Meditation for the Brain & Neuroscience
On a weekend in mid September, I attended a 2 day Meditation Teacher Training course - "Meditation for the Brain" with Celia Roberts from the Yoga and Integrative Medicine Institute (YIMI). It's always refreshing and enlightening to receive instruction from experts in their field and this weekend was no exception. Celia's scientific background combined with her down to earth approach to the subject of meditation made for a very interesting and educational weekend.
It is well documented that yoga and meditation can help alleviate or reduce stress by altering one's emotional and physical response to it - termed the "relaxation response". Meditation induces a change in the brainwave activity - Gamma waves which are involved in higher processing tasks and cognitive functioning, are increased - so that a stage of heightened perception can be experienced. Meditation can also affect the overall structure and functioning of the brain (neuroplasticity) by altering the neuronal pathways in the brain.
Amongst all the information and interesting facts that were disseminated throughout the weekend, it was enlightening to learn that:-
1. There are 4 classic forms of meditation - Sitting, Walking, Standing and Lying; 2. Meditation is "process" rather than an "achievement"; 3. Long-term meditators require less brain activity to perform cognitive tasks than non-meditators; and 4. There are 2 styles of meditation involved in neuroplasticity - focused attention meditation (FA) in which one focuses on a specific throught or object in sustained manner, and, open monitoring meditation (OM) in which one remains non-reactive, monitoring without judging.
I learnt a whole lot more than that, but I am reminded yet again of the value of practising meditation on more regular and consistent basis. The more we practise, the better we become.
Jenny Sherlock
https://www.embodiedyoga.com.au/
