Can meditation change your mind?

Meditation is a form of mindfulness, which means focusing more on what you are experiencing (for example, the feeling of breathing or sounds around you) and less on what you are thinking. People who are more mindful tend to feel more positive emotions, be more optimistic and suffer less from depression. Brief training in mindfulness techniques is followed by less depression and fewer cognitive distortions.

Mindfulness is pretty easy to practice. If you are walking somewhere, you can switch your attention away from the thoughts running through your head and listen to the sound of your footsteps, or look at the scenery you are passing. If you are chopping vegetables you can focus on the feelings in your body as you do this, or on your breath. Some people find it helpful to look at a candle or say a mantra, like ‘om’ or ‘love’ to take the focus away from their conscious thoughts.

It’s a very simple concept, but what’s amazing about it is that it appears to actually change the brain if you do it enough. Brain imaging shows that people who meditate show more activity in the parts of the brains associated with positive feelings. Monks who spend many hours meditating apparently show extreme activity in these parts of the brain, specifically the front left of the brain, the site that is most active during positive emotions. There is also more activity across the whole brain when the person is stimulated during meditation than when someone is not meditating. Brain waves also change – monks who have done 10 to 15 thousand hours of meditation show extreme levels of gamma brain waves compared to people meditating for the first time. Scientists say this shows the brain is more plastic –able to be changed down to its inner workings and circuitry – than anyone had previously realized. Not only this but people who do even a brief mindfulness course show more antibodies in their blood, which means they are more resistant to disease. So mindfulness is good for body as well as brain.

1. Davidson R et al (2003) Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation Psychosomatic Medicine 65:564-570.
2. Brown K W and Ryan R M (2003) The Benefits of Being Present: Mindfulness and its Role in Psychological Well-Being, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(4): 822-848
3. Shapiro S L, Schwartz G E and Bonner G (1998) Effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction on Medical and Premedical Students, Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 21(6): 581-599.