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How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

well.blogs.nytimes.com

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Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#11

Post by fsloth »

Tharkun wrote: post #7

If you're looking for a low-entry start to meditation, Headspace is a great little app. It starts off easy, with 10 10 minute guided sessions.

Even a lower entry: sit down, put five minutes on a timer, start counting your breaths up to ten. one - out, two - in and so one. Once at ten, start from one. The odd breath out functions as a check sum. If five minutes seems easy, try 10.

If you notice you've lost count, it's ok, just start from one.

If you notice you are lost in your thoughts, it's ok, just try to gently move focus back to counting and breathing. Do not "give extra energy on purpose" to thoughts that pop into your mind, just aknowledge them.

This is, IMO, is the core of the meditation routine - training on introspective perception and association of observation of personal thoughts with calmness.

The focusing of breathing is a hack on autonomic nervous system as I understand it. It's the only bodily function that one can control that backfeeds into the brain, and calming the breath can be used to calm the brain as well.

I'm not an expert, I've just read a few books that I've not double checked - if this is somehow wrong please correct me.

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#12

Post by fibo »

There is much more than meditation, there are many excercises you can do to feel better, to "connect with your soul".

It is a matter of practice, same as for sport. If you go only one time at gym, you will not get so much results.

It would be ideal to meditate twice a day, 20 minutes. If you can move your energy from one chackra to another it is even better. You can also think of chackras as your gland system, it doesn't matter if it sounds crazy for you we have 7 whirls of energy in our (physical) body, if it makes you feel good, it is ok.

In my personal experience I found that meditation is healthy, so I recommend it. However keep in mind that there is much more than meditation, which is just the first step.

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#13

Post by westoncb »

I've had serious anxiety issues and meditation has been the only thing to help significantly. I've spent ~1.5 hours/day meditating for the past six months or so, and I've studied meditation literature pretty seriously for about the past year.

At least in my case—and I think this isn't so unusual—there is a steep learning curve: for most people there's just not enough reason to stick with it. That said, at this point I can hardly imagine something more worthwhile. After acquiring some facility with it, my everyday experience with life feels more substantial—more 'real.' There's a kind of energy, curiosity, and enthusiasm that now often presents itself which I hadn't seen in a long time—maybe since I was ~22 or so (I'm 30 now). I also feel way less need to do things like smoke/drink, and have a restored sense of smell and taste. If you've felt like the world's turned grey at some point, give it a try.

This is my favorite source of info on the subject—very substantial content, yet light and even entertaining at times: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEw2mHpVv9A

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#14

Post by personjerry »

For those of you who consider meditation a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, I get it, for I felt (and sometimes still feel) the same way. But let me try to phrase meditation in the terms I understand it as.

We often find ourselves in stressful or difficult situations, we are constantly bombarded by external worries, and we think it is difficult to deal with our problems. However, no matter how big external issues are, the way that we ultimately interpret these problems is up to our mind. At times we might find a dark joke about death incredibly funny, and at other times it may make us cry. Meditation takes a break from dealing with these interpretations of the world for a moment (instead concentrating on something basic like breathing) and in doing so, gives us a way to acknowledge the fact that our interpretations of the world are all in our head. So even if we can't extend full control over them, these thoughts and feelings are still ours and we might have some influence over them, and it turns out even briefly having this feeling can affect your mind in the long term.

A side effect of meditating is that you might learn to replicate the sense of "stepping outside the situation" even outside of meditation, allowing you to relax and consider the big picture rationally in intense moments in which you might've been originally felt too caught up "in the moment".

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#15

Post by bambax »

personjerry wrote: post #14

For those of you who consider meditation a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, I get it, for I felt (and sometimes still feel) the same way. But let me try to phrase meditation in the terms I understand it as. We often find ourselves in stressful or difficult situations, we are constantly bombarded by external worries, and we think it is difficult to deal with our problems. However, no matter how big external issues are, the way t…

Thanks, that's helpful. Did you study meditation by yourself and if so, is there a book/manual that you would recommend?

I frequently spend long moments in silence "doing" nothing, but thinking about a lot of things; when I try to not think, I tend to fall asleep quite rapidly; I wonder how to not think and yet not sleep...?

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#16

Post by LunaSea »

personjerry wrote: post #14

For those of you who consider meditation a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, I get it, for I felt (and sometimes still feel) the same way. But let me try to phrase meditation in the terms I understand it as. We often find ourselves in stressful or difficult situations, we are constantly bombarded by external worries, and we think it is difficult to deal with our problems. However, no matter how big external issues are, the way t…

> interpretations of the world are all in our head

I don't think most people are stressed because of "interpretations" of the world rather than very real problems like paying the bills and terrible working conditions.

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#17

Post by personjerry »

LunaSea wrote: post #16
personjerry wrote: post #14

For those of you who consider meditation a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, I get it, for I felt (and sometimes still feel) the same way. But let me try to phrase meditation in the terms I understand it as. We often find ourselves in stressful or difficult situations, we are constantly bombarded by external worries, and we think it is difficult to deal with our problems. However, no matter how big external issues are, the way t…

> interpretations of the world are all in our head I don't think most people are stressed because of "interpretations" of the world rather than very real problems like paying the bills and terrible working conditions.

From my understanding, our minds are are not literally filled with things in the real world (for they would not fit) but are instead filled with "thoughts" which "refer" to real things. But my "thought" of peanut butter, for example, might have significantly different "connotations" for me than for someone with an allergy to peanut butter. So what I'm saying is, these "thoughts" and what they "connote" to the individual mind they belong to, is subjective and in our heads, but they may in fact refer to very objective, real, problems.

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#18

Post by erdojo »

There is also a growing body of evidence that for some people mindfulness and meditation can cause intense and lasting anxiety and exacerbate depression. (Just one of several recent stories on the subject: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/jan/23/is-mindf...)

That has been my experience. I've done meditation retreats and the like. I do find it slows down my mind, but can also surface things that frankly I'm perfectly happy to leave under the surface.

I also don't believe every trauma or internal struggle can be answered or managed, or should be at a given time. Sometimes the best sanity-preservation mode is to ignore it until enough time has passed when we have the mental tools to face it. Mindfulness and meditation both make it hard to bury stuff til you're ready to mentally dig it up. Perhaps day-to-day stress benefits most from it.

I think it's a great idea for some people and I can see the attraction. But I also get tired of people suggesting it to me.

Massage on the other hand...that's like miracle medicine.

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#19

Post by personjerry »

bambax wrote: post #15
personjerry wrote: post #14

For those of you who consider meditation a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, I get it, for I felt (and sometimes still feel) the same way. But let me try to phrase meditation in the terms I understand it as. We often find ourselves in stressful or difficult situations, we are constantly bombarded by external worries, and we think it is difficult to deal with our problems. However, no matter how big external issues are, the way t…

Thanks, that's helpful. Did you study meditation by yourself and if so, is there a book/manual that you would recommend? I frequently spend long moments in silence "doing" nothing, but thinking about a lot of things; when I try to not think, I tend to fall asleep quite rapidly; I wonder how to not think and yet not sleep...?

I don't have a manual, and I think everyone might do it a little differently, I just sit comfortably and focus on my breathing.

I think something key is to concentrate on something simple and constant (such as breathing in, breathing out) rather than not thinking about anything. Then, inevitably thoughts will arise, but when we think of something while meditating, we acknowledge it ("ok, I acknowledge that I'm thinking about this right now") and let the thought go, returning to focus on the breathing. That might keep you from falling asleep.

Re: How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body

#20

Post by glossyscr »

Meditation is a work-around only.

As written in another post: I started one month ago and then I was frequently meditating with Headspace (which is awesome btw).

While meditation helped me to go through hard times it never solved the underlying problem. It's like taking painkillers without addressing the real cause. I solved the real underlying problem few days ago and I feel like god again.

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