Member-only story
How Meditation Impacts The Brain
What Science Has Discovered About This Ancient Practice
People have been meditating for thousands of years. In fact, it is likely that we have been meditating in one form or another for as long as there have been human beings on the planet.
But a group of scientists at the University of Wisconsin wanted to measure objectively just how meditation impacts the brain and body using cutting edge scientific techniques.
The benefits of this ancient practice have been extolled widely, and it doesn’t take long for you to verify some of these benefits yourself. All you have to do is to start meditating… and then to keep up this habit every day. You will quickly start to experience some of the benefits first-hand.
Long-term, regular, committed meditation practice can literally change your life. But what are the tangible, physiological effects?
In the University of Wisconsin study, psychologist and neuroscientist Richard Davidson PhD and his team focused on two main areas which meditation effects — attention and emotion.
To gather the data, they used MRI scans and electrodes attached to the head and arms of experienced and long-term serious meditators, as well as people new to meditation, to measure electrical impulses and patterns…
