Rewire the Brain with Meditation
Article by Stefan Burns - Updated November 2021. Join the Wild Free Organic email newsletter!
Meditation is a mental and sensory practice that improves awareness, focus, and mindfulness. During meditation a technique is applied (and there are many) which trains focus, in the process resetting neural activity and with consistent practice rewires the brain so it’s easier to have a balanced, emotionally calm, and mentally clear state of mind.
Meditation has been practiced for time untold, and its popularity has steadily grown as we’ve learned more about its benefits scientifically. Just like exercising regularly and eating a nutritious diet for best health, meditation is a foundational wellness practice that should be a part of everyone’s lifestyle.
There are many ways to train the brain, and meditation is the safest way to rewire neural structures of the brain, optimize neurotransmitter ratios, and train parasympathetic (rest and digest) pathways. Having a regular meditation practice, even if it’s as short as five minutes a day, will improve all aspects of life, from stress management to exercise to sleep quality.
Meditation has been scientifically shown to change how the brain functions with as little as 7 hours of combined practice. Mediation increase neuroplasticity and the beneficial changes to brain structure and activation patterns caused by meditation are semi-permanent.
The Science of Meditation
When entering into a deep meditative state unencumbered of thoughts and distractions, one might reflect later that the mind felt much less active, but science have shown otherwise. A reduction in distraction and thoughts doesn’t mean a reduction in brain activity, instead brainwave patterns have changed.
What has been shown in the lab is that monks who have meditated for tens of thousands of hours have fundamentally different brain activity than someone who hasn’t put in the work. When connected to an EEG, master meditators demonstrate elevated gamma brainwaves, and when they enter into focused meditation, their gamma wavelengths increase further in amplitude (strength) by 600-800% in seconds (1).
Gamma brainwaves are normally only observed for a split second during periods of immense realization, such as at the end of solving a complex problem, or they can be observed during realistic states of imagination. For example, if imaging all aspects and senses associated with biting into an apple, small gamma waves will be briefly created as a result of this visualization exercise. Gamma brainwaves are very high frequency and the physics of higher frequency brainwaves connects different groups of neurons and regions of the brain together, enabling them to fire simultaneously for maximum cognitive output.
Extremely practiced yogis can sustain these gamma wave patterns in the brain indefinitely, but it takes time to reach such an elevated level on consciousness. Basic desirable changes in brain activity and neuroplasticity are observed even after a short period of meditation. Neuroplasticity is when the brain reorganizes its neural network in response to new experience and information. There are different mechanisms that influence neuroplasticity, such as the growth of new connections to the creation of new neurons. The human brain is not a static organ, it has ability to adapt and change (2). Neuroplasticity is more commonly observed in children, teenagers, and young adults whose brains are still developing, but neuroplasticity can be increased at any age if the right conditions are in place, such as with a meditation practice, learning a new language, or the acquisition of a complex skill.
The prefrontal cortex, hippocampal, and right anterior insula regions of the brain associated with attention, enteroception, and sensory processing are thicker in those who meditate regularly (3, 4). In as short as 7 hours of meditation, brain plasticity occurs and changes in brain activity can be observed. 7 hours of meditation over the course of a month is 15 minutes of meditation everyday, and a 15 minute time commitment which results in increased happiness and reduced stress is an attractive proposition an easy habit to create by anyone.
Wellness Benefits of Meditation
Using meditation as a self-care wellness tool is still a relatively uncommon practice in the United States. Approximately 5-10 million adults practice meditation consistently in the US, and common reasons meditation was part of their wellness practice was for preventative wellness, stress management, and for greater emotion well-being (5).
Besides the immediate calming effects that can felt during and lingering after meditation, meditation has also shown to reduce burnout, improve emotional wellness, and reduce stress over longer periods of time. Meditation has even been shown to lengthen telomeres in young individuals (6). Telomeres are the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes that keep them from fraying, and there is a clear trend between lifespan and telomere length (7).
As shown with telomeres, yoga and meditative practices have a measurable effect at the molecular level via gene expression (8), and it is through these mechanisms and certainly more still undiscovered that mindfulness practices reduce risk from inflammation-based diseases (9). Meditation is a powerful intervention tool that reduces anxiety levels. Anxiety often results from suppressed negative emotions, and mindfulness practices improve expressing and releasing negative emotions in a healthy manner. Because of its nullifying effects on stress and anxiety, meditation is an amazing wellness practice for mental health.
One inflammatory disease with strong ties to anxiety is heart disease, and preliminary evidence suggest that meditation can reduce risk and improve health outcomes for those with heart disease (10). Meditation and mindfulness practices go beyond just reducing stress, anxiety, and bodily inflammation, they also increase positive mental traits such as trust, cooperation, and empathy. Meditating widens perspective and increase empathy (11). Meditation increases cooperation and harmony among people, supporting a sort of collective mind (12).
Better understand outward reality by reflecting inwards
The positive effects of meditation are powerful and far reaching. From increased emotional maturity to better physical health, meditation can transform your health and wellness and help you be the best version of yourself with regular practice.
Methods of Meditation
There is an intrinsic difference between sitting in place and having a storm of thoughts cloud your mind, and sitting in peace with a calm mind clear of disturbance. Meditation is simply the practice of bringing awareness to one specific thing. How you approach your meditation practice is important. It should be done with intent and purpose. Find a regular time everyday to meditate, such as during a morning routine. Or perhaps a longer meditation is done weekly, the key is to create a meditation practice that is long lasting and not given up after only a few tries. Below are four different styles of meditation used by beginners and masters alike.
Breathing Meditation
Breathing meditation is probably the simplest form for meditation, and all it involves is paying attention to your breath. Breathing meditation can be done anywhere and for any length of time. Bringing conscious awareness to your breath for even just thirty seconds is highly calming, and for longer periods of time breathing meditation is an easy path into deeper states of consciousness.
Sensory Awareness Meditation
Sensory awareness meditation is the practice of tuning into one or a combination of the five senses.. Typically meditation is with eyes closed, so the senses tuned into are hearing, touch, smell, and potentially taste. Sensory meditation is similar to breathing meditation in that is very easy to do anywhere.
First, close the eyes and focus on any sound present. Simply observe and enlarge your sensory envelop, taking in sounds further away or sounds more quiet that you might have first missed. Any thoughts that arise simply let them pass and without reaction. Keeping a heightened sense of hearing, now pay attention to the body and your contact with the ground. Feel your hands and feel, the temperature of the air, can you feel sunlight or wind? Engage the olfactory system, noticing any smells or tastes. This is all done very naturally and smoothly, without effort over the course of 5+ minutes. If you can hold your awareness over all your senses simultaneously, congratulations, you’ve reached a higher state of consciousness!
Open Monitoring Meditation
With open monitoring meditation, you clear the mind and tune your awareness to what happens afterwards, passively monitoring the content of experience from moment-to-moment. Open monitoring meditation is very powerful because it can be used as a diagnostic tool to recognize the unique nature of your cognitive and emotional patterns. You might be surprised by the thoughts that manifest tempting you to react or dismiss them. With open monitoring meditation suspend all judgement, treat yourself with unconditional love, remain unattached, and filter out all non-harmonious energy and thoughts simply through awareness.
Focused Attention Meditation
When meditating, you can also focus your attention on a chosen object in a sustained fashion. Focused attention meditation is very powerful because it can be used in many different ways. It can be used to improve your emotional well-being very quickly, for example you could focus on the mantra “I am happy, I am healthy, I am whole” and with time those neural connections are grooved, the subconscious mind is filled with positive thoughts, and health plus happiness manifests.
If attention is given to areas such as empathy, compassion, or joy, those areas of the brain are activated and new neural grooves are formed, improving your ability to experience all of these things. Focused attention meditation is a powerful method for manifestation.
Develop third eye gaze
When meditating, best practice is to focus on the spot between your eyebrows known as the “third eye”. This is the location of anja chakra, and behind that location rests the pineal gland. The pineal gland is a small endocrine gland located near the center of the brain, and it produces melatonin and other chemicals such as DMT*.
To train focus on the third eye, you can imagine a small flame flickering in that space, and any thoughts, emotions, ideas, and feelings you experience can be fed and consumed by the flame. Don’t interact with distractions, maintain mental tranquility and focus exclusively on the flame in the void. You can also imagine this as a ball of light (sometimes known as a tinge), a jewel, something simple to hold in your minds eye for as long as wanted.
*By age 17, the pineal gland in 40% of Americans is calcified (13), impairing gland function and melatonin production (14). Melatonin production is one of the master regulators of the circadian rhythm. The pineal gland is responsible for many of the observed beneficial effects of meditation.
Binaural Beats Aid in Meditation
A useful meditation tool are binaural beats. Binaural beats are a type of auditory stimulation that expose each ear to a different frequency of sound. After propagating through the structures of the ears these two slightly out of phase sounds are digitalized into electromagnetic waves that combine into a lower frequency brainwave. The frequency of the brainwave that is entrained by binaural beats is the difference between the two frequencies played. For example the right ear is exposed to a 110 Hz sound wave and the left ear a 100 Hz sound wave. The brainwaves that are amplified in the brain after 5+ minutes of listening will be 10 Hz in frequency (110 - 100).
For more information read through my Binaural Beats Complete Guide where there are also free resources available. A starting recommendation would be to meditate using a 7.83 Hz Schumann Resonance binaural beat using the video below.
Begin a Meditation Practice
Meditation is a powerful wellness and therapeutic technique that can transform your life in more ways than one. A meditation practice of 15 minutes everyday quickly adds up to noticeable improvements in mood and verifiable changes to the brain. Reduce stress and anxiety while simultaneously improving outlook on life with a regular meditation practice.
To slip into a meditative state easier, drinking a cup of green tea can help. Green tea contains an amino acid known as L-theanine which increases alpha brainwave activity, alpha brainwaves being observed when in a calm focused state of mind. Cannabis can also be used to enter into deep states of meditation, as can psilocybin found in magic mushrooms. Another way to make meditation easier is to practice after hard physical exercise or yoga as the body is tired and the mind will be more complacent and less distracted.
I hope you give meditation a shot, after thirty days of daily meditation practice you’ll be amazed by how you feel and the clarity of mind your regularly experience.
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