Contagious You by Anese Cavanaugh

Author:Anese Cavanaugh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education
Published: 2020-11-19T16:00:00+00:00

The Science of Meditation

When we meditate, we build stronger neural pathways, expansive gray matter, exuberant dendrites, robust resiliency, and everything good that makes us show up better and feel better.13

With meditation, the area of the brain (prefrontal cortex) interprets all incoming info and communication with clarity and lucidity by calming the area of the brain (amygdala) that activates fear and judgment. This makes us better able to interpret information and decide what to do with it.

Curiosity, presence, mindfulness, compassion, self-care, and sleep develop our dendrites and increase their capacity to make more synaptic connections. This means we are better able to process more information, declutter it, make sense of it, and move forward with clarity to make our next move and decision. Violà, our neuronal capacity gets increased, and therefore, so does our inner threshold!

If we are fear-driven, or in a state of fear (like in a meeting that’s going badly), we can’t receive all the information present or make our best decisions because we’re spending too much energy dealing with fear or judgment or blame or any of the lower-vibration states. In a state of contraction we have a very narrow lens for interpretation and a weak filter. Meditation strengthens our left and right brain connection; helps us relax, breathe, and connect; and allows more information in through the command center. The end result is that we make good decisions.

With the recent advancement of scientific tools, scientists are better able to measure and demonstrate the benefits of meditation. For example, in the brains of people who have been following an 8- to 10-week mindfulness practice, the front part of the left side of the brain is highly activated and gray matter is significantly increased when measured in functional MRIs.14 This is gold. Why is this so great? Dr. Lee explains, “Gray matter is where the neuronal cell body resides as well as dendrites. [White matter is where the axons are and they are myelinated—insulated—in white lipid matter.] Gray matter is gray, as the dendrites are not insulated. Dendrites are like tree branches harboring docking sites for axonal fibers of other neurons to connect and form synapses. The more meditation and mindful presence practice, the more the dendritic branches become exuberant. With more exuberant dendrite branches, we have greater ability to intake and better process sensory inputs and exert motor output.”

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