Meditation

There are different ways to meditate since it’s such a personal experience. However, there are methods that are focused heavily on scientific research. These are focused-attention or mindful meditation which is where you focus on one specific thing—it could be your breathing, a sensation in your body or a particular object outside of you. The point of this type of meditation is to focus strongly on one point and continually bring your attention back to that focal point when it wanders.

The other type of meditation that’s often used in research is open-monitoring meditation. This is where you pay attention to all of the things happening around you — simply notice everything without reacting.

What happens in your brain when you meditate

Using modern technology like MRI scans, scientists have developed a more thorough understanding of what’s taking place in our brains when we meditate.

The overall difference is that our brains stop processing information as actively as they normally would. We start to show a decrease in beta waves, which indicate that our brains are processing information, even after a single 20-minute meditation session if we’ve never tried it before.

How meditation affects us:

• Helps with Focus

• Less Anxiety

• More Compassion

• Better Memory

• Lower Stress

• More Grey Matter