An article recently featured on Science Daily discusses the benefits meditation have on the brain. Two years ago, researchers at UCLA found that specific regions in the brains of long-term meditators were larger and had more gray matter than the brains of individuals in a control group. This suggested that meditation may indeed be good for all of us since, alas, our brains shrink naturally with age. A follow-up study suggests that people who meditate also have stronger connections between brain regions and show less age-related brain atrophy. Having stronger connections influences the ability to rapidly relay electrical signals in the brain. And significantly, these effects are evident throughout the entire brain, not just in specific areas. Meditation appears to be a powerful mental exercise with the potential to change the physical structure of the brain at large. Collecting evidence that active, frequent and regular meditation practices cause alterations of white-matter fiber tracts that are profound and sustainable may become relevant for patient populations suffering from axonal demyelination and white-matter atrophy.
I myself have never meditated. I know many people who regularly meditate and tell me I have to try it. My mom recently got into meditated. I've noticed a huge change in her mood and general outlook on things. She is a lot more relaxed than she used to be. Meditation always seemed like a waste of time to me but the more I read up on it the more I'm considering trying it
I have always wanted to try meditation! I never have, but with the popularity of things such as yoga and meditation these days on the rise, I feel that more and more research will be done on the positive and negative effects of these exercises. The effects on the brain and atrophy of the brain were especially interesting in this article.
ReplyDelete