“Meditation helps relieve our subjective levels of anxiety and depression, and improve attention, concentration and overall psychological well-being.”
– Alice G. Walton, “7 Ways Meditation Can Actually Change the Brain,” Forbes
The scientific term for the area of the brain responsible for mind-wandering (“monkey mind”) and self-referential thoughts (the “me” impulse) is called the default mode network (DMN). The word default means failure or neglect. A person who defaults on a loan fails to pay financial debts. Unless we select a new pattern, our computers revert to a default font. Our iPhones have default ringtones—sounds we didn’t choose.
The mind-wandering that occurs in the default mode network is typically linked to ruminating and worrying—which can reduce our level of happiness. A Stanford study about Alzheimer’s disease showed that this same area of the brain is closely involved with episodic memory processing.
Yale researchers found that mindfulness meditation quiets the DMN, enabling us to move out of the negative tailspin that mind-wandering can lead us and have more peace. Just as we need to make an effort to repay our loans or reset tech-device default settings, taking action to train our brains can reduce the impact of our default tendencies.
What steps can you take to train your brain and reduce the impact of its default mode?
To learn more about the benefits of meditation and ways to practice training the brain, visit https://www.headspace.com/ or https://chopracentermeditation.com/articles. Free guided meditations are available at http://www.chopra.com/articles/guided-meditations.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the guided meditations urls and for reminding me how restorative meditations are. I'm going to carve out time today to meditate.--Mira K
ReplyDeleteMira, thank you for your comment. Wishing you continued opportunities for restorative practices, Jenny
ReplyDelete