Ooooohhhhmmmm-oh, excuse me!
I was just enhancing my brain… through meditation!
Greetings my fellow level-5 laser lotuses, Julian here for DNews and I have some info
for you to reflect upon.
A research team from the University of Singapore announced this week that they have observed
actual quantitative and qualitative physiological effects of meditation.
Moreover, the effects are radically different depending on how meditation is practiced.
Maria Kozhevnikov and Dr. Amihai studied four groups of practiced meditators from Thailand
and Nepal; Two groups practiced meditation from the Theravada schools of Buddhism, the
other two were experienced in Vajrayana meditations.
The researchers monitored electrocardiographic (that’s your heart) and electroencephalographic
(that’s your brain) responses and also gave the groups cognitive tasks.
What they discovered was the Theravada meditation had a calming effect, which makes sense.
Theravada is the oldest surviving form of Buddhism, it literally translates to, “The
Teachings of the Elders,” and its meditations focus on tranquility and abstract understanding
to be free of suffering and stress.
It’s no coincidence then that EKGs showed an increase in High Frequency activity in
the heart when the subjects were meditating compared to when they were at rest.
More High Frequency activity is associated with the activation of the parasympathetic
nervous system, which calms calms us and stimulates digestion and sexual arousal.
On the other hand, practitioners of the Vajrayana school saw a decrease of the High frequency
component of their heart rate variability when they were meditating, meaning they had
activated the sympathetic nervous system.
The sympathetic nervous system is complementary to the parasympathetic; it stimulates the
flight or flight response by stimulating the release of hormones like norepinephrine and
epinephrine, better known as adrenaline.
This challenges the previous notion that meditation could only be used for relaxation.
Even better, the Vajrayana subjects performed better on the cognitive tasks.
And not just a little better; the effect was instant and dramatic after just one session.
Theravada, meanwhile, didn’t improve performance on the same tasks.
The researchers note that Vajrayana takes years of practice, and plan to study if just
using some basic elements from it can have the same effect.
So this means if you need to psych yourself up to do well on a test or job interview,
maybe you should meditate?
And when you need to calm down again after, a different kind of meditation can bring you
back down again.
There are even more benefits of meditation.
Check out Laci breaking it down for you here.
Maybe it’ll help you heal now that she’s no longer on the team.
I know, I miss her too.
And do you meditate?
What have you noticed from your own experiences?
Let us know in the comments.
Until then, let’s keep chasing enlightenment through science, and I’ll see you next time
on DNews.