Ever Journey

Are You Seeking Calm…?

“Your goal is not to battle with the mind, but to witness the mind.”
– Swami Muktananda

How does meditation & mindfulness benefit our bodies, minds and soul?

We all know that by calming our minds we will experience less stress and improved wellbeing. However the benefits far outreach just feeling ‘a little less anxious’ and ‘less stressed’ by practicing meditation & manfulness . It has been proved that meditation can slow your aging, regulate your emotions, repair your brain and improve your mood.

What is meditation ?

Meditation is a practice where an individual uses a technique – such as mindfulness, or focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity – to train attention and awareness, and achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state1.

How old is meditation?

The oldest documented evidence of the practice of meditation are wall arts in the Indian subcontinent from approximately 5,000 to 3,500 BCE, showing people seated in meditative postures with half-closed eyes. Written evidence of any form of meditation was first seen in the Vedas around 1500 BCE2.

What is the benefits of meditation ?

Meditation is a mind and body practice that has a long history of use for increasing calmness and physical relaxation, improving psychological balance, coping with illness, and enhancing overall health and well-being. 

Many studies have been conducted to look at how meditation may be helpful for a variety of conditions, such as repairing neurons in our brains, controlling our emotions, as well as certain psychological disorders, and the management of pain.

Herewith the science showing the benefits of the ancient practice.

The Science

Research has shown that Meditation & Mindfulness induces changes in both the structure and function of the brain, improves attention, controls our emotions3, and enhanced cognitive functions & memory. The astounding discovery is that meditation can reverse the effects of an aging brain.

Repairing neurons in our Brains

The brain is plastic, meaning it has plasticity, the ability to learn and grow and change over time. Meditation affects the brain’s functionality, its structure, and it’s thought patterns. One of the biggest discoveries made with regards to mindfulness and its effects on our brain is a process called neuroplasticity4.

Neuroplasticity allows the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain to compensate for injury and disease and to adjust their activities in response to new situations or to changes in their environment5. In simplistic terms, mindfulness & meditation as a practice, has been shown to regenerate and rewire our brain circuits- boosting mind (and body health).

Controlling our emotions.

Through meditation, we get better acquainted with the behaviour of our minds and our own thoughts , regulating our emotions6 & behaviours , and we enhance our ability to regulate our experience of our environment, rather than letting our environment and emotions dictate and control how we experience life.

Increased Brain activity

Neuroscientists at Harvard Medical School, used MRI technology to study the brain during mindfulness and meditation, documented and noted an increase in brain volume in four respective regions – mainly the Hippocampus and the Temporoparietal junction.

Enhanced Memory and slow aging process

The same research done by Lazar, indicated that individuals with extensive meditation experience, may slow down or prevent age-related thinning of the frontal cortex that otherwise contributes to the formation of memories (Lazar Et al 2005)7

Improved performance

Further Research found differences in regional gray matter , which are associated with performance abilities (Mechelli et al., 2004; Milad et al., 2005)8, suggesting that an increase in gray matter corresponds to improved functioning in the relevant area.

Controlled emotions

Hölzel and colleagues mindfulness meditation practice led to an increase in brain gray matter density in the left hippocampus-a structure associated with emotion regulation9

Reduced stress.

Research shows that after practising mindfulness, the grey matter in your brain’s amygdala – a region known for its role in stress – can become smaller.10

Regulate our bodies nervous system

Besides this, mindfulness and meditation has been found to activate the parasympathetic and quieting the sympathetic nervous system. A relaxation response as coined by Harvard cardiologist Dr Herbert Benson, referring to the body’s natural state of relaxation, the opposite of the hyperactivity of the nervous system associated with the fight” or “flight response. Dr Benson believed that all meditation practices are capable of producing the “relaxation response” and promote a decrease in the sympathetic nervous activity. 11

Pain

Meditation has been found to be able to significantly reduce & lower pain intensity and unpleasantness, using different pathways in the brain12  according to the study by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.

Increased Flow

When practicing mindfulness , however we may experience a state of Flow . Flow is the so-called secret to happiness and is a state of mind that allows one to place their full attention on the task at hand.  Flow can be achieved while performing any type of activity and is fuelled by continuous positive feedback from the mind. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes in his book “Flow” (2008)13, “when the information that keeps coming into awareness is congruent with goals, psychic energy flows effortlessly”. This also allows one to remain calm and focused when taking part in demanding situations and not to become a possible victim to circumstances.

Conclusion

When we practice meditation and mindfulness regularly, we have the ability to slow down our aging, improve cognitive functions, regulate our emotions, and increase our memory , as well as give our full undivided attention to tasks that improve our creativity and overall enjoyment or happiness with life. 

Looking to learn a bit more about EverJourney’s wellness coaching?

EverJOURNEY coaching also makes use of NLP techniques , Visualisations, Hypnotherapy , Mindfulness , Meditation & Yoga as a form of relaxation and wellness coaching.
You can find your own calm through EverJourney’s wellness Coaching. 

Countless of customers have found what makes them more calm and have implemented the measures that suited their lifestyle & preferences to be able to balance their personal and work life stresses to live a more harmonious life!
Together we would find out what suits you , and work on an actionable plan to reduce the stresses and ‘triggers’ of anxiety and aid you to be able to manage & balance your wellness journey more effectively.

Find your own calm,
and do more of it… 
All my love Tam

Interested to get started? 
Contact me today , free 15 min consult available to start the journey to your Calm.

References :

References

  1. Wikipedia history of meditation, link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_meditation#:~:text=The%20oldest%20documented%20evidence%20of,the%20Vedas%20around%201500%20BCE.
  2. What is meditation Wikepedia, link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation
  3. Guendelman S, Medeiros S, Rampes H. Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation: Insights from Neurobiological, Psychological, and Clinical Studies. Front Psychol. 2017;8:220. Published 2017 Mar 6. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00220
  4. Treadway, Michael T., and Sara W. Lazar. “Meditation and neuroplasticity: Using mindfulness to change the brain.” Assessing mindfulness and acceptance processes in clients: Illuminating the theory and practice of change (2010): 186-205.
  5. Medical Definition of Neuroplasticity Medical Author: William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=40362
  6. Deconstructing the Emotion Regulatory Properties of Mindfulness: An Electrophysiological Investigation Yanli Lin*, Megan E. Fisher, Sean M. M. Roberts and Jason S. Moser Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
  7. Lazar SW, Kerr CE, Wasserman RH, et al. Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness. Neuroreport. 2005;16(17):1893-1897. doi:10.1097/01.wnr.0000186598.66243.19
  8. Mechelli A, Crinion JT, Noppeney U, O’Doherty J, Ashburner J, Frackowiak RS, Price CJ. Structural plasticity in the bilingual brain. Proficiency in a second language and age at acquisition affect grey-matter density. Nature. 2004;431:757
  9. Hölzel BK, Carmody J, Vangel M, et al. Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Res. 2011;191(1):36-43. doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2010.08.006
  10. The Structure of Mindful Brain Murakami, Hiroki & Nakao, Takashi & Matsunaga, Masahiro & Kasuya, Yukinori & Shinoda, Jun & Yamada, Jitsuhiro & Ohira, Hideki. (2012). The Structure of Mindful Brain. PloS one. 7. e46377. 10.1371/journal.pone.0046377.
  11. BensonH. The relaxation response. New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc.; 1975.  Benson H. The relaxation response: its subjective and objective historical precedents and physiology. Trends in Neurosciences. 1983;6:281″284.
  12. https://www.jneurosci.org/content/36/11/3391.short
  13. Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly. (1990). Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.