Doing meditation regularly is known to offer several mental benefits. It helps regulate stress and improves concentration including focus. This powerful tool is rather a practice to focus for a specific time period of one’s mind or thinking deeply. The objective here is to obtain inner peace and immense relaxation. This ancient practice is being followed for thousands f years and has a magical effect on the human body and brain.
Ways meditation impacts the brain positively
Studies conducted have revealed that meditation comes with numerous neurological benefits. It reduces stress related activities in the brain to changing brain volume.
- Stress regulation: Those engaging themselves in meditation were found to exhibit more expressive activities especially in those areas associated with the resting state. You can also experience reduced marker levels in your blood that is otherwise related to unhealthy inflammation. It is considered to be a physical condition that is associated closely to stress.
- Changes in brain structure: Mindfulness meditation is found to help change brain structures significantly. Mindfulness training program helps enhance cortical thickness within the hippocampus. It is that brain part controlling memory and learning as well as playing a significant role in regulating emotions. Scientists are still trying to understand hippocampus volume decrease and decrease. The common belief is that it reduces negative emotions such as stress. Moreover, numerous mental health disorders like PTSD and major depressions are related to hippocampus density and reduced volume. Studies also found reduction in amygdale volume, that brain part involved with experiencing emotions like anxiety, stress and fear.
- Safeguarding aging brain: Meditation can protect your brain against symptoms of aging. People engaged in regular meditation were found to develop less age-related atrophy within their brain’s white matter. Meditation is also known to preserve gray matter, a tissue having neurons while being connected with white matter.
- Helps enhance concentration & focus: This is undoubtedly a major benefit to derive from meditation. People these days, lead busy lives and get easily distracted from their set objectives. This is because they tend to lose their focus very fast and find it difficult to concentrate on a particular thing. Scientists do agree that meditating regularly can help people of all ages to focus better on their tasks. Mindfulness meditation is known to enhance cognitive performance and reduce mind wandering. Students planning to give competitive exams are strongly recommended to meditate daily. It helps improve their memory and focus significantly.
Hence, the above clearly proves that regular meditation has the power to bring in positive changes in the brain.