Yoga_Journal_-_June_2016_

ILLUSTRATION: ABIGAIL BIEGERT

Be part of

something bigger

practice well

MEDITATION

WITHIN EACH OF US is unchanging equa-

nimity, peace, joy, and stillness, no

matter what is happening in our lives.

It’s just that sometimes tapping into

these feelings seems impossible. This

is where meditation can help. With a

regular practice, you can learn to align

with something called the universal life

force, or shakti in Sanskrit—a primor-

dial energy that animates every atom

throughout your body, and throughout

the cosmos. The good news is that this

isn’t as unattainable and fantastical as

it may sound. Modern neuroscientific

research has revealed that meditation

turns on and off a variety of pathways,

or neural networks—the intercon-

nected webs of neurons transmitting

elaborate patterns of electrical signals

through your gray matter—and in so

doing can help you rewire your brain

and gain access to those feelings associ-

ated with what yogis call shakti.

Research published over the last

several years in the journal Frontiers in

Human Neuroscience reveals that during

meditation, your default network switch-

es off. This is the network that enables

you to locate yourself in time and space

as an individual with a past, present, and

future. While this network shuts down

during meditation, three others—your

attention, control, and present centered

Meditation can help us get in touch with the

universal life force that connects us all. By Richard Miller, PhD

38

june 2016

yogajournal.com

Meditation opens you

up to a world of infinite

possibility and insight.

continued on page 4o