Meditation

Our tour of Greece and Italy is in 2 weeks!!1!1! and you know what that means…

OVER 10 HOURS SITTING ON A BUS WITH 40 OTHER PEOPLE! Sweet.

In preparation for our tour, I am reading The Agony and The Ecstasy, keeping up with the protests throughout Greece, specifically in Athens, and downloading Ted Talks by the bushel for a semi-stimulating bus ride. Unable to deny my piqued curiosity, though, I’ve already listened to the talks with the most spectacular titles: Meryl Streep’s Columbia commencement speech, Your elusive creative genius, and How meditation can reshape our brains.

The most interesting speech was the talk on meditation and neuroplasticity. You may stop reading this blog and watch the video now, or continue reading for an amateur recount of the brilliant lecture.

Basically this neurologist/researcher, Sara Lazar, started doing yoga and meditation and loved it, except for the unfounded benefits the yogi would talk about during the session. Lazar did feel better both physically and mentally after continued yoga and meditating sessions, and wanted to investigate if this was just a placebo effect, or if the practice was actually affecting her brain.

Insert science jargon here: MRIs, control groups, animal testing (boo), and statistics.

What Lazar found was those who meditated regularly (30 minutes a day) had more grey matter in the cortex (memory, decision making) than participants who did not. 50-year-old meditators had the same amount of cortex as 25-year-old non-meditators, suggesting meditation may slow down or prevent natural age-decline in the cortex structure. More studies, more tests…meditation and yoga help with depression, stress and empathy. Meditation also reduces the brain’s amygdala (fight or flight complex), explaining why those who meditate are generally calmer. Basically meditation can literally change your brain, and that’s pretty cool.

Methinks next month I'll lead a weekly meditation class. Meditation March.