Meditation, Health, and Happiness

Meditation, Health, and Happiness

            Relax. Close your eyes. Just focus on your breathing. Acknowledge and then release any thoughts that enter your mind. You have just experienced a moment of meditation.

            Maria Konnikova, in her The New York Times article, The Power of Concentration, discusses the health benefits of meditation and mindfulness. Konnikova sites a study performed by researchers from the University of Wisconsin. In this study, participants were tested before and after receiving nine 30-minute meditation-training sessions over the course of five weeks. The results of the post-test indicated significant changes in their neural networks. Participants had a leftward shift in frontal asymmetry, which scientists say helps one be active in the world instead of withdrawn.

            In a different study performed by the University of Washington, researchers tested how meditation affects multitasking. The participants were divided into three groups: one group participated in an eight-week meditation course; another group participated in an eight-week body relaxation course; and the last group did not take any course. The results of the study indicated that the only group to improve in the multitasking experiment was the group that went through the meditation course. Both studies provide evidence that meditation has a positive affect on focus and functioning.

Marcia Grabowecky, a research associate professor at Northwestern University, also discusses the positive effects of mindfulness and meditation. Grabowecky explains that the benefits of mindfulness and meditation include physiological, cognitive, and emotional effects. For example, meditation has been found to increase cortical thickness and improve emotional reactivity. Furthermore, the amygdala’s response to negative distracting sounds decreases with years of meditation whereas empathy response increases with years of meditation. Grabowecky even hypothesizes that meditation could be the gateway to happiness.

Grabowecky explains that mindfulness is a present-moment awareness that is non-judgmental. Mindfulness is important for meditative concentration; it is a way to train the mind and stabilize attention. Mindfulness increases attentional stability and therefore has many positive impacts on daily functioning. Therefore, according to Grabowecky, attention is the gateway to awareness, and probably to happiness.

Although Grabowecky works with monks who practice meditating for many years, Konnikova discusses that as little as five minutes a day of meditation can have a positive impact on one’s life. If you would like to meditate, follow Grabowecky’s basic steps to meditate. She explains that one should find a quiet place, sit in a stable, upright position, and set intention. Next, one should direct their attention to a meditative object (a point or object to focus one’s eyes). One should focus on their breathing and let go of any distractions, gently bringing focus back to their breathing. According to Konnikova and Grabowecky, meditation can improve your daily life, and even be the key to happiness.

Link to article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/opinion/sunday/the-power-of-concentration.html?pagewanted=all&module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C{%222%22%3A%22RI%3A18%22}

References:

Konnikova, M. (2012, December 15). The Power of Concentration. The New York Times.