Meditation

Since I was 12 years old, my father has tried to teach me meditation. I used to be skeptical of it—it seemed a bit confusing and obscure. It wasn’t until later that I experienced the enormous benefits behind this simple practice: boosting happiness in everyday life.

At first, I meditated for just two minutes a day—only two minutes! Starting with small, consistent habits is the first step toward achieving long-term goals. So I thought, even if it’s just two minutes, it’s still a positive change. I decided to start with those two minutes.

Whether you’re currently skeptical of meditation like I once was, or you’ve been practicing it for a long time, I believe it’s valuable to understand how meditation affects our brains. That’s why I delved into research and discovered the fascinating changes that occur in the brain during meditation.

Types of Meditation: Core Styles Explained

Meditation comes in many forms. Seated meditation, Zen meditation, yoga—different traditions have their own techniques and terminology, but the core principle remains the same. Meditation is a highly personal experience, and its meaning goes far beyond our initial understanding. Currently, scientific research on meditation focuses primarily on two key types:

1. Focused-Attention Meditation (Mindful Meditation)

This involves concentrating your attention on a single point, such as your breath (Buddhism has its own breathwork techniques), a physical sensation, or a specific external object. The key to this style is maintaining sustained, full attention on the chosen point and gently bringing your focus back whenever your mind wanders.

2. Open-Monitoring Meditation

This style involves observing all the thoughts, sensations, and events around you as they arise and pass, without reacting to or judging them.

What Happens to Your Brain During Meditation?

Now, let’s dive into the interesting part. Scientists use modern technology like fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to gain a deeper understanding of the neural mechanisms behind meditation. During meditation, the brain processes information significantly less actively than in daily life.

For someone trying meditation for the first time, beta waves (one of the four basic human brainwaves; advanced meditators produce the other three) decrease continuously during a 20-minute session. Beta wave intensity is an indirect indicator of the brain’s information processing load.

The image above shows a significant reduction in beta wave intensity after meditation (the lit area on the left represents beta waves before meditation).

Below is the scientific explanation I found—how meditation affects the activity of each key brain region:

1. Prefrontal Cortex

The prefrontal cortex is responsible for reasoning, thinking, planning, emotion regulation, and self-awareness. It is the most heavily involved brain region during meditation. During meditation, the prefrontal cortex becomes almost completely quiet.

2. Parietal Lobe

The parietal lobe processes sensory information from the environment and helps with spatial awareness. During meditation, activity in the parietal lobe slows down.

3. Thalamus

The thalamus acts as a sensory filter. It organizes useful information and transmits it to deeper brain regions, while filtering out irrelevant information to improve focus. Meditation slows down the speed of information flow into the thalamus.

4. Reticular Formation

The reticular formation is like a “sentinel” in the brain. This structure receives incoming sensory stimuli, keeping the brain alert and ready to respond. Meditation reduces the frequency of arousal signals sent by the reticular formation (various environmental stimuli trigger physiological arousal, and arousal levels determine the intensity of emotions).

How Meditation Improves Your Health: 7 Science-Backed Benefits

Now that we understand how meditation affects the brain, let’s explore its positive impacts on health:

1. Enhanced Focus and Attention

Meditation is a training process for concentrating attention and observing the flow of your focus. Over time, this practice translates to improved attention span and focus in daily life—a long-term benefit of regular meditation.

2. Reduced Anxiety

The explanation for this is a bit technical, but the mechanism is fascinating. As you practice meditation more regularly, feelings of anxiety gradually decrease. Research confirms this is due to the weakening of specific neural connections in the brain. While this may sound like a “loss,” it’s actually a positive adaptation.

The brain has a region often referred to as the “self-centered” area—scientifically known as the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). This region processes information related to the “self” and personal experiences.

Under normal circumstances, the neural connections between the body’s sensory awareness, fear centers, and the mPFC are strong. When you’re startled or experience negative emotions, this region triggers a strong response, making you feel fear, 意识到 you’re under threat, and preparing you for the “fight or flight” response.

Through meditation, these neural connections are weakened. This means the mPFC’s response to threats or negative emotions is less intense. At the same time, the connections between your body’s sensory awareness and fear centers become stronger. When you encounter something scary or feel uneasy, you’re able to respond more rationally.

For example, when you’re in pain, instead of worrying about the negative impact and feeling anxious, you can stop overthinking and view the situation more objectively. You simply observe the pain as it rises and falls, allowing it to flow naturally. Meditation enhances your ability to think rationally and stop overthinking.

3. Boosted Creativity

If you’re a designer or writer, creativity is likely a top priority. Research shows meditation can impact creativity—but it’s not a one-size-fits-all benefit.

Researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands studied both focused-attention and open-monitoring meditation. They found that people who regularly practice focused-attention meditation showed no significant improvement in creative tasks. However, those who practiced open-monitoring meditation performed better on creative tasks and generated more original ideas.

4. Increased Compassion and Empathy

Meditation research has found that regular practitioners exhibit greater empathy and compassion. In an “empathy meditation” experiment, participants viewed images of people expressing positive, negative, or neutral emotions.

The results showed that meditators were able to focus fully on the images without excessive emotional fluctuation, yet still displayed strong compassion for those appearing distressed.

This phenomenon is partly attributed to neural activity in the amygdala—the brain region responsible for processing emotional stimuli. Normally, the amygdala shows reduced activity during meditation. However, in this experiment, the amygdala responded when participants viewed the emotional images.

Another 2008 study found that regular meditators had more activity in the temporoparietal junction (TPJ)—a brain region closely linked to empathy—when listening to sounds of others in pain, compared to non-meditators.

5. Improved Memory

Meditation is also associated with faster memory recall. Catherine Kerr from the Osher Center and Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging found that people who practice focused-attention meditation can adjust their brainwaves more quickly to overcome distractions like anxiety, improving overall cognitive efficiency.

She claims this ability to rapidly adapt to distractions explains meditators’ superior fast memory recall and cognitive integration skills.

6. Reduced Stress

Focused-attention meditation has been proven to help people perform better under stress. In a 2012 study, a group of human resources managers was divided into three groups: one practiced focused-attention meditation, another did physical relaxation exercises, and the third received no training.

After eight weeks, all participants completed a multi-tasking stress test. The results showed that the group that practiced focused-attention meditation had significantly lower stress levels than the other two groups.

7. Increased Gray Matter

Meditation is associated with increased gray matter volume in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Initially, this phenomenon was poorly understood, but it has since been proven to be highly beneficial.

In daily life, more gray matter leads to more positive emotions, longer-lasting emotional stability, and higher levels of focus. Additionally, aging reduces gray matter volume and cognitive function—meditation has been shown to mitigate these age-related effects.

The last：

Once you’ve found your ideal practice method, consider adding an extra layer of support to your mindfulness journey—a meticulously painted Thangka.

As a perfect choice for creating a dedicated meditation space, the sacred symbols and serene colors of a Thangka help calm your mind, enhance focus, and make every breathing exercise easier to sink into the present moment.

With the dual alignment of vision and spirit, you’ll reach your inner “other shore” more effortlessly.