Meditation Research Update

Brain changes that link mindfulness meditation withhealth-related benefits

New research from Carnegie Mellon University provides a window into the brain changes that link mindfulness meditation training with health in stressed adults. Published in Biological Psychiatry, the study shows that mindfulness meditation training, compared to relaxation training, reduces Interleukin-6, an inflammatory health biomarker, in high-stress, unemployed community adults.

The randomized controlled trial involved 35 stressed-adult-job-seekers; one group were exposed to an intensive three-day mindfulness meditation retreat program, the second group to a well-matched relaxation retreat program which did not have a mindfulness component.

Participants completed a five-minute resting state brain scan before and after the three-day program; and provided blood samples before the program and at a follow up four-months later.

The brain scans showed:

* mindfulness meditation training increased the functional connectivity of the participants' resting default mode network in areas important to attention and executive control (namely the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and had reduced IL-6 levels (inflammation levels)

* Participants who attended the relaxation training did not show these brain changes.

"We think that these brain changes provide a neurobiological marker for improved executive control and stress resilience, such that mindfulness meditation training improves your brain's ability to help you manage stress, and these changes improve a broad range of stress-related health outcomes, such as your inflammatory health," David Creswell, lead author and associate professor of psychology in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Meditation shown to reduce pain during breast cancer biopsy

Researchers, from the Duke Cancer Institute in Durham, NC, publish their findings in the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

A study of 121 women who needed breast biopsies where placed into three groups: guided meditation, music and a standard-care control group.

During the biopsy, the women in the meditation group listened to an "audio-recorded, guided, loving-kindness meditation," which focused on acquiring positive emotions and releasing negative ones.

You can view a video demonstration of the guided meditationused in the study here.

The women in the music group listened to relaxing music (a choice of instrumental jazz, classical piano, harp and flute, nature sounds or world music) and the control group received supportive words from the biopsy team.

Patients filled out questionnaires that measured nervousness and anxiety, and ranked their biopsy pain from 0-10.

'Results showed that the women in the meditation and music groups reported much greater post-biopsy reductions in anxiety and fatigue, compared with the control group, which reported increased fatigue.  Furthermore, the women in the meditation group experienced significantly lower pain during the biopsy, compared with the women in the music group'.

12-minute daily meditation for improving memory

As part of my studies for the McLean Meditation Teacher Certificate Program I have been voraciously reading and mentally digesting some truly amazing books.

One book that I am sure I would never have found (or thought I would enjoy so much), is How God Changes Your Brain by Andrew Newberg, M.D. 

Mind-blowing (yes, funny and true) .. this book has quickly become my most treasured and referenced text, and provides a really easy guide to the science of meditation and the brain.  Advances in neuroscience, especially over the last five years, have revolutionized the way we think about the brain .. and how we might understand the neurological correlates of spiritual experiences and religious beliefs.

In 2006, Andrew began a new line of research to see if meditation could have a positive effect on patients suffering from memory loss.  With a grant from the Alzheimer's Research and Prevention Foundation, he began to investigate how a specific form of meditation might affect the neural functioning of patients who suffered from memory loss.

The practice they investigated is called Kirtan Kriya which I have practiced for many years .. but the science has been a revelation!

Kirtan Kriya is a meditation chant that originates from Kundalini yoga which has been practiced for thousands of years.  In Sanskrit, kirtan is a song, and kriya refers to a specific set of movements. 'Sa Ta Na Ma' and 'Sat Nam' are two primary Kundalini mantra practices taught by Yogi Bhajan to reorient the mind and open us to the possibility of transformational change. 

'Sat' translates as truth and 'Nam' translates as name - Truth is my name

The mantra involves the repetition of the words Sa Ta Na Ma ~  repeating them firstly aloud, then in a whisper, then silently, then in a whisper again and finally aloud; meanwhile the meditator touches fingers to thumb in sequence (known as hand mudra's in the East).

Research conducted by Andrew Newberg MD, director of research at the Jefferson-Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine, led an experiment with 15 older adults with memory problems, ranging from mild age-associated memory impairment to mild impairment with a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.  

Half of the group practiced Kirtan Kirya for 12 minutes a day for eight weeks, the other group listened to classical music for the same period of time.

From a neuropsychological point of view, the mantra was found to activate areas of the brain associated with attention and exclusive functions (Newberg et al., 2010); increasing cerebral blood flow and improving patient’s emotional states.  SPECT (single photon emission computer tomography) scans also noted significant changes in the amygdale - the area of the brain that plays a role in the formation and storage of memories associated with emotional events; and tests of verbal fluency, logical memory and other skills showed significant improvement.  Results were reported in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. 

“The people in the study had no experience with meditation, and yet by activating their brain with 12 minutes of meditation a day, they were able to improve their cognition and mental function.  It really made their brain healthier.” Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D, one of the lead authors of the article and the medical director of the Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation.

I have prepared a one-page instruction sheet for the Sa Ta Na Ma mantra - just click below:

Nose or mouth?

Last night in our third Exploring Meditation class, I was asked whether, in meditation, it was best to breathe through the nose or a combination of nose (inhalation) and mouth (exhalation).  

This morning I was reading How God Changes Your Brain and was astounded to find just the perfect answer to this question (similar to what I shared last night, but backed by research).

From How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist by Andrew Newberg M.D. and Mark Robert Waldman (Chapter 9: Finding Serenity):

"In general, when meditating, we recommend that you breathe through your nose.  Why?  It turns out that nasal breathing increases the release of nitric oxide in the body, and this improves the functioning of your lungs and circulatory system.  Increased nitric oxide may also assist in the lowering of anxiety, especially in socially intense situations.  Nasal breathing, like yawning, also serves to keep the internal temperature of the brain in balance".

Cited research:

Decreased pulmonary vascular resistance during nasal breathing

Depression and cardiovascular disease: role of nitric oxide

Yawning as a brain cooling mechanism

What of Meditation Research

I am fully immersed in new studies at the moment .. excitedly undertaking teachings in a new meditation practice plus meditation teaching program, and loving every minute!

But today I felt I had reached a tipping point in my accumulation of documents, and I really needed to take some time to get organised.  Alongside the mountain of books, I have a box of additional reading material, examinations and half-worked journal articles which need to be reviewed and finished or filed. 

Way too much 'stuff' floating around in little piles on my office floor.

So - organisation required.

I decided to set up a new online journal today (using Blogger) which will be the repository for the hundred (or so) research articles that I need to sort into some order.  Being an online journal means I can (a) reduce printing and paper and ink costs (b) easily link and cut/paste documents and articles (c) collate and label for future referencing (d) sneak in time throughout the day while at the computer to move things around .. and its is prettier and massageable and flexible to my needs.

So I started filing everything away today .. and in the process refresh with some of the great literature and research done to date.

And then I came across this lovely little article from the Chopra Centre:

99 Reasons to Start Meditating

And felt this would be a good starting point for my ongoing research into published studies.  This list of 99 'touted' benefits of meditation could guide me in ensuring I have all the necessary primary and published data.

And yet .. I am very aware of the lag between science and the individual experience.  Cognizant of what Kelly McGonigal articulated in a recent Mindful.org article:

"Indeed, it will take time for science to catch up to the wisdom of the great meditation teachers. And even with the advances in brain technology, there are changes both subtle and profound transmitted only through direct experience. Fortunately, all you need to get started is the willingness to sit and be with your own body, breath, and mind". 

We started our new Exploring Meditation course last night, and I am very clear that you can hope, dream, read, write, discuss and attend all the meditation training you like .. but there will be no benefits unless you

DO IT!

Meditation is experiential .. and therein lies the complexity in researching the unique individual practice of meditation.

Meditation Research - Australia

It is always great to hear about meditation research in our own 'backyard' .. and the team at Monash University are looking for funding to undertake a research project to test the changes in brain activity that take place as a result of mindfulness, helping us further understand how mindfulness can be used to improve our lives.

"Scientists think the benefits provided by mindfulness come from an improved ability to direct our attention, so we can focus on the moment, rather than being distracted by worries about the future or regrets about the past. This improved attention is almost certainly the result of neuroplastic change. However, no one has systematically examined the effect of these changes on brain activity during the direction of attention. The current research project will examine changes in neural inhibition (the brain's ability to quiet non-relevant regions) as a result of mindfulness practice. Understanding these changes will help us understand how mindfulness works to improve attention".

Submission for: Thinkable Open Innovation Award

You can help out HERE

Find Your Fit

Burning Incense by kevinpoh on Flickr 

In life (and in meditation) everyone’s journey is unique .. I am often heard to say ‘many roads up the mountain’ .. that part of our life journey is to find and travel our own unique road.

A recent study published online in Explore: The Journal of Science and Healing highlighted the importance of ensuring that new meditators select methods with which they are most comfortable, rather than those that are most popular or what 

everyone else is doing

When you select a meditation practice that YOU are most comfortable with, you are likely to increase your chance of sticking with it, says Adam Burke, the author of the study and a professor of health education at San Francisco State University.

Burke’s study compared four popular meditation methods — Mantra, Mindfulness, Zen and Qigong Visualization — to see if new meditation practitioners favored one over the others. The study’s 247 participants were taught each method and asked to practice at home and, at the end of the study, evaluate which they preferred.

The two simpler methods, Mantra and Mindfulness, were preferred by 31 percent of study participants, with about 22 percent preferring Zen and 14.8 percent preferring Qigong.

This study shows the value of providing new practitioners with a simple, accessible method of meditation, and emphasizes that no one technique is best for everyone.

“If someone is exposed to a particular technique through the media or a health care provider, they might assume because it’s popular it’s the best for everyone,” Burke said. “But that’s like saying because a pink dress or a blue sport coat is popular this year, it’s going to look good on everybody. In truth, different people like different things. One size does not fit all.”

FIND YOUR FIT

I spent many years exploring various schools of meditation, learning from different teachers, diving into different methods .. and then, when I came to sharing my passion for meditation with others I knew that I wanted to share some of those 'flavours’ so that participants could the best fit for them.

Ultimately meditation practice is not going to be effective for you, unless you like doing it – and you do it!

Some people will find a single technique that works well for them, and will continue with that practice for a lifetime; others might find in time that their original practice feels a little worn or limiting and move to a different practice.

It is those who stick with a practice that is obviously not working for them, that often declare they are ‘no good at this’ or ‘it’s too hard’ or ‘it just doesn’t work’.

It is VITAL to find a meditation practice that speaks to you and

DO IT!

Meditation could help you work smarter

New research from INSEAD and The Wharton School, to be published in Feb issue of Psychological Science (journal of the Association for Psychological Science) - has shown that one 15-minute focused-breathing meditation may help people make smarter choices. 

More US Doctors Prescribing Meditation

Picture from article found on Psychology Today

From PsychologyToday online a report into research conducted recently in the United States that points to the medical community embracing Mind Body Therapies (Published on August 9, 2012 by Robert Puff, Ph.D. in Meditation for Modern Life).

A May 2011 joint study by the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and the Harvard Medical School set out to gather information from about 23,000 U.S. households. Initially expecting a very small percentage of doctors were actually referring their patients to participate in Mind Body Therapies (MBT) such as meditation .. what they actually discovered was that 6.3 million Americans (1 in 30 approx) are being referred by doctors to practices such as meditation.

How amazing is that! The researchers were also 'surprised’ by the finding.

So it certainly appears that there is a shift happening.  And is it really surprising?  Hasn't meditation been around for about 5000 years, practiced by millions of people across the globe, passed on as an oral tradition for thousands of years .. do you think we would still be sitting, quietly and embracing meditation if it didn't work?  How big a research study do you need?

Meditation is one wellbeing practice that everyone can embrace .. after all it does'nt not require a prescription .. is relatively easy to learn and inexpensive, and once learnt is freely available to you whenever and wherever you need it .. and the side affects are calmness and greater sense of wellbeing.

So, why not find out for yourself!

Meditation is the ultimate self help tool, helping us to actively manage our stress and counter the growing number of stress related-illnesses plaguing modern day life. Reducing stress is the key to most illness (apparently 80-85% of all illness is caused or exacerbated by stress).

I know from my own experience that meditation is .. a life skill!

Meditation .. and multitasking

A recent study from the University of Washington Information School professors David Levy and Jacob Wobbrock suggests that meditation training can help people working with information stay on tasks longer with fewer distractions and also improves memory and reduces stress.

“To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore how meditation might affect multitasking in a realistic work setting,” Levy says.

Three groups each of 12-15 human resources personnel were tested: (1) those who underwent an 8-week training course on mindfulness-based meditation, (2) those who endured a wait period, were tested, and then underwent the same 8-week training, and (3) those who had 8-weeks of training in body relaxation

Before and after each eight-week period, the participants were given a stressful test of their multitasking abilities using email, calendars, instant messaging, telephone and word-processing to perform common office tasks.

Researchers measured participants speed, accuracy, and the extent to which they switched tasks; along with participants self-reporting on levels of stress and memory.

The results were significant: The meditation group reported lower levels of stress during the multitasking test while those in the control group or who received only relaxation training did not; and the control group also reported lower stress once given the same meditation training.

The meditation training helped participants concentrate longer and make fewer task switches, as well as reporting less negative emotion after task performance. In addition, both the meditation and the relaxation groups showed improved memory for the tasks they performed.

Levy says, “We are encouraged by these first results. While there is increasing scientific evidence that certain forms of meditation increase concentration and reduce emotional volatility and stress, until now there has been little direct evidence that meditation may impart such benefits for those in stressful, information-intensive environments.”

The study notes “Meditation is already being introduced into the modern office in the hope that it can effect positive changes in worker performance and well-being." [(2003) Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine 65 (4), 564-570.9].

The present study offers some support for such interventions, suggesting that they may lead to improved memory and reduced stress.

Read the full research paper here

Dr Ramesh Monacha on ABC Radio

Recently on the ABC Hobart Statewide Evening Show was an interview with Dr Ramesh Monacha .. talking about new research which suggests if you want to do something beneficial for your physical and mental well being you should seriously consider taking up meditation... 

I have written previously about the research being conducted in Australia by Dr Monacha here ..

In this interview Dr Monacha defines meditation (the experience of mental stillness), talks about his research studies to date, the experience of Sahaja Yoga Meditation and the website http://www.freemeditation.com.au/ where you can find out more about this style of meditation ..

Dr Monacha also leads an online

three minute guided meditation

GO HERE

The Contemplative Sciences

Program & Research Council member Matthieu Ricard

The first ever International Symposia for Contemplative Studies, coordinated and cosponsored by the Mind & Life Institute, was held recently in Denver (April 26-29, 2012).

This is a ground breaking conference which attracted more than 700 neuroscientists, educators, and contemplative scholars from around the world.  Their mission : to share cutting-edge research on the nature and workings of the human mind, and to explore how a scientific understanding of the mind can address a wide range of issues, including health, education, and personal and social wellness.

I eagerly await further articles from the Symposium to be posted online .. but I did read today a really interesting piece "Three Insights about Compassion, Meditation, and the Brain" by Emiliana R. Simon-Thomas from Greater Good, the science of a meaningful life.   

In particular this article provides some insight into three areas where researchers are clearly making some ground-breaking findings:

We can train our brains to be more compassionate

Scientists are starting to measure consciousness

Meditation can make you feel more connected to others

A great read if you are interested in finding out more about current cutting-edge research in the field .. and I hope to post more in due course.

Meditation & Business Leadership

An article from The Independent Newspaper of the Harvard Business School Community (The Harbus) notes a new study that will look into ‘whether meditation can help business leaders increase self-awareness, mental clarity, focus and emotional intelligence. It is often also claimed that meditation helps a leader develop more authenticity, tolerance and empathy, which leads to a greater sense of belongingness and responsibility for the communities they live and work in” (full article here).

Harvard Business School has been a leader in a number of studies in this area, reflecting a growing awareness at Harvard for contemplative studies, including the study led by psychologist Sara Lazar at Harvard Medical School that first documented how meditation produced changes over time in the brain’s gray matter (in areas associated with attention and emotional integration); the inclusion of mindfulness practices at the Harvard Law School ‘essential to the art of conflict resolution’; and the cross-university study at HBS that is looking at contemplative dimensions of leadership and leadership education.

One inspiring, creative and focused business leader that comes to my mind (who was also a meditator) ~ is Steve Jobs who visited India in the 70's, developed an interest in Buddhism and had a Zen practice ..

"If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there's room to hear more subtle things - that's when your intuition starts to blossom and you start to see things more clearly and be in the present more. Your mind just slows down, and you see a tremendous expanse in the moment. You see so much more than you could see before. It's a discipline; you have to practice it."

Steve Jobs (from the Walter Isaacson biography, Steve Jobs)

Meditation and creativity

Change .. inevitable but testing at times nevertheless.  I have had so many projects running of late, that the thought of another one (being updating the 'look' of this blog) seemed too daunting.  But the teenager took me in hand and we lept into the project without looking back (or too much holding on from me).  It may take a little longer to iron out the wrinkles .. but it has been a fun afternoon spent together creating.

In meditation we find that as life, body and mind slow down .. we find this 'spaciousness'.  I often use the analogy of the untidy office desk, under the papers/pens the clippings and coffee mug .. is always just the clear desk. When we clear the desk a little, or sort into little piles, we find some space in which to sit and contemplate .. or create!

To be creative we need to find a little spaciousness of mind.

Ever had the experience in meditation where the most creative ideas just pop into mind, the best ever gift, or new book title, or business idea? These ideas become clear when there is spaciousness, when previously vague ideas or concepts finally have a chance to find each other .. and create something new!

A recent study by cognitive psychologist Lorenza Colzato and her fellow researchers at Leiden University found that certain meditation techniques can promote heightened creative thinking. The findings supported the belief that meditation can have a long-lasting influence on human cognition, including how we think and how we experience events. Article here