There’s been a lot written about the benefits of meditation and mindfulness.
Afterall people have been meditating for thousands of years – so you’d expect a lot of research in this area.
Meditation and mindfulness are often regarded as natural ways to help calm the mind, induce a sense of relaxation, and reduce anxiety and stress…
But much of the research has been self-reported.
For example, a person is asked how they feel before and after a period of meditation…
So it’s more an opinion or feeling than scientific fact.
But over the years with much medical advancement the research is getting more and more interesting.
One recent study used MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging) and blood tests before and after a seven-day retreat – which featured 33 hours of guided meditation and other related practices.
Now I think most of us would expect to see some noticable change (for the better) after a retreat like that…
The study published in Communications Biology last year found that attending the retreat was associated with a kind of neural reprogramming in participants.
Hemal Patel, a biomedical researcher, described it as fundamentally changing how the brain engages with reality, and quantifying these changes biologically.
Essentially the scans suggested meditation was capable of producing some of the same types of brain changes associated with psychedelic experiences.
Other recent studies have found similar results.
One, led by neurophysiologist Annalisa Pascarella of the Italian National Research Council, measured the brain activity associated with two types of meditation in a group of 12 monks…
In conclusion they found both forms of meditation studied led to significant changes in brain dynamics.
To be fair both studies acknowledged they’d used a small number of healthy participants, who were mostly experienced meditators.
But they certainly open up the way for more studies and research in this area.
If you’re interested to find out more yourself – just Google it…
But I warn you, I just searched ‘scientifically proven benefits of meditation’ and came up with 11,000,000 results!
This is a fairly comprehensive article from neuroscientist Hilary A. Marusak who’s Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Of course, the alternative is to try a class, or a few different classes…
And see how you feel yourself…
I can’t guarantee you’ll have a psychedelic experience, but you might enjoy the meditation trip…
Ann 🙏