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This Neuroscientist Decoded the Brain Patterns of Meditators - Mindful
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Mindfulness And Our Brains
Meditation or mindfulness is not a uniform, unchanging process, but a highly subjective one, having unique effects on different individuals.
New experiments using machine learning dive deep into the brain, breath and body states during the various stages of meditation, helping the machine learning program recognize internal attention brain networks during breath attention, mind wandering, or thinking about the past.
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Reading The Mind During Mindfulness Meditation
Extensive experimentation recording more than 2000 brain patterns per person led to certain insights which were not possible before.
- Meditators had the maximum amount of time paying attention to their breath.
- A feeling or even the warmth of the heart can be the center of focus during meditation, instead of repeating words or phrases, which are just instrumental for distracting us from our own thoughts.
- The moments of meditation are not static, but an ever-changing kaleidoscope of experiences, feelings and mind-states.
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Mindfulness Meditation
Practitioners of mindful meditation focus their attention on only one thought. The goal is to be firmly affixed to the present moment. This typically means concentrating on the breath - observ...
Changes to the Brain
Buddhists have meditated for literally thousands of years. Buddhists are trying to hack their own minds, to harness them.
Only in recent times have neuroscientists discovered that meditation changes the brain physically.
Health Benefits
- Meditation improves attention. Studies show that 20 minutes a day are sufficient to get beneficial results.
- Meditation reduces stress after eight weeks of training.
- Meditation has also been shown to increase levels of empathy.
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Reducing Stress
Many styles of meditation can help reduce stress.
- In an eight-week study, a meditation style called "mindfulness meditation" reduced the inflammation response caused by stres...
Controlling Anxiety
Less stress leads to less anxiety.
Regular meditation helps reduce anxiety and anxiety-related mental health issues like social anxiety, phobias and obsessive-compulsive behaviors.
Promoting Emotional Health
Some types of meditation can improve depression and help you maintain these benefits.
- Two studies of mindfulness meditation found decreased depression in over 4,600 adults.
- One study found that participants experienced a long-term decrease in depression.
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What mindfulness is
Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.
What meditation is
Meditation is exploring. When we meditate we venture into the workings of our minds: sensations, emotions and thoughts.
Mindfulness meditation asks us to suspend judgment and unleash our natural curiosity about the workings of the mind, approaching our experience with warmth and kindness, to ourselves and others.
Jon Kabat-Zinn
“Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally. And then I sometimes add, in the service of self-understanding and wisdom.”