Yoga Living Blog

Part 2 - Why Meditate and Practise Mindfulness?

What are the other Benefits of Meditation & Mindfulness?

Some of the studies I mentioned to the students included the following:-

1. Meditation Changes the Brain Structure

Professor Sarah Lazar, Harvard University
Discovered that people who had done an eight week meditation program - the structure of their brain actually changed (cortical remapping)
The part of the brain called the amygdala actually became smaller and they reported greater feelings of peace and less stress in their lives.
Neuroplasticity – changes to the neural pathways in the brain

2. Epigenetics - Slows down Cellular Ageing & Enhances Genetic Repair

Dr Elizabeth Blackburn, Australian scientist from Tasmania won the Nobel Prize for discovering telomeres which are little caps on the end of our chromosomes (like the ends of shoelaces)
Telomeres are related to cellular ageing - as we get older the telomeres get smaller and smaller
Dr Blackburn and Dr Dean Ornish (the Ornish Spectrum which looks at diet, lifestyle, love etc and their effect on disease) teamed up to study the effect that the Ornish lifestyle program has on telomeres
Lifestyle changes such as meditation, yoga, family support, community support, diet

3. Increases our capacity for Empathy and Compassion

Dr James Doty, Professor of Neurosurgery, Founder and Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education in the Neuroscience Institute at Stanford University.

Emerged from a disadvantaged background in the United States to become a neurosurgeon, an entrepreneur and a philanthropist.
Discovered that when an individual cares for another or is compassionate to another, it activates the same areas of the brain that are associated with pleasurable activities.
The demands of modern life has created a change in our species which has resulted in a sense of fear, threat and anxiety due to a lack of community which has activated our fight or flight response to be activated to the extent that it has become constant.
This causes chronic stress and a state of mind that is not conducive to “opening your heart” which is the key to showing and experiencing compassion.
He advocates a meditation/mindfulness practice that has a central component of compassion which allows you to focus the mind, maintain attention and be compassionate to yourself.
These studies were done in conjunction with Buddhist Monks and incorporated the Buddhist approach to meditation which incorporates compassion (Metta Meditation).

www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/allinthemind/the-science-of-compassion/4405514

What’s not to be enthusiastic about Meditation and Mindfulness?