Mental Health

How Meditation Affects The Brain

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Mindfulness and meditation have been gaining a lot of recognition for the past years. Many celebrities have been spotted practicing it which gave way to the birth of meditation guides and yoga teachers. Let’s get to know how mindfulness and meditation affects the work of the brain.

Meditation and Mindfulness

Meditation is defined as a set of techniques that is practiced by a person by being in a state of awareness while focusing on the sensation, emotion and thoughts while meditating. While mindfulness is just one of the 3 types of meditation. Mindfulness is one type of meditation which also focuses on a person’s thoughts and feelings through the use of breathing methods, guided imagery and other techniques that clears the mind of stress and relaxes the body.

7 Ways Meditation Affects the Brain

Both meditation mad mindfulness needs a person practicing it to be in a heightened state of awareness with focused attention to the sensation, emotions and thoughts.

1. Preserves Aging of the Brain

According to studies, people who have been practicing meditation for a long time were proved to have better- preserved brains than those who do not practice it. Through the use of CT-Scan, the researcher found out that there are more grey matter volume in the brain of those meditators who have been practicing for more than 20 years. Meditation helps slow down the aging process by stimulating the brain whenever a person meditates.

2. “Me” First

With everything that is going on in our day-to-day lives, our mind has been working non-stop to keep up with its demand. Meditation helps calm the mind and bring the focus on oneself. A Yale study was able to prove that meditation can reduce the self-referential thoughts and mind-wandering of a person which is often associated with stress, worry and even fear of the past and the future. Meditation was able to quiet down these weary thoughts and instead make new connections in the brain that improve one’s focus more.

3. Lessen Depression and Anxiety

Millions of people are being diagnosed with mental health problems each year. Majority of which is depression and anxiety. Meditation along with mindfulness were effective in toning down the symptoms of patients with depression and anxiety. Studies show that its effectivity is same as the use of anti-depressants but without the risk of experiencing the adverse reactions of the drug. Since meditation is also one way of training the brain, it gains the capability to increase the awareness of the mind and focus on things that matter.

4. Improves Memory and Cognition

Since meditation mainly works on the brain, it does not only affect the emotional and social parts of the brain but also the cognitive area of the brain too. Meditation and mindfulness increase the cortical thickness of the hippocampus, which is responsible for thinking, learning, memory and problem solving. Improving a person’s cognitive abilities.

5. Focus and Attention

Meditation and mindfulness require a lot of focus and attention on what you are currently doing in order to attain that level of awareness. Studies show that meditation and mindfulness help train the minds of the people and improve their memory and focus. By doing and practicing it every day, we will not notice it but we are slowly becoming more attentive and focused on the things that we are doing.

6. Helps with Addiction

There has been a number of studies relating mindfulness and meditation to addiction. These studies found out that meditation is a very effective way of alleviating addiction especially for recovering addicts. One study found out that mindfulness and meditation is an effective way of making smokers quit. It helps get through the craving.

7. Great for Kids

We mainly hear adults practicing mindfulness, but kids may do so too. Meditation and mindfulness were already practiced in some schools as it was proven to stimulate the brain’s development of children making it easier for them to learn their lectures at school. Also, meditation at school are much needed breaks that decreases the stressors of children. Lastly, it showed that meditation and mindfulness greatly increase the attendance and GPA of students at high-risk schools.

Mindfulness At The Office

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We spent most of our days inside our office, working. When we enter the office, the first thing to do is sit down and work. This goes on for the next 12 hours with eating breaks in between. We are so focused on work that we forget to stop, breathe and think. Doing this will improve the quality of your work.

Benefits of Mindfulness

The workplace is full of conflict and stress especially when the workload or task at hand becomes hard to bear. Doing something to relieve your mind and body from this stress is essential for a good day’s worth. Here’s why mindfulness is recommended to be done at work:

  • Stress Reduction ­– it is the number one and most popular benefit that one can get from practicing mindfulness at work especially since stress is also the most common cause of workers absenteeism.
  • Better Understanding – Working requires you to be able to absorb new information or ideas. Studies show that letting the brain take a break once in a will further improve one’s problem-solving, critical thinking and skills development. They are able to process information much faster leading to a more efficient work.
  • Adaptability – The ability to adapt at work is a must. Having this skill proves that you are able to easily acclimate to different situations and be able to think fast on different situations. Mindfulness increases your adaptability and will improve your leadership skills and performance.
  • Creativity – Since mindfulness focuses on the mind, it also enhances one’s creativity. It motivates people, making you think more innovatively. Also, mindfulness lessens distractions and focuses on what’s important.

Mindfulness at Work

Practicing mindfulness at work does not consume so much of your time and space. You don’t need a lot of equipment or items. You may use whatever you see around you that is available. Here are the ways you can practice mindfulness at work:

Be Aware and Awake

Mindfulness is – overall – a state of awareness. It works when one is being conscious about his or her present state at the moment of mindfulness. At work, our mind is mind blown with all the task and to dos. To be mindful at work requires you to be consciously present on whatever task you are doing, while you are doing it, and as well as being able to manage both your mental and emotional state. You may not even realize but by focusing on a report or task, you are already practicing mindfulness. Don’t forget to bring back your thoughts to the task at hand whenever you feel that it’s slipping away.

Short Mindfulness Exercise

Mindfulness exercises may also be done at work without needing any kind of mat. Here are some short mindfulness exercises you can do:

  • Body scan meditation – Lie on your back on your swivel chair and gently extended your legs and arms at the side with palms facing up. Close your eyes and gently bring your mind to focus on every part of your body from head to toe and vice versa. Be aware of any sensations, emotions, and even thoughts that are associated with each part of your body while you are doing it. You may do this for as short as a minute or longer.
  • Sitting meditation – Sit comfortably on your working chair with your back straight and feet resting flat on the floor. Put your hands on your lap. Close your eyes and start breathing through your nose. Focus on your breathing in and out and the sensations that you feel. Bring your mind to focus when you notice it lingering everywhere else.
  • Walking meditation – if you are tired of your working space, you may opt to go out for a short walk. It may be done around the office or up on the rooftop. Find a quiet place then begin walking slowly. Focus on the overall experience of walking, notice how you keep your balance and the movements needed to keep walking. If you find yourself at the end of the path, you may go for another walk if you want.

Be a Single – Tasker

People mostly multi-task these days because they think that they are able to achieve more if they do so. Little did they know that they are doing much less when they do two things at a time.  Try to start being a single tasker. Let your mind focus on one task at

Mindful Thinking: Stop Ruminating and Overthinking

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The mind has a way to affect the body either positively or negatively. If you keep on overthinking and ruminating about something that recently happened or something about the past, then sooner or later you might see how it negatively affect your health and wellbeing. Know how mindful thinking help calm the mind.

Ruminating and Overthinking

The “act of thinking deeply” or “the tendency to engage in sustained, repetitive thinking about negative topics” defines ruminating. We have a tendency to think worse about things especially when we are not confident enough about ourselves or about what we are doing. We can also see rumination in people who are suffering from depression or from current personal problems. Rumination is a repetitive behavior or pattern of thinking that is why people who experience them often found themselves thinking over and again about the meanings, consequences or causes of the depressive symptoms. Here are some examples of rumination:

  • Feeling upset about work that causes you to relive the moment all over again, feeling and thinking about what happened that causes you to feel bad.
  • When arguing with a friend or a relative, you kept on thinking about the fight you had and reflect on what you did wrong or you shouldn’t have said to them.
  • Receiving negative remarks at work that made you lose confidence. You kept on thinking about it and often associate these negative feelings to your behavior.

Overthinking is the act of thinking too much, instead of acting or doing things, you end up overthinking. Overthinking leads to over analyzation or commenting on the same thoughts over and again. People overthink because they are putting pressure on themselves as they are scared to make mistakes. Here are some examples of overthinking:

  • When making a decision, you kept on questioning the decision and letting your thoughts dive-in to the what ifs and what nots of it.
  • When you are trying to understand why a certain person behaves or acts the way they did. You tend to read what they are doing and give meaning to it all over again.
  • When you are conscious of even the smallest of details and gives meaning to it by thinking about it multiple times.

Overthinking and rumination are two different things. The former kept on thinking about things too much while the latter is the repeated act of thinking negatively. You can ruminate while overthinking and vice versa.

Effects of Overthinking and Ruminating

Too much thinking is not healthy for your body. It is the same as pushing your body to its limit, it becomes tired and overworked. Rumination and overthinking may be a common coping mechanism for some, but what they didn’t know is how badly it affects their body. Some studies show that people who often ruminate or overthink has a high chance of having depression and having a depressed mood. The repeating negative thoughts that happened to them in the past may cause them to interpret their current lives negatively and they lose confidence in themselves.

Also, overthinking and ruminating has been associated with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder. This is because prolonged overthinking and rumination may already be considered as negative feelings which is a symptom of mental health illness.

Ways to Stop Ruminating and Overthinking

Mindfulness thinking exists to help out these problems regarding repeated negative thoughts. It is a simple practice of mindfulness that generally acts on a way of thinking of an individual. In this way, we can train the brain to focus its attention on the state of being mindful. We listed down a few mindful thinking exercises that you can try to lessen the thoughts inside your head:

1. Mindful Breathing – be aware of your breathing and bring yourself to focus on the act of breathing by slowly inhaling air, feeling your chest rise and slowly exhaling. Try your best to focus on your breathing while you reflect on you your feelings and thoughts for a few minutes.

2. Practice mindful yoga – Yoga does not only make your mind focus on what you are doing but also strengthens your body as it involves being aware of your bodily sensations while breathing in a relaxed state.

3. Mindful walking – take some time to go to a nearby park or at your backyard and just focus on the surroundings. Appreciate what you are seeing while concentrating on your breathing.

4. Guided meditation – if you think you cannot meditate on your own, you can try guided meditation where an instructor is guiding you while meditating.

5. If you are in a middle of a stressful situation or just feeling anxious for some reason, take a break and try to practice breathing for a few minutes. This will help clear your mind and just bring your focus on your breathing.

Can Mindfulness Make Anxiety Worse?

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Being anxious is a normal response of the body especially when it is faced with threats and stress. When anxiety becomes a constant part of your life, then you may have an anxiety-related problem. Treating such problems will need you to be able to clear your mind and deal with your stressor.

Anxiety

Anxiety is commonly felt when the brain reacts to the stressors and threats that a person is facing. Everyday, we are facing different challenges whether at home, school, and even at work. Feeling anxious every now and then is common but when you started to notice that you are feeling more anxious than usual and it is affecting your daily tasks then, you may need to consider consulting a psychiatrist.

Here are some of the most common Anxiety Disorders and their associated signs and symptoms:

Front view of a woman suffering social anxiety attack on city street
  • Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) – symptoms occurs for more than 6 months. A person with general anxiety disorder feels excessively anxious most of the day. Most of the anxiety attacks caused by GAD is triggered by any work or relationship problems, health problems and any unexpected life occurrence that may not be ideal for a person. Some patients constantly feel anxious all day even without the presence of such triggers. Symptoms of GAD includes feelings of restlessness, easily fatigued even by simple tasks, have difficulty concentrating on tasks, being irritable more than usual, noticeable muscle tension when having an anxiety attack, unable to control feelings of worry and fear, sleeping problems such as difficulty falling or staying asleep and having an unsatisfying sleep.
  • Panic Disorder – this is one of the most common anxiety disorders and is often seen in movies. When a person is having an anxiety attack, it causes a person to feel muscle tension, palpitations, chest pain and increased sweating. People often mistake panic attacks for heart attacks and sometimes, choking. The panic attack is often caused by a fear on an object or a situation. Identifying its triggers is helpful in preventing future panic attacks. Other symptoms that a person who has panic disorders experience shortness of breath, feelings of impending doom, and feelings of being out of control.
  • Phobia – It refers to a certain fear on a specific object or situation. When a person is faced with this trigger, they feel intense fear that is out of proportion. The most common trigger is the fear of heights. People with phobia also experiences excessive worry or irrational fear of an object or situation, tries their best to avoid the feared object or situations, when exposed to the trigger, they feel an immediate intense level of anxiety and some may be able to endure the unavoidable situation or object but with an intense anxiety.

Mindfulness and Anxiety

Mindfulness is a common go-to for people who wants to relieve their everyday stress. Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing and not overly reactive or overwhelmed with what’s going on around us. It is a type of meditation that you can do anywhere for a short period of time. There are many testaments to the beneficial effects of mindfulness, but little is known about its unwanted effects.

In recent studies, it was said that out of many people who practice mindfulness, about 12 percent of them experience unwanted effects. This is true especially in the case of people who suffers from anxiety and depression. Mindfulness can aggravate the anxiety and depression that they are feeling.  Some people who meditate often lose control of their feelings of fear, anxiety or panic because they are desperate to go out of their current situation. In their attempt to control these unwanted thoughts and feelings, they become even more counterproductive and actually ends up causing them to overthink more.

Mindfulness is often misunderstood because of its claim that it can actually control one’s thought and feelings. Many people take it the wrong way and ends up causing themselves further distress. Mindfulness, if done the right way, can enhance one’s psychological capacity and flexibility making you acknowledge these thoughts and feelings and take action based on your personal values. Still, mindfulness is a good tool in overcoming an anxiety disorder as long as it is done correctly.

Can Mindfulness Help With Anxiety?

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Being anxious all the time has some great impacts on your body. It can lower your energy and have certain unwanted effects on your brain. Feeling anxious is a common reaction especially when faced with certain situations but experiencing it too much may actually be harmful for you.

Anxiety

Anxiety is one of our common emotion. It is the brain’s way of reacting to the stressors and alerts your body of any harm or danger ahead of you. Everyone will feel anxious every now and then – at work, home or school. Being anxious from time to time is okay but when you noticed that it becomes more common than usual then you have to rethink again. Excessive anxiety in the presence of stressors may cause a person to feel overwhelmed. If the anxiety you have makes you unable to do daily tasks that you usually do, then you may consider consulting a doctor or a psychiatrist.

There are many kinds of Anxiety Disorder. Here a few of the most common ones and their associated signs and symptoms:

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

People who have generalized anxiety disorders have been showing excessively anxious for at least 6 months. Common stressors for such are work, relationship problems, health, and any unexpected life circumstances. In some patients, even if there’s no trigger they tend to feel anxious too.

General Anxiety Disorder symptoms includes:

  • Feelings of restlessness
  • Easily fatigued even by simple tasks
  • Have difficulty concentrating on tasks
  • Being irritable more than usual
  • Noticeable muscle tension when having an anxiety attack
  • Unable to control feelings of worry and fear
  • Sleeping problems such as difficulty falling or staying asleep and having an unsatisfying sleep.

Panic Disorder

Panic disorder is often seen on televisions shows and series. In panic disorder, a person suddenly feels an intense feat that causes one to perspire a lot, have palpitations and chest pain. Some patients even think that they are having a heart attack or choking during panic attacks. The episodes of the panic attack peaks within minutes and is triggered by a fear on an object or a situation. People who have panic disorder often worries about their next attack. Knowing the trigger of such episodes is helpful in preventing future attacks.

Here’s what some people experience during a panic attack:

  • Increase in heart rate and pounding heartbeat
  • Sweating too much
  • Trembling or shaking of the body
  • Shortness of breath or feels like you are choking on something
  • Feelings of impending doom
  • Feelings of being out of control

Phobia-related Disorders

People often use the “Phobia” to refer to a specific object or situation that a person fear. It is almost the same on how psychiatry defined it – an intense fear of specific objects or situations. The most common of which are the fear of heights or flying. It is normal to feel fear when exposed to a certain situation but people with phobias feel fear that is out of proportion than the actual danger posed by the situation or the object. People with phobia experiences:

  • Excessive worry or irrational fear of an object or situation
  • Tries their best to avoid the feared object or situations
  • When exposed to the trigger, they feel an immediate intense level of anxiety
  • Some may be able to endure the unavoidable situation or object but with an intense anxiety.

Mindfulness And Anxiety

Is mindfulness able to help someone who is anxious? According to recent researches, mindfulness is able to reduce the level of anxiety of a person. Mindfulness works by teaching our brain to focus our attention on the present moment while removing the unwanted thoughts in our brain such as worrying and ruminating about the past.

Being anxious means that you are thinking too much in your brain and your body is reacting to that stress. Mindfulness teaches us and our body on how to respond to this stress simply just by being in a state of awareness where one will only focus on meditating. Mindfulness is just one of the adaptive reactions that a person can try to do especially during difficult situations.

Mindfulness Tricks to Reduce Anxiety

Hispanic woman walking on winding path in lush green forest

There are different mindfulness practices that you can try to reduce the anxiousness that you are feeling. Try it out and let us know if it works for you, too.

Set an intention – know the reason on why you are practicing mindfulness. Setting an intention every morning before important activities will help you focus and remind you on why you are doing it every day. If a certain event is making you feel anxious – like a major speech at school – set an intention for it so that you’ll be even more motivated to finish and do your speech.

Try guided meditation – some people just have a hard time meditating without a guide. If you are one of them, you can try looking for online programs or phone apps that shares free guided meditation.

Mindful coloring – this is commonly done by children, but it works as good for adults too! Set aside a couple of minutes on your day and let your creativity flow. You may opt to buy or print some nice pictures that you can color. 

Take a walk – taking a walk works wonders. Being outside and having your alone time and just focusing on your senses and the environment is not only comforting for your body but for your mind too.

Can Mindfulness Cure Depression?

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Mindfulness has become greatly popular these days. Its benefits were proven both by people who practice it and by science itself. But is mindfulness capable of curing mental illness, like depression?

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the basic ability of the human mind to be fully aware of the present, of where we are and what we are doing.  As defined by the American Psychological Association (2012), it is “a moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience without judgement. In this sense, mindfulness is a state and not a trait.”  It a pretty straightforward word, but its meaning can do so much. It has its way of snapping us back to reality and to what we are feeling. 

Mindfulness helps divert your attention and purposely focus on what is happening at the present moment – accepting it without judgement. It is achieved when a person reaches a certain state where they become more aware of the present moment while acknowledging and accepting whatever it is that they are feeling, thinking, and the bodily sensations that is overflowing in their body. It heightens your sensations and lets you focus on it to more.

Benefits of Mindfulness

Helps you sleep

If you are having a difficulty sleeping at night, mindfulness is there to help you sleep without worries. The state of mindfulness needs you to clear or empty your mind and remove those wary thoughts that you’ve been keeping. Mindfulness brings you a relaxed state and helps  you create a mental space where you are able to welcome sleep.

Reduce Stress

Everyone experiences stress at some point of the day, whether it be at work, home or school. Mindfulness was proven to reduce the stress levels a person has by alleviating some of their worries. Practicing mindfulness gives you better control of yourself and makes you focus on the things that matter while preventing you from being distracted.

Improves self

At one point in your life, you may have felt lost and did not understand yourself at all. Mindfulness helps improves your perception about yourself and makes you aware of the current state of your emotions. Of course, other self-care habits should be done also to further improve yourself.

Depression

Depression is just one of the most common mental illness in the world and has killed thousands of people in a year. Depression is a silent-killer and usually people who suffers on it does not show their suffering. Depression not only affects adults, but children too.

Depression is a mood disorder that is characterized by a persistent feeling of sadness, loss of interest and disinterest in performing daily activities. People who suffer from depression may feel down from time to time or all day long. They are unable to cope and adjust to the struggles and setbacks that they have in life and succumb to their problem. By understanding depression and recognizing its symptoms, you may help yourself or another person to overcome their problem and feel better:

  • Feelings of helplessness and hopeless as if nothing you do can improve your current situation.
  • Loss of interest in performing daily activities. From taking a bath to going to work, you are no longer energized to do such tasks and prefers to be alone all day long.
  • Loss of appetite leading to a significant decrease in weight.
  • Lack of sleep or oversleeping. Some can’t sleep because of their problems while some sleep too much to not have time to think about their endeavors.
  • Change in behavior like becoming easily angered or irritability.
  • Loss of energy. Easily fatigued by performing simple tasks. The body feels heavy when doing even small chores.
  • Strong feelings of worthlessness and guilt by repeated criticizing self for the faults and mistakes done.
  • Unable to concentrate at school or at work and tends to have significant decline in performance.

If you have any of the symptoms above, please consult your doctor or a psychiatrist near you.

Can Mindfulness Cure Depression?

With depression taking a lot of people lives each year, one would be curious if there are other ways to cure depression. Mindfulness has been greatly studied by scientists and researchers to see if it has an impact in treating depression. Researchers were able to formulate a therapeutic program for patients who have chronic depression and anxiety called Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.

MBCT is an 8-week mindfulness-based program that was based from cognitive therapy. Cognitive therapy teaches patients on how to redirect their negative thinking and is the gold standard for treatment of depression. The combination of mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy is ideal as the former brings you to a state of awareness, specially your feelings, while the later teaches you to redirect these negative thoughts and countering them with actual positive event in your life.  

MBCT is performed only by experts and should not be attempted by anyone. MBCT in combination with proper intake of anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medications will further improve a patient’s condition and lead to faster recovery a patient.