“But, I don’t have time..."

“But, I don’t have time…” How many times do we utilize this phrase to narrate stories of our hectic day?  This has been a new mantra of the 21^st century.  Life feels like a race. Like a continuous run on a treadmill, overly consumed in getting every little thing done and often ignoring the reason behind doing the task in the first place, and forgetting to pause to analyze the big picture.  A pause in life feels unnecessary, and often a “waste of time.”  In our fast-paced life, finding time to pause doesn’t seem realistic or even practical.  Constant urge to check off things on our never-ending to-do list doesn’t grant us opportunities to pause and take a deep breath.  We fail to realize a pause is not only beneficial but also, required to combat the persisting mental, physical and emotional exhaustion. Just like a pause in a piece of music, which doesn’t represent lack of music, but rather a crucial part of the composition. Similarly, slowing down and pausing doesn’t represent doing “nothing; rather it plays an integral role in achieving mental and emotional clarity. 

As a famous Zen saying goes, “If you have a glass of dirty water, the best way to clear it is to set it on a windowsill for a week without touching it. In stillness, all of the dirt settles itself to the bottom.” Millions of people are starting to recognize the mental and physical damages related to the constant buildup of stress, and hence turning towards the ancient yogic disciplines of mindfulness and meditation.  An increased attention from scientific community and a dearth of research conducted to understand the mindfulness and meditation sheds light and provides new insight on its benefits. Latest findings suggest that meditation can not only help one progress in spiritual path, but also increases focus and attention, calms anxiety, helps attain clarity of mental processes, and play a very advantageous role in medical conditions such as high blood pressure, depression, sleep problems, substance abuse, etc.

 Dr. Marcia Grabowecky succinctly presented her research on cognitive neuroscience of meditation and mindfulness. She addressed various benefits, especially its role as attention enhancer. These findings discussed by Dr. Grabowecky are further reinforced by an article published in New York Times on January 14, 2014, called Breathing In vs. Spacing Out. This article also talks about various benefits of mindfulness and mediation on attention improvement and distraction reduction through a means of varied examples and research findings.  Attention is a gateway to awareness, and potentially happiness too.  In her lecture, Dr. Grabowecky pointed out the relationship between mindfulness and attention.  She explained that mindfulness is not just related to paying attention, but rather, it is “paying attention in a particular manner.” She stated, “Mindfulness is a present-moment awareness that is not judgmental.  New York Times article defines meditation as “the simple, nonjudgmental observation of a person’s breath, body or just about anything else. Furthermore, addressing this idea of attention, they stated that mindfulness, “by emphasizing on the here and now, trains the mind to stay on task and avoid distractions.”  They showed that as little as 12 minutes of meditation practice given to marines per day, greatly helped them keep their attention and working memory stable.”  In Sanskrit and various other Tibetan languages, meditation translates to “remembering” (Grabowecky).  Mindfulness doesn’t just enhance attention, but also improves remembering capacity.  Research published in the journal, Psychology Science, found a 16 percentile points increase, along with significant increases in working memory capacity, in undergraduates who spend only 10 minutes per day, for two weeks practicing meditation (Hurley). 

These findings, amongst others, further reiterate Dr. Grabowecky’s discussion regarding benefits of mindfulness and mediation. Both of these sources illustrate that meditation cultivates particular mental and emotional states that stabilizes attention, and trains the mind to become more familiar with its operations.  These advantages link back to the physiological processes of the brain. Mindfulness and meditation can significantly impact the physiological workings. It increases the cortical thickness in meditators, along with a more stable emotional reactivity in long-term meditators—meaning, when faced with a disturbing stimulus, the amygdala response to these negative distracting sounds decreases with increasing years of meditation (although compassion response increases) (Grabowecky). New York Times article mentioned a study that stated practicing mindfulness meditation “enhances the integrity and efficiency of the brain’s white matter, the tissue that connects and protects neurons emanating from the anterior cingulate cortex, a region of particular importance for rational decision making and effortful problem-solving.”  This comprehensive view of both, the physiological and psychological impacts of mindfulness and meditation can prove to be beneficial from various perspective—clinical/medical, educational, and societal/social. New York Times article, as well as Dr. Grabowecky’s discussion provides an insightful glimpse into understanding a little bit more about this technique. However, there still remains a multitude to unexplored territories about the mysterious workings of this ancient technique on our brain’s functioning.  Growing number of researchers are attracted to this field, especially because it provides the pause needed in our life come out of our mundane monotonous every-day life that just builds up anxiety and stress.  Thus, as seen through the evidence, consistent habitual practice of mindfulness meditation can prove to be greatly beneficial for mental and emotional health of any individual!

References:

Hurley, Dan. "Breathing In vs. Spacing Out." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 Jan. 2014. Web. 12 Dec. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/magazine/breathing-in-vs-spacing-out.html>.

Photo: http://twelvewellness.com/healing-the-addict-brian-with-mindfulness-meditation/

http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/10/14/eeg-shows-different-brain-waves-in-adhd-subtypes/60724.html