AYGMyJune2015

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may/june 2015

yogajournal.com.au

This is your brain

(and body)

on meditation

A slew of scientific studies suggest that

mindfulness meditation offers some powerful

holistic health benefits. And while researchers

caution that no one study should be interpreted

as a prescription for treatment, mindfulness

is increasingly being considered a viable

complement to conventional health care. Here

are just some of the ways it can help you:

STAY FOCUSED

Learning to sustain one’s attention through mindfulness seems to improve

overall ability to focus and maintain attention during everyday tasks. In a 2012

study in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, researchers evaluated

individuals with no previous exposure to meditation. Some of them received

three hours of mindfulness-meditation training and were asked to meditate for

10 minutes each day for up to 16 weeks. During tasks that involved attention

to detail, those who meditated showed more control over executive functions

involving attention than non-meditators. The research suggests that even

“low doses” of meditation training can significantly change neural function

related to processing conflicting stimuli.

REDUCE STRESS

Research suggests that mindfulness-meditation training not

only reduces stress and anxiety following a stressful episode,

but that practising it can actually help mitigate stress in

the moment. In a 2013 study, Dr Kirk Warren Brown, a

psychologist at Virginia Commonwealth University, US, and

colleagues reported that mindful individuals showed lower

brain arousal in response to highly unpleasant images

compared with controls. This suggests that mindfulness

changes how stress-related emotion centres in the brain

are activated. As a result, not only do these brain areas

get less active when provoked, but the reaction may be

easier to regulate because it’s not so strong, says Brown.

MANAGE ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION

In a 2014 meta-analysis, Dr Goyal and his partners at

Johns Hopkins University in the US found that mindfulness

meditation might be on par with antidepressants in

treating depressive symptoms. In a 2014 study in the

journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience,

researchers examined 15 participants with no prior

meditation experience. Over the course of just four

days of mindfulness-meditation training, participants

experienced significantly less anxiety. Essentially,

mindfulness meditation reduces anxiety by improving

mood and enhancing cognitive control mechanisms.

ILLUSTRATIOn: SHymKO

-SVITLAn

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SHUTTERSTOCK.

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