changes in choices and actions
How does your life change if you start practicing love, kindness, and compassion? Research shows that people who practiced loving-kindness meditation in an extensive 3-month training made more altruistic choices at the end of the training. They were more likely to help others, compared to people who practiced breathing or observing-thoughts over the same period of time.
Changes in the brain
As part of the same research project, scientists investigated the brain changes in long-term meditation practitioners from the Nyingma Buddhism tradition. This tradition emphasizes loving-kindness and compassion. Seventeen meditators with over 20 years of daily loving-kindness meditation experience were compared to 15 control participants with matched age and education, who had never practiced meditation before.
All participants had to do a simple task in an MRI scanner: first, just do nothing for 7 minutes, and then, practice a 7-minute loving-kindness meditation with these beautiful instructions:
“In this condition, we want you to cultivate loving-kindness, ‘Metta’ in Pali. Altruistic love, loving-kindness or, more simply, warm-heartedness, is the wish that others be happy and well. How to generate and cultivate that state of mind? The easiest way is to begin by bringing to the mind someone who is very dear to us, someone for whom this feeling of affection arises effortlessly and spontaneously. Imagine that a young child approaches you and gives you a look that is joyous, confident, and full of innocence. You stroke his head, look at him with tenderness, and take him in your arms. You feel a sense of unconditional benevolence and love. Let yourself be entirely pervaded by this love that wishes only for his wellbeing. Then cultivate, sustain, and nourish this feeling of loving-kindness. When it declines, revive it. Think repeatedly, ‘May that person be safe, may that person be healthy, may that person find happiness and flourish in life’. You could also choose someone else toward whom you feel great tenderness and deep gratitude. Wish with all your heart that this person will find happiness and be well.” (See the full article text here)
Brain plasticity
The researchers found signs of learning-induced brain plasticity in the meditators compared to the controls. Meditators showed structural changes (increased cortical thickness) in brain regions that support attention, empathy, and communication. These brain regions were also more active in meditators than in controls during the MRI meditation task.
This study is one of the first to show that the regular practice of evoking emotions leads to plastic changes in the brain.
reflect now!
What emotions do you regularly evoke?
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Irina
HI, I AM IRINA
I am a yoga teacher and a scientist. In this blog I write about the most recent scientific research about yoga/meditation/mindfulness. Please leave comments and share your thoughts!
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