The benefits of integrating meditation into your daily or weekly routine are abundant. Be it concentrative, nondirective, or transcendental meditation, your mind and body will be affected on molecular levels that can change your life positively in numerous ways.
The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), the University of Oslo and the University of Sydney divide meditation techniques into two distinct types for a study on how the brain works during meditation: “One type is concentrative meditation, where the meditating person focuses attention on his or her breathing or on specific thoughts, and in doing so, suppresses other thoughts. The other type may be called nondirective meditation, where the person who is meditating effortlessly focuses on his or her breathing or on a meditation sound, but beyond that the mind is allowed to wander as it pleases.”
“The study indicates that nondirective meditation allows for more room to process memories and emotions than during concentrated meditation,” says Svend Davanger, a neuroscientist at the University of Oslo, and co-author of the study.
“This area of the brain has its highest activity when we rest. It represents a kind of basic operating system, a resting network that takes over when external tasks do not require our attention. It is remarkable that a mental task like nondirective meditation results in even higher activity in this network than regular rest,” says Davanger.
Aside from the relaxing benefits of meditation, cognitive psychologists at Universiteit Leiden have done studies that show that meditation can not only make you more creative, but utilizing your brain and thought processes with meditation can have lasting, positive effects on cognition and other important mental processes.
There are several ways to meditate. Find a method that works for you and give it a try! The results could change your life for the better.
– by Jesi V. Taylor, Writer | Researcher | Receptionista