We are almost convinced now. Mindfulness is not a passing fad; it is a mindfulness meditation technique that has been practiced for millennia. However, it is today that even medical science is interested in this meditation due to its benefits on our physical, mental and emotional health. But a question arises, how long do you have to meditate a day to see the effects and benefits on the brain? Because neither can we become Buddhist monks and spend the day meditating.
What is meditation for?
- First of all, meditation is not exclusive to Tibetan monks and anyone can do it every day. The objective of meditation is to be attentive to the present moment, to be aware of our body and our sensations. And what is most important, meditating is not identifying with our thoughts, observing them without analyzing or judging them.
- This point is especially interesting for those people who have problems with anxiety, depression, low self-esteem or even concentration. All those disabling thoughts like “I can’t”, “I’m not worth it” or “I’m not going to make it” cause us a lot of discomfort on an emotional but also physical level. And maybe we can’t help but have those thoughts, but we can help but pay attention to them.
- Because our attention, thanks to the daily practice of meditation, will be focused on other things, on what is happening in our body, on whether we are cold or if a car horn is sounding on the street, or even on looking for solutions., but not in what we think that, after all, does not always conform to reality.
What are the effects of meditation or mindfulness?
We follow Harvard University neuroscientist Sara Lazar to attend to the changes experienced in the brain after practicing meditation for a while. According to her research, meditating transforms some parts of the brain. In fact, for one of their De Ella studies, Lazar and her team took MRI scans of 16 volunteers two weeks before and two weeks after they completed a two-month mindfulness program, in which they were asked to meditate for a few weeks. 27 minutes daily. The researchers found an increase in the density of gray matter in the hippocampus, an area of the brain essential for learning and memory, as well as in structures related to compassion, introspection and self-awareness. And in addition to the hippocampus, these are other areas in the brain affected by the practice of mindfulness:
- The frontal cortex, which is dedicated to decision making and in which the development of working memory is also involved.
- The sensory cortex, the place from which physical sensations are perceived.
- The temporoparietal region, where important aspects such as empathy and compassion come into play.
- The hippocampus, key brain point for learning, concentration, memory and managing emotions.
- The amygdala, which is the place where emotions are managed and which swells in moments of anxiety and fear, becoming so large that it barely leaves room for the hippocampus.
Necessary time of daily meditation to obtain benefits
- It seems proven that when we repeat a behavior over and over again, this produces changes in the brain due to its plasticity. Changes for better or worse, depends on the behavior we adopt. But, in this case, we are talking about practicing meditation and the effects can be seen in just 2 weeks.
- We are talking about two weeks practicing 20 minutes of meditation every day. Don’t have 20 minutes a day? Sure you can break it up into 10 minute slots. One in the morning to start the day with a clearer and calmer mind ready for the daily challenge and another at night to silence all the mental noise that you have generated during the day.
- You can notice the effects very soon, it’s true, at least in the form of feeling better, more comfortable with yourself, more at peace with the environment around you. But if we adjust to Dr. Lazar’s research and her experiment with people who had never meditated, she verified that during the 8 weeks with almost 30 minutes of daily meditation, the changes in the brain were evident, especially the reduction of the amygdala., which gives so many problems to people who suffer from anxiety. But we insist, with 20 minutes a day, you can start to notice the effects of meditation in just 2 weeks.
- Isn’t it worth reserving 20 minutes a day to consciously observe your breathing in exchange for a better quality of life?