What is mindfulness meditation?
Mindfulness meditation is the practice of non-judgemental and intentional awareness. It is also called satipatthana, which means “to keep your attention inside”. The goal of mindfulness meditation is about training your attention and concentrating and retaining positive emotions. Mindfulness meditation consists of two parts—attention and acceptance. Attention is about focusing on the present moment and becoming aware of your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations. The second part, acceptance, is accepting thoughts and feelings that arise without judgment. Moreover, it’s about acknowledging your feelings or thoughts but not interacting with them. When we are faced with anxiety, stress, fear, or an unpleasant emotion, mindfulness meditation strives to observe your emotions without engaging, and acknowledging that these feelings will pass and you can control how you react to these emotions.
How to practice mindfulness meditations?
In meditation, you focus on a specific feeling that serves as a focal point. To get started, guided meditations might be the best. Resources such as Calm, Netflix’s headspace Guide to Meditation , and Youtube videos can help you start meditating. Above all else, try lots of different styles of meditations in order to find what works for you.
In terms of the amount of time to spend meditating, this varies from each skill level. For beginners, the recommendation is 6 minutes/day, to eventually increase up to 7-15 minutes/day and then as an expert, increase to up to 20 minutes/day.
What literally happens to your brain in meditation?
Whenever you are doing something, your brain creates connections between neurons. As you repeat an action, it is easier for your brain to follow these neural paths. While meditating, your brain focuses on neurons that cultivate the thoughts that you want. Meditation most likely has the ability to restructure parts of the brain, or neuroplasticity. There are numerous benefits; it increases gray matter density in our hippocampus (used for memory) and the frontal regions of our brain. This combats the reduction of gray matter in our brain as we grow older.
In addition, meditation can shrink amygdala and also mellow your fight or flight response in the face of a threat. It deactivates the response, decreasing feelings of depression, anxiety, fear and stress. It reduces the hormone cortisol, which can obstruct your memory as well. When measuring brain waves, meditation leads to a shift of higher brains to more relaxed waves, which allow for better sleep, focus and calmness.
How do meditation experts differ from meditation beginners?
In experts, they are better able to control their emotions when faced with ordeals. Additionally, they have a higher tolerance for pain. Even when experiencing the same amount of pain as a beginner meditator, they rate the pain as significantly less unpleasant than beginner meditator. In anticipation of pain, beginners significantly have more activity in the amygdala in contrast with experts, who have very little activity.
Sources:
https://rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/mind/well-being/science-behind-meditation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZN6DcV5chA
https://www.apa.org/topics/mindfulness/meditation
https://stanfordmag.org/contents/what-happens-when-you-meditate