippocampal and prefrontal regions show increased volumes of gray matter.

Both these regions have been associated with emotional regulation and response control.

This explains how meditation helps people cultivate positive emotions, emotional stability, and mindful behavior.

Also, meditation strengthens the functional connectivity between regions associated with executive behavioral control (concentration, memory, cognitive control).

So, basically, meditation increases your ability to recruit higher-order thinking and win over your primal urges.

This seems like a very valuable benefit in a world that's constantly pushing you towards lower states of consciousness.

Relevant plug: https://twitter.com/kunaaaaaal/status/1249675407881670656

Given what we just discussed, it should not come as a surprise that meditation also reduces your susceptibility to cognitive biases.

When you're anxious, angry, or sad, you are much more likely to make emotionally charged and fear-based decisions.

Meditation directly counters that and helps you see things from an open standpoint.

After all, the core tenet of mindfulness is non-judgemental awareness.

The reason why the benefits of meditation persist in our day-to-day life is our brain's ability to rewire itself — neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity enables your brain to change and form new neural connections.

Every time you meditate, you strengthen the various pathways associated with the structural and functional changes we discussed above.

With sufficient repetition, you create a "new normal" for your brain.

Unfortunately, this means you won't see the benefits of meditation unless you constantly reinforce these neural pathways.

And the more "well-traveled" these pathways are the more pronounced the changes will be in your day-to-day life.

This is why it's also important to not do it in a start-stop fashion. It's much more beneficial to meditate 10 minutes every day, instead of say, 100 minutes every 10 days.

You'll see the benefits only when you commit to it for an extended duration.

Most people fail to build the habit because of this lack of instant gratification.

In my opinion, if you can take out five minutes to brush your teeth every day, taking out a few minutes for your mind seems like a no-brainer (haaah).

Here's a google doc with notes and links to all the relevant research papers: https://docs.google.com/document/d/10WPtGv6wjWj1JqQVtlfA79O_L4-OWMXnXECp6P-f4gY/edit?usp=sharing

If you found this stuff valuable, please show some love to the first tweet. Cheers. https://twitter.com/kunaaaaaal/status/1310108097029922818

Every Sunday, I send out an email dissecting some aspect of the human mind

If you can spare a few mins every week, I’ll help you develop a strong understanding of how your mind works

So that you can have more control over your thoughts, behavior & life http://dismantledmind.com/invitation/