Effects Of Meditation On The Brain

When western scientists first began studying the personal effects of meditating in the 1970s they noticed that heart rate, perspiration, and other signs of emphasis decreased as the meditating person relaxed. Scientists, like Richard Davidson, PhD. (University of Badger State), have been considering the long-term effects of meditating on the body and the brain ever since.

In 1992 Davidson received an invitation from the 14th Dalai Lama to come to northern Republic of India and sketch the brains of Buddhist monks, the most dedicated practitioners of meditation in the world. Davidson traveled to Bharat with laptop computers, generators, and EEG recording equipment, initiating an ongoing project that would last for years. Now monks travel to his WI lab in order to collect the data that they need. While in a magnetic imaging machine the monks watch disturbing visual images as EEGs record their responses to understand how they regulate aroused reactions.

Any activeness, including meditating, will create new pathways and strengthen certain areas of the mind. "This fits into the whole neuroscience literature of expertise," says Stephen Kosslyn, a Harvard neuroscientist, in a New York Times article, "taxi drivers deliberate for their spatial memory and concert musicians for their sense of pitch. If you do something, anything, even play Ping-Pong, for 20 years, eight hours a Day, there's going to be something in your head that's different from someone WHO didn't do that. It's just got to be."

This means that every time you meditate you are creating new pathways and strengthening connections within your brain. The more often you meditate the easier it will be to access these newly created connections in your brain, and eventually your practice will lead to a heightened sense of peace and relaxation during your everyday activities.