As I wrote in my previous post, when practicing mindfulness, you remain in the present moment, curious about and open to the thoughts, feelings, and surroundings just as they are…rejecting nothing, and clinging to nothing. You hold a space of equanimity.
And this is just what you do when you sit in meditation…except you don’t have to contend with rude co-workers, rush hour road construction, spilled milk, or a cancelled flight. All you have to do is objectively observe what’s happening in your external environment and your internal physical and mental worlds. (For more about how to do this, please read the posts in the tab Meditation Nuts & Bolts.
Similar to orchestras or athletes, we too need time for warming-up and practicing before our performance – in this case, the performance of living. When we practice mindfulness meditation for five minutes or 45 minutes, we strengthen and train the mind to become:
- More focused;
- Less like Pavlov’s dog that reacts mindlessly;
- More observant to subtle nuances;
- Less agitation over the unchangeable past or worry over the unpredictable future;
- More able to respond skillfully in stressful or anger-provoking situations.
- Less often trapped in a downward negative-thinking spiral.
- More mentally flexible and nimble;
- Less over-reactive in frustrating situations;
- More balanced, calm, and composed.
Not bad skills to have when you want to create a life filled with greater happiness. Here are just two of the ways mindfulness meditation helps you develop these life-enhancing abilities.
1. Develop A More Focused, Disciplined Mind
Whether it’s playing a piano or slopestyle snowboarding, success requires discipline and ongoing practice.
When training the mind during mindfulness meditation you practice letting go of or detaching from thoughts, irritants, unpleasant physical sensations, worries, past or future ruminations, and all those “shoulds.” This translates into greater control over our day-to-day lives by:
- Escaping faster from the traps of anger and fear.
- Stopping ourselves from saying things that we later regret.
- Staying focused easier on tasks when surrounded by noise and distractions.
- Responding to physical discomforts with greater ease – because getting tense only makes thing worse.
- Handling family situations with greater skill and wisdom (even if others don’t).
- Responding to the never-ending little annoyances of life with patience and composure.
For more about this topic, please read Tony’s post, (another meditation teacher).
2. Rewire The Brain For More Happiness By Tapping Into Its Natural Plasticity
Neuroscientists once believed that in adults the brain remained fixed and immutable – that the brain we had at 21 years old was the one we were stuck with for the rest of our lives. Now we know that scientists were just as wrong as when people believed that the earth was flat. Not only does the human brain retain a natural plasticity as we age, but we can, by our thoughts and actions, re-wire it, creating new circuitry and neuropath ways.
In her book, Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves, (2007), the science editor at Newsweek, Sharon Begley discussed research demonstrating how meditation rewires the brain creating greater happiness. Below is a brief look at this work.
At the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Richard Davidson, Ph.D. conducts brain research in: Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience, Waisman-Laboratory for Brain Imaging & Behavior and Center for Investigating Healthy Minds. Over the past decade, Dr. Davidson’s research demonstrated:
- The pre-frontal cortex comes wired for happiness and unhappiness. When there is greater activity in the left prefrontal cortex, people feel happier. When the activity is greater in the right prefrontal cortex individuals feel discontented with life. Here’s a simplified picture.
- MRIs on long-term meditating monks revealed a left prefrontal cortex with greater thickness, more blood vessels, and greater neuro activity, than their thinner and quieter right prefrontal cortex. In other words, the meditating monks had happier brains.
- Non-mediators, who began meditating, also demonstrated a slight shift from their “unhappy” right prefrontal cortex to the “happy” left prefrontal cortex, indicating that the positive effects of meditation need not take years.
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My meditating friends and I have found that, over time, we’ve become happier people…and therefore, kinder.
