Transcript

Meditation is an ancient technique that trains the brain for the power of concentration.

It’s like a gym workout for your brain. Archaeologists have found meditation to be five-and-a-half thousand years old, while only 60 years ago, modern scientists began to study the brains of meditators. They discovered that meditation changes the structure of the brain, making it a lot more powerful. Long-term meditators are often able to develop superhuman abilities like their ability to stay calm in pressure situations such as exams and sports, more original and creative ideas, and excellent memory. An experiment showed that meditating monks were able to dry icy wet sheets in cold temperatures by controlling and raising their own body temperature with the power of the mind.

To understand how meditation affects us, you must first look at the most recent discoveries about the brain.

In the last 10 years, scientists have discovered that every time we think, feel, or learn something new, a new connection appears in our brain. Those things that we repeat the most, like habits, make these connections grow stronger and stronger, and over time, the connections that we don’t use grow weaker and eventually disappear. This is why our habits are automatic, and we don’t have to think before doing them. For example, because you practice brushing your teeth every day, it seems a lot more effortless than washing your dishes, even though both tasks take about the same amount of time to complete. But if you stop brushing your teeth for a few days, it will also begin to seem like a more difficult task.

Some scientists have suggested that we don’t choose most of our behavior; instead, it is programmed by these neural connections in our brain.

Think about the tip of an iceberg, which is the smallest part. This represents all the things that we can choose consciously, such as solving a math problem. The larger part of the iceberg is all of our unconscious thoughts and feelings, which cause most of our behavior, like reacting to arguments in the same way again and again, even if afterwards we know it was wrong. This happens because we’re not aware that we are controlled by unconscious emotions. In this unconscious part of our mind, neural connections are strong, so most people don’t think they can change how they act and react in situations. This automatic way of acting is what we call personality, but mostly, it’s just those thoughts, emotions, and habits that we have repeated the most, growing up and continuing to repeat on a daily basis.

But this can all be changed. Our intelligence, skills, and personality can all be developed from practice.

We can literally train our brains to become cleverer, to learn new talents, or to think differently in situations. So to change ourselves, we need to change our brains by creating new connections and practicing them until they become strong and automatic. This means that stuff that we find hard now will become easier and easier the more we practice it. Think back to when you struggled to read. It would take you a while to get through a sentence, and now it’s automatic. You don’t need to stop and think about how to read words you already know; you just do it.

Amazingly, meditation practice helps us change all of these things by creating new connections in many different parts of the brain, literally making your brain larger in size.

So how do you practice meditation? Well, it’s really simple. All you have to do is concentrate on your breathing and allow for words and feelings to come and go. With continuous practice, your skills of attention, concentration, and awareness significantly increase. But it’s actually quite hard to concentrate on your breath and nothing else. This is because, on average, we have about 50,000 thoughts each day. Ninety-eight percent of those thoughts are the same as the thoughts we had yesterday, and 80% of those thoughts are negative—stress, worry, and irritability are direct results of those thoughts, which are either regrets about the past, which we can no longer change, or worry about the future, which hasn’t even happened yet. But we experience stress and worry in the present moment, causing us to behave in very unhelpful ways. The more we worry, the better we become at worrying, which is a negative habit of thinking that leads to continuous stress, and continuous stress leads to mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

Meditation has been shown to decrease the size of the amygdala, which is the fear center of our brain and is where all our negative emotions and thoughts come from.

It also decreases the level of the stress hormone cortisol, which overall means that you can deal with stressful situations a lot better. With meditation, you also learn the skill of how to watch your thoughts and emotions without reacting. This means that with continuous meditation practice, you can significantly change your behavior and even your personality. This can help you to achieve your personal goals because you’re less likely to procrastinate or worry about other people’s opinions about you.

Scientists are still discovering all the other benefits of meditation.

such as its ability to make you more creative, better at learning and remembering things, increasing self-confidence, and making you kinder towards other people around you. Leaders of big companies, athletes, and even pop stars use meditation as a way of training the mind, and the NHS now uses meditation to treat a variety of mental health issues. It’s even been shown that meditation is more effective than using drugs. Not bad, hey, for something all you need to do is sit still for 20 minutes, close your eyes, and concentrate.

Reflection

In our fast-paced world, where the mind often feels like an overdriven engine, there exists a timeless sanctuary: meditation.

Picture it as the ultimate brain gym—a place where you strengthen your focus and discipline.

Tracing back over five millennia, the art of meditation has only recently captured the scientific spotlight. The revelations? Transformative. Regular meditation doesn't just tweak your brain—it revolutionizes it, turning it into an engine of high efficiency and resilience.

Consider the seasoned meditators, those who've woven this practice seamlessly into their daily tapestry.

They stand unshaken in life's fiercest storms—aced exams, high-stake games, you name it. Their minds are workshops of innovation, their memories razor-sharp. Take, for instance, the monks who could spike their body heat in freezing climes, using nothing but their mental prowess. It’s not just impressive; it's almost otherworldly.

To truly understand meditation's impact, we need to dive into recent brain research. The last decade has been revelatory, showing us that each thought or emotion strengthens neural pathways in the brain. The more these pathways are traveled, the more indelible they become. Neglect them, and they fade like forgotten trails in a forest.

This is why habits are so automatic.

Brushing your teeth is a no-brainer, right? But skip it for a few days, and suddenly, it's a hurdle. Some experts suggest that much of what we do isn't a choice but a result of these neural tracks.

Imagine an iceberg.

What's visible above the surface—our conscious decisions—is just a sliver of the vast depth of unconscious drives and behaviors beneath. Our personalities, often perceived as fixed traits, are largely just the accumulation of repeated thoughts and actions.

Here's the kicker: it doesn't have to stay that way.

We have the power to reshape our brains through practice. Meditation is a prime tool for this. It doesn't just tweak the brain; it expands it, creating new pathways in untapped territories.

So, how does one meditate?

It's stunningly straightforward: Focus on your breathing. Let thoughts and emotions ebb and flow without getting caught up in them.

Sounds simple, yet holding focus on just your breath can be surprisingly tough.

Our minds churn out around 50,000 thoughts per day, most repetitive and many negative. This mental chatter can lead to stress and frustration. But meditation teaches us to step back, observe our thoughts without engagement, and gradually shift our mental habits. This not only diminishes stress but profoundly alters our behavioral patterns.

The benefits of meditation go beyond calming the mind. It shrinks the amygdala—our brain's fear center—leading to less emotional reactivity. It also lowers cortisol levels, enhancing our capacity to manage stress.

Moreover, meditation boosts creativity, memory, self-confidence, and empathy.

It's a practice adopted by leaders, athletes, and artists alike, and increasingly used in healthcare to manage mental health disorders—often outperforming medications.

Thus, investing just 20 minutes a day to sit quietly, close your eyes, and concentrate on your breath is hardly an ask. It's a small commitment with vast returns—a journey inward that can elevate the quality of your entire life.