“Over the December holidays, my husband went on a 10-day silent meditation retreat. Not my idea of fun, but he came back rejuvenated and energetic.
He said the experience was so transformational that he has committed to meditating for two hours daily, one hour in the morning and one in the evening, until the end of March. He’s running an experiment to determine whether and how meditation actually improves the quality of his life.
I’ll admit I’m a skeptic.
But now, scientists say that meditators like my husband may be benefiting from changes in their brains. The researchers report that those who meditated for about 30 minutes a day for eight weeks had measurable changes in gray-matter density in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. The findings will appear in the Jan. 30 issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging.
M.R.I. brain scans taken before and after the participants’ meditation regimen found increased gray matter in the hippocampus, an area important for learning and memory. The images also showed a reduction of gray matter in the amygdala, a region connected to anxiety and stress. A control group that did not practice meditation showed no such changes.”
Read more at NY Times (Thanks Christopher C)
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I’d better get to it then. Mind you, I’ve had 3 orgasms in as many hours today so I feel pretty relaxed all things considered. Don’t like the floaters and blurry vision though
A friend’s invited me to attend a 10-day silence retreat like that, when I pass through Thailand next month. Some aspects of it sounded good, but I didn’t like the idea of enduring lectures on spirituality every day.
I’m gonna try it!!!
Well, of course… meditation is awesome. It’s only since recently that meditation is becoming accepted as a science in the west.
Check out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sf6Q0G1iHBI
It’s the science behind how meditation reduces (and even eliminating) social anxiety/phobia.
When nervous and/or in an anxiety state, focus on your breathing a.k.a meditate. When practicing this many times (couple of weeks/months) it becomes unconsciously automatic, thus greatly reducing (and even eliminating) social anxiety depending on how often the exercise is practiced.
Yes it’s great isn’t it that western science is now confirming what Eastern Yogis have been saying for centuries. Even basic breathing meditation for 15 minutes every day has numerous health benefits. I detail a special breathing meditation, Tonglen, which is derived from Tibetan Buddhism in my Squidoo Lens ==> Tonglen Healing Meditation
Hm, kinda like the obligatory prayers of the people of Islam…
Well the shrinking of the Amygdala is perhaps obvious, because that’s mainly influenced by cortisol a hormone released under stress. PTSD victims are always summoned to avoid stress to reduce the symptoms.
Increasing the grey matter in areas of memory, mwah, perhaps people think a lot about past events — I mean what else can you do and you can feel empathy for all those people who miss this relaxation.
I currently relax 8 hours a day whilst writing and I notice a great change too, so whether it’s from “taking it slow” and thinking a lot or the actual meditation that remains to be seen.
I did one of these 10 day silent meditations once, you spend about 8 hrs a day meditating. Its good…not great. A lot of the people into that scene think there farts don’t smell because of what they do, which in my opinion contradicts why you should do it.
What I learnt from my experience is that reality is a little different than the peaceful states of meditation and to focus on chilling out in the sometimes stressful world we live in, not during a designated time-out period you give yourself.
Although there are opposing schools of thoughts related to meditation weight is more to the positive side than the negative…
Its always better to take small steps than starting a 10 day programme I guess… If any of you interested please check with http://www.amaravati.org Retreat Centre… This is a
Buddhist monastery in Hemel Hempstead but I think one need not be a Buddhist to participate in retreat sessions as far as I am aware…