Neuroplasticity: Meditation and Anxiety

In the last article, Neuroplasticity: Music & Music Therapy, I went over how and why music and music therapy interventions were key in facilitating the brain’s ability to grow using the Neuroplasticity process. We learned all the key benefits of music and how we can use alpha and theta wave stimulations to put our brain into an enhanced creative state of mind. It seems each year there are more and more products being produced to create audio enhancements to facilitate sleep, relaxation, creativity and memory. It is an exciting time for all of us.

“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life,
live in the moment, live in the breath.”
-Amit Ray

Today I am going to explore the world of meditation and its impact on Neuroplasticity with some emphasis on anxiety. I will look into the meditation process, explore some research that was conducted to assess measurable values of meditation, how meditation impacts the brains plasticity and other interesting information surrounding meditation. I hope you will learn something as your read through this article.

What Is Meditation?

According to Yoga International (https://yogainternational.com/article/view/the-real-meaning-of-meditation), “Meditation is a precise technique for resting the mind and attaining a state of consciousness that is totally different from the normal waking state. It is the means for fathoming all the levels of ourselves and finally experiencing the center of consciousness within.” While the individual clears the mind and is in a relaxed and inwardly focused state, he/she is fully awake and alert. The key point is that you are not focused on anything externally, like the world or events taking place around you. The individual must quiet the brain and silence the mind and the more it quiets without distractions, the meditation deepens.

“Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet.
It’s a way of entering into the quiet that’s already there
-buried under the 50,000 thoughts
the average person thinks every day.”
-Deepak Chopra

The article went on to point out that from early childhood and onward, we were taught to examine the external world to learn and grow. We were educated about things and had to take tests to verify that we learned what was taught. During all this time, while we learned about what was around us we didn’t learn anything about our internal selves. Because of this lack of self-understanding, there is a tendency where relationships don’t work out and there is so much confusion and disappointment that permeates our lives.

Image Credit

The Goal of Meditation

The primary goal of meditation is to go beyond our mind, so we can experience our internal natural essence, sort of like finding our inner being. Many describe it as peace, happiness, and bliss. But the journey will be hard because our mind will stand in our way, being undisciplined and determined to prevent any attempts to be put under control or guided. In essence, our mind has a mind of its own. When you attempt to meditate, the mind will try to prevent you from entering that inner place by giving you fantasies, daydreams, or hallucinations. That is why meditation takes practice and patience and most of all perseverance.

“To understand the immeasurable,
the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.”
-Jiddu Krishnamurti

How to Meditate

Many people have never meditated before so to keep things very simple, I will use the Art of Living (https://www.artofliving.org/us-en/8-tips-get-started-meditation) article, How to Meditate for Beginners guide:

Before you start to Meditate, Art of Living suggests that you set-up your meditation area by putting your phone on airplane mode or unplug it so you won’t be interrupted. They also suggest that you warm-up with a simple beginner’s yoga exercise or take a short walk to improve your circulation & warm-up your body. Finally you should calm your mind with some deep breathing exercises. Now you are ready to begin:

Image Credit

Sitting: Sit straight and comfortable. Chairs and pillows are ok as long as you don’t recline too much. Sit still - Once you’re comfortable, don’t adjust unless it hurts, or not adjusting becomes a big distraction. Since the mind and body are connected, moving the body tends to keep the mind moving as well. If you allow your body to get still, you’re halfway to a quiet mind.

Breathing: Let the breath be light and even: One powerful tip for deeper meditation is allowing your breath to effortlessly get lighter and smoother. Since the breath is so connected to your mind, a light and even breath, helps bring the mind to an ever quieter place. Sink into the space between the breaths: You can’t force this state, or your next breath will be a gasp, but as your breath quiets down, begin to pay attention to the space between your breaths. If you can gently sink into this practice, you’ll find it’s a very quiet place to be.

“Meditation is listening to the Divine within.”
-Edgar Cayce

Eyes and Face: Keep your eyes closed: Keeping your eyes closed in meditation allows you to bring your attention inward and fully rest. Or, start with eyes mostly closed: One technique to begin meditation is to keep your eyes almost closed. Sometimes, if you jump straight to eyes closed, your mind starts racing immediately, Instead, looking at a still point on the floor can keep your mind still, and transition from your eyes open state of activity to an eyes closed state of rest. Then, when the mind is quiet, allow the eyes to close. Let Yourself Smile: Maintaining a gentle smile throughout your practice keeps you relaxed, peaceful and enhances your meditation experience. You will feel the difference.

Thoughts: Don’t cling on Maintaining a gentle smile throughout your practice keeps you relaxed, peaceful and enhances your meditation experience. You will feel the difference. Let them be: Instead of fighting with your thoughts, just let your thoughts come and go like watching clouds in the sky. Letting your thoughts be, you come into harmony with your thoughts.

Time: Special times to meditate: At sunrise and sunset, nature transitions from night to day and back again. These times are also ideal for meditation and spiritual reflection. Or before sunrise is also a special and effective time to meditate. The world outside is quiet, the house/family is quiet, and so are you! You should also consider a time when it is quiet, and when you meditate, you should try to keep to the same time each day. Also try to meditate on a relatively empty stomach.

“The energy of the mind is the essence of life.”
-Aristotle

Place: Choose a place that is quiet. Find a special place at home that you can associate it with mediation.

Tools: You can choose a pillow or chair that allows you to sit tall and comfortable. Sometimes the body temperature drops so you may want to begin with a shawl or blanket. For those who just start out, it is sometimes helpful to have a guided meditation to help you meditate. There are many free meditations online. Some find it helpful to have a timer initially so you won’t be tempted to keep peaking at the time.

Ending: When you come to the end of the meditation, try not to be in a hurry to open your eyes or to move around. Simply remain present in the stillness you have cultivated. Take a few moments to soak this in. Then when you are ready, gradually become aware of your body and your surroundings. Finally allow your eyes to slowly open.

This was just a beginners guide on how to meditate. There are many other resources that you can find online.

How Does Meditation Change the Brain

As we said many times before, the human brain is very dynamic by nature because of its resilient and adaptable qualities. With repetitive influence of thoughts and behaviors we have seen actual structural changes in the brain. Along with these changes, we have seen changes in the cognitive function of the individual experiencing these brain changes. We all know by now that this is Neuroplasticity.

“Meditation brings wisdom;
lack of meditation leaves ignorance.
Know well what leads you forward
and what hold you back,
and choose the path that leads to wisdom.”
-Buddha

According to Mind Body Vortex ( http://www.mindbodyvortex.com/neuroplasticity-and-meditation), “Meditation is one of the most powerful ways to trigger this interaction by strengthening the pre-frontal cortex.” The pre-frontal cortex is the area that is responsible for emotional regulation, regulating the decision making process, judgment and thought analysis. It was found that during meditation, we are always trying to bring our focus back into the present moment. This process of when the mind wanders and is intentionally brought back into focus and awareness, is when the pre-frontal cortex is activated. So when meditation is done consistently, one’s willpower and concentration get stronger. This is a good example of Neuroplasticity.

Meditation has also been shown to alter the brain’s gray matter. Gray matter is directly responsible for memory, seeing, hearing, executive functions, impulse control, emotions and speech. In an article by Inner Light Publishers (http://www.inner-light-in.com/2015/01/how-to-increase-gray-matters-in-the-brain), they stated that gray matter is mainly located on the surface of the cerebral cortex and on the surface of the cerebellum as well as in the deeper parts of the cerebrum and hippocampus. So the more gray matter you have in the decision-making & thought-processing areas of the brain, the better your ability to evaluate rewards and consequences will be.

“Be still and know yourself as
the Truth you have been searching for.
Be still and let the inherent joy
of that Truth capture your
drama and destroy it in
the bliss of consummation.
Be still and let your life be lived
by the purpose you were made for.
Be still and receive the
inherent truth of your heart.”
-Gangaji

Another important fact about gray matter is that the elderly show lower volumes of grey matter in the brain, thus there is a correlation as to why many elderly seem to have memory problems and a decline in cognitive functioning. As stated before, gray matter is directly linked to these areas of memory and cognition. We know that gray matter steadily declines with age and that with use of multiply media items (TV, Web, radio, telephone, etc.), a person’s gray matter lessens in density in the anterior cingulate cortex, an area which is involved in regulating blood pressure and heart. It is also involved in higher level functions such as decision-making, impulse control, emotion and reward anticipation.

Image Credit

Inner Light Publishers also talked about situations where people lose a lot of gray matter which include smokers, stress in early life, chronic stress, and online internet game addiction and excessive screen-time. So if you have any of these above listed situations, you may want to consider finding methods to increase your gray matter.

“If a person’s basic state of mind is serene and calm,
then it is possible for this inner peace
to overwhelm a painful physical experience.”
-The Dalai Lama

How Does Meditation & Neuroplasticity Help Anxiety?

As we went through the topic of anxiety in previous articles, I will do just a quick review here. In the average person, when something goes wrong, there is a period of anxiety but it will gradually wear off. But with many anxiety disorder sufferers there is not only a much more intense anxious phase but it stays stuck in the ongoing position. So being hyper-vigilant and anxious is not a good thing because it leads to stimulating the amygdala which is the fear center of your brain. With this constant stimulation, the amygdala will grow larger and more reactive which can eventually lower the threshold that activates it. Everything then becomes a vicious cycle of stress to worry to anxiety to more stress, etc.

According to Be Brain Fit (https://bebrainfit.com/guided-meditation-anxiety), “meditation works as well for anxiety as commonly prescribed medications. And guided meditation makes it easier to achieve a therapeutic meditative state.” In this article, it was said that anxiety doesn’t just feel bad but that it actually changes the brain. They pointed out that anxiety can decrease the size of the hippocampus, which is the seat of memory, while it increases the size of the amygdala, which is responsible for the fear response. As the amygdala grows so does the anxiety and fear. Be Brain Fit stated, “Stress, fear, and anxiety trigger the release of stress hormones and cause imbalances in neurotransmitters, brain chemicals that enable brain cells to communicate with each other.”

“Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts
in eternal awareness or pure consciousness
without objectification, knowing without thinking,
merging finitude in infinity.”
-Swami Sivananda

So as we know, meditation can not only reduce anxiety symptoms but it can actually facilitate the reverse changes to the brain that are caused by anxiety. Meditation has been shown to increase the volume of the hippocampus, reduce the reactivity of the amygdala, helps to restore a better balance in the neurotransmitters and it can improve one’s mood by
increasing levels of serotonin.

Image Credit

Based on all of the above, Meditation is one of the best Self-Directed Neuroplasicity Exercises that sufferers of anxiety disorders can do. There are many free resources on the internet to get guided meditation audios and many posts that give more information on how to do meditations.

“Meditation is painful in the beginning
but it bestows immortal Bliss
and supreme joy in the end.”
-Swami Sivananda

I would also like to take this opportunity to let you know about an excellent meditation book authored by a fellow Steemit, Eric Vance Walton. He wrote the book, ”The Perfect Pause: Meditating Your Way to the Ultimate You.” It is probably one of the best meditation books I have ever read and purchased. You can find it on Amazon at a very reasonable price. You won’t regret it because it is filled with so much more than just how to meditate. It is a really great read.

Image Credit