ISIS Paranormal Investigations Blog

There are so many benefits to the practice of regular meditation. You are probably already fully aware that meditation can help you relax and it can be used as a way to stimulate mental clarity, but did you know that meditation can increase the amount of gray matter in your brain, or that it can help you achieve altered states of consciousness? Did you know that meditation can help you control your emotions, that it causes short term and long term changes in how the brain operates, and that it can improve your observation skills too?

More Gray Matter

Some researchers have revealed that the regular practice of meditation actually increases the amount of gray matter in the human brain. In an article entitled “Meditation increases brain gray matter,” appearing on PhysOrg.com in May 2009, it was revealed that a UCLA research group conducted brain scans on individuals that meditate. The study’s findings were released in NeuroImage which suggest that various parts of the brain in meditators who have practiced meditation over the long term were larger than the brains of individuals in a controlled group. In fact, meditators proved to have bigger orbito-frontal cortex areas, more gray matter in then inferior temporal gyrus, the thalamus, and the hippocampus. The latter areas of the brain are associated with one’s ability to regulate his or her emotions.

In a similar article appearing on LiveScience entitled “Meditate on This: Buddhist Tradition Thickens Parts of the Brain,” researchers have found that the cortical areas of the brain responsible for the regulation of visual, auditory, and sensory and internal perception along with the regulation of one’s breathing and heart rate, are increased through regular meditative practices. What’s more, researchers from Yale University have argued that the frontal cortex of one’s brain benefits since meditation slows the thinning of the region: an issue that is associated with the natural aging process.

Altered States of Awareness

In an article appearing in a 2005 issue of the Washington Post entitled “Meditation Gives Brain a Charge, Study Finds,” by Marc Kaufman, it is revealed that meditation allows people to develop a “mental discipline,” that alters how the brain works and further permits the individual to “achieve different levels of awareness.” Researchers from the University of Wisconsin discovered, after conducting a study of Tibetan monks, that the left region of the prefrontal cortex has increased activity during meditation. What’s more, researchers concluded that a brain that is regularly trained via meditation practices is not only altered for the short term, but positive changes are seen in the long term too.

Mental Clarity and Increased Observation

In an article on LiveScience by Charles Q. Choi entitled, “Meditation Sharpens the Mind,” it is explained how three months of intense meditative practices can increase one’s ability to observe his or her environment and it can also improve one’s mental clarity. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin revealed that extensive meditation practices, as much as 10 to 12 hours a day for a period of three months, reduced the “mental distractions” a person experiences, intensified a person’s awareness, and improved a person’s ability to take in more information than before meditation practices were engaged in. While 10 to 12 hours of meditation a day for the average individual may not be feasibly possible, the daily practice of meditation can still provide significant benefits over the long term.

The Releasing of Negativity

One common practice in meditation is the releasing of negative emotions. This act of releasing negative emotions has positive effects on the human brain. In an article entitled, “Brain Scans Reveal Why Meditation Works,” by Melinda Wenner and published on LiveScience, it is revealed that researchers have found that meditation can help alleviate negative emotions and it can generate a tranquil state in the mind. A UCLA study in 2007 suggests that mindfulness meditation practices help people focus more deeply on their emotional state; this focus allows for the individual to partake of “emotional labeling.” When a person applies words, whether spoken or thought, to negative emotions, it causes changes in the brain’s amygdala. Such changes cause the individual to experience a calmed emotional state.