Mindfulness and brain science

I just came from a great lecture by Mark Waldman on spirituality and neuroscience. What we are learning about how the brain works is so amazing! Thanks to imaging studies, we can see what parts of the brain “light up” or are activated as we experience different thoughts and emotions. This information is so helpful in reducing anxiety and depression.

We think with the frontal lobes of our brain. As humans, that area is incredibly developed, and helps us accomplish so much. But so much of what we think ends up causing us anxiety. In some ways, our brains can be seen as “anxiety scanning device”. We are always looking for danger, because that is a good way to survive. However, these days we need ways to help shut off that “anxiety scanning device” so that we can be peaceful and at rest.

Meditation, centering prayer, deep breathing, relaxation exercises — all of these help our frontal lobes settle down, and change the connections that are formed with the emotional centers of our brains. It is really true what we think changes our brains. The analogy I use with my clients is that we “wear a groove” in our brain by repetitive thought; it can be a positive groove or a negative groove.

More accurately, what happens is that we are always forming neuronal connections, so it would benefit us to be consciously focusing on increasing our positive thoughts, and reducing the negative ones.

Meditation in any form can help us learn to stop focusing on our negative thoughts. We can learn to just let them float by, and by doing so, we learn to relax and rejuvenate.

Related posts:

1. Keep your brain healthy!
2. Don’t forget to work out your brain
3. Our marvelous brains
4. Anxiety? Try yawning!
5. Anxious? Some quick anxiety management tools

Tagged as: Anxiety, Centering prayer, meditation, Mindfulness