Research has shown the cascading effects of meditation in calming the brain, says yoga expert Kamini Bobde
Meditation is the best way to withdraw from the external world, energise, calm and rejuvenate yourself. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a 45-hour break at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari, day-long meditative retreats are increasingly being used by corporates to destress and refocus.
WHAT RESEARCH SAYS ON MEDITATION
1. Harvard University found that eight weeks of meditation increased the cortical thickness in the hippocampus of the brain, which governs learning and memory and also affected brain parts that regulate emotions and self-referencing.
2. The same research found decrease in brain cell volume in the amygdala, the centre for fear, anxiety and stress.
3. John Hopkins found that the effect-size of meditation on patients of depression, anxiety, pain was 0.3. This is impressive considering that effect size of anti-depressant drugs is also 0.3.
4. A Yale University research found regular simple meditation decreases activity in the ‘monkey brain’, which is pointlessly exhausting.
5. UCLA School of Medicine research found that long term meditators had better preserved brains than non-meditators as they aged.
6. A study done by the Stanford University School of Medicine shows that those who practise mindfulness meditation report a reduction in stress-related symptoms and an increase in their sense of control in their lives. For instance, mindfulness meditation can produce a 30 per cent reduction in symptoms of stress among those with a serious illness.
7. Meditators have increased gray matter, making them more efficient at processing information, increasing attention and managing their emotions.
8. Last but not the least, these clinical findings of changes in brain mass, structure and new connections matched with the subjective, positive changes reported by the people under study.
THE PRACTICE
1. Sit in any meditation pose.
2. Sit erect with head and spine aligned, hands on your knees in gyan or chin mudra.
3. Close your eyes and relax your whole body.
4. Tell yourself that you will remain still and relaxed during the meditation practice.
5. Throughout, you must be aware of three things: breathing, mantra chants and thoughts that well up.
6. First step is to just watch your own breathing.
7. Focus on the nose tip and watch the inflow of cool air as it touches your nostrils and outflow of warm air as it exits your nostrils.
8. Then become aware of every aspect of your breath: is it fast, irregular, gross or is it slow, regular and subtle? Are both nostrils equally open or is one more open than the other?
9. Your thoughts become less intrusive as you chant.
10. Visualise your breath travelling along the hollow of the spine.
Meditation is the best way to withdraw from the external world, energise, calm and rejuvenate yourself. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi took a 45-hour break at the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari, day-long meditative retreats are increasingly being used by corporates to destress and refocus.
1. Harvard University found that eight weeks of meditation increased the cortical thickness in the hippocampus of the brain, which governs learning and memory and also affected brain parts that regulate emotions and self-referencing.
2. The same research found decrease in brain cell volume in the amygdala, the centre for fear, anxiety and stress.
3. John Hopkins found that the effect-size of meditation on patients of depression, anxiety, pain was 0.3. This is impressive considering that effect size of anti-depressant drugs is also 0.3.
4. A Yale University research found regular simple meditation decreases activity in the ‘monkey brain’, which is pointlessly exhausting.
5. UCLA School of Medicine research found that long term meditators had better preserved brains than non-meditators as they aged.
6. A study done by the Stanford University School of Medicine shows that those who practise mindfulness meditation report a reduction in stress-related symptoms and an increase in their sense of control in their lives. For instance, mindfulness meditation can produce a 30 per cent reduction in symptoms of stress among those with a serious illness.
7. Meditators have increased gray matter, making them more efficient at processing information, increasing attention and managing their emotions.
8. Last but not the least, these clinical findings of changes in brain mass, structure and new connections matched with the subjective, positive changes reported by the people under study.
THE PRACTICE
1. Sit in any meditation pose.
2. Sit erect with head and spine aligned, hands on your knees in gyan or chin mudra.
3. Close your eyes and relax your whole body.
4. Tell yourself that you will remain still and relaxed during the meditation practice.
5. Throughout, you must be aware of three things: breathing, mantra chants and thoughts that well up.
6. First step is to just watch your own breathing.
7. Focus on the nose tip and watch the inflow of cool air as it touches your nostrils and outflow of warm air as it exits your nostrils.
8. Then become aware of every aspect of your breath: is it fast, irregular, gross or is it slow, regular and subtle? Are both nostrils equally open or is one more open than the other?
9. Your thoughts become less intrusive as you chant.
10. Visualise your breath travelling along the hollow of the spine.
11. As you inhale, your breath goes down from the throat pit to the navel area along the spinal cord.
12. As you exhale, the breath travels up from the navel to the throat pit.
13. As you progress, you can slowly extend the breath right from the eyebrow centre to the tailbone.
Simple as this sounds, one must know that sitting still does not come easy. Nor does watching your breath. Therefore, begin with simple asanas and pranayama so that you can sit for a long duration without any physical discomfort,backache, numbness in limbs and so on.
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