Meditation: Calming a restless mind

If you learned of one simple activity that has the potential to enhance your well-being, increase your ability to focus and concentrate, and improve your overall quality of life, wouldn’t you be eager to take advantage of it? Well, increasingly, research is providing evidence that meditation enhances memory and learning, decreases feelings of stress and anxiety, improves sleep quality, helps control blood pressure, improves back pain and fatigue, decreases anger, and improves overall well-being.

What is meditation?

Meditation has been practised across the world in most cultures for thousands of years. The term describes a variety of techniques that involve quieting the mind and relaxing the body by focusing on an object, word, or sensation and ignoring interrupting thoughts.

The concept behind meditation is to train your mind to decrease its restlessness and its tendency to generate many, often negative thoughts. Just as aerobic exercise strengthens your heart, meditation is an exercise to strengthen your mind’s focus. Training involves concentration, relaxation, and task-specific exercises.

“All types of meditation involve regular sessions — ideally 20 minutes or more each day — in which you spend uninterrupted time calmly, becoming aware of your thoughts and distancing yourself from those thoughts. You may notice the voice in your head, but you work to detach from it and not react to it, focusing instead on your breathing, a word or brief prayer, or your physical sensations. The process has been aptly described as ‘thinking about not-thinking,’ ” explains Sara W. Lazar, PhD, a neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital who did extensive research on the effects of meditation on the brain.

An untrained mind’s attention tends to be superficial, often disengaged, and focused on the negative. Such attention increases stress and decreases efficiency and joy in life. Training your mind allows you to deepen your attention, focus on the present moment, and appreciate your situation, rather than worrying about the past or future.

Brain changes

Meditation appears to have a direct influence on the structure and activities of the brain, Dr. Lazar says. Her research, published in the September 23, 2009 online edition of Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, suggests that twice-daily sessions of meditation over an eight-week period can cause physical changes in the brains of people who are chronically stressed.

At the outset of the study, brain scans of study participants with chronic stress showed that a region of the brain called the amygdala, which is activated by emotional arousal, appeared denser than in individuals who are not overly stressed. Following eight weeks of meditation, participants reported significantly reduced feelings of stress, and brain scans showed a corresponding decrease in the density of gray matter in the amygdala.

In earlier research, Dr. Lazar found evidence that regular meditation causes thickening of the brain’s prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula, regions that are associated with decision-making, attention, memory, and sensory processing. Since these regions of the brain normally thin with age, the findings suggest that meditation may be an effective strategy for slowing the aging process by building up these brain areas and strengthening memory and attention abilities that decline as people age.

Meditation also affects the way the brain functions, scientists have found. A study published in the November 15, 2009 issue of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medication found significant differences in brain wave activity between people who were engaged in meditation and those who simply rested. Brain waves — short bursts of electrical activity produced by the transmission of signals among groups of neurons — are associated with thinking and other brain activity, and can be measured with electroencephalograph (EEG) testing (refer to diagram) and brain scanning.

The researchers found that compared with the resting state, meditation involved more abundant theta waves (associated with relaxed attention and alertness) across all brain regions, and especially in the frontal and temporal-central areas of the brain. Meditation was also associated with more abundant alpha waves (an indication of wakeful rest in which the brain relaxes from intentional, goal-oriented tasks) in the posterior brain regions.

Types of meditation

There are two basic meditative programs to train your mind:

 • Concentrative meditation. In this type, you sit in a safe, quiet, and comfortable place and focus on a particular thought, word, image, sound, or your breath.

To start, make an effort to sustain your attention on your chosen object for a period of time — often five to 15 minutes. An instructor may direct you to simply watch your thoughts when they arrive, as you would watch a TV screen. Early in practice, many extraneous thoughts are likely to come into your mind and may not seem to offer much benefit. Try not to forcibly suppress or obsessively track these thoughts. Gently bring your attention back to the object of your contemplation.

As you continue your practice, the tendency of these thoughts to take you away from your primary object of focus will gradually decrease. With continued practice, you’re likely to find it relaxing and pleasing. Some of the common roadblocks toward meditation practice include sleepiness, lethargy, lack of time, and body discomfort. In general, most of these difficulties tend to decrease in intensity over time.

• Mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness is staying focused and completely absorbed in the task at hand. It means staying in the moment and pushing away worries about the past and future.

This type of meditation is based on developing a state of being mindful, or having an increased awareness and acceptance of living in the present moment. You cultivate an ability to observe your thoughts and emotions, and can let them pass at will without judgment. Training your attention and refining interpretations constitute two essential steps toward cultivating mindfulness.

Getting started

Seated-breath-work meditation is a key component of many types of meditation. Start by comfortably sitting on the floor or a straight-backed chair. If you’re using a chair, if possible, don’t lean back. Level your chin and elongate the spine. Meditation with three-part breathing involves the following:

1) Gradually deepen your breathing, allowing your breaths to flow smoothly one into the next.

2) Begin abdominal breathing by relaxing your stomach and letting your diaphragm move freely. Build on this breathing with mid-chest breathing. Let your rib cage expand out to the sides, bringing additional air into the lungs in the most natural way.

3) Add upper chest breathing to the first two. Let your breath flow all the way up to lift the collarbones. Repeat this three-part breathing process 10 or more times to deeply relax your body.

While practicing this breathing method, concentrate on the natural flow of your breath, whether rhythmic or irregular, deep or shallow. Once three-part breathing is established, broaden your focus to include all the sensations of breathing. Then broaden your awareness further to include all your sensations.

In this type of meditation, you remain in the present by concentrating on your breath. Resist the temptation to cling to what’s pleasant and push away what’s painful. If your focus drifts, bring your attention back to your breathing to regain focus on the moment. Gradually allow awareness to broaden outward once again.

At the end of the session, drop all techniques and stop any attempt to focus your mind. End your session with a prayer or affirmation of thankfulness for your experience, whatever it may have been.

* * *

Suggested references: There are two self-help books available that can teach meditation. They are: Log On: Two Steps to Mindful Awareness by Amit Sood, MD and Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the World Through Mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn, PhD.