Hey brainiacs,
Today we will talk about the scientifically backed benefits of meditation, the most popular types of meditations, which meditation to chose how to meditate and stay till the end of the video for some meditation tips!
Meditation. has many many many benefits! For the mind and the body! Let’s look at the a couple of studies. Coz we need proof to show you that I ain’t full of schnitzel when I tell you meditation’s gooood babyyyy!
MEDITATION IS GOOD FOR THE BODY
Now because I like playing with your expectations, let me talk to you about telomere. What, teletubbies? no, telomere!
Telomeres
Telomeres are DNA and protein complexes that are located at the end of linear chromosomes and are necessary for the complete replication of DNA.
Intact telomeres protect chromosomes from degradation. In general, telomeres shorten with age and can serve as an early predictor of the onset of several diseases, including hypertension, type 2 diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and dementia.
I wish telomeres could predict the crypto market too…
Basically, telomeres are like the little bit of plastic at the end of a shoelace. Once removed, the shoelace frays. Without telomere, the dna cannot reproduce itself and new cells cannot be created.
Telomere shortening can be accelerated by behavioral factors, such as:
– Poor diet: “Doritos all day”.
-Poor sleep: “I’ll sleep when I’m dead bro!”, ” No, you’ll be dead coz you don’t sleep bro!”
-Cigarette smoking: “cough”
-Excessive alcohol consumption: “who cares about telomeres, let’s partayyy”
and several psychological factors, included but not limited to:
-Personality characteristics: “I hate Mondays”
-Psychiatric disorders: Anxietyyyy
and psychological distress: Your mother in law!
Meditation and telomeres
Findings show that meditation helps preserve length of telomere, probably because meditation helps reduce stress, anxiety, and depression, which are all thought to be associated with cortisol level.
In other words meditation keeps you young and healthy.
I just made a video talking about anxiety and the various stressors. Check it out if you wanna know more about that! Exercise and plant base diet can also help with telomere and health in general. Keep an eye open, because I will make videos about these topics too.
Meditation leaves mark in the brain
A study conducted at IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca. Wait, there is a city in Italy that has my name? Am I like…Paris Hilton? Anyways, the study shows that the feeling of well-being experienced by meditators is correlated with specific changes in the brain.
Meditation and brain connectivity
Magnetic resonance imaging or MRI shows that the reduction of anxiety levels is associated with specific changes in the connectivity between different cerebral areas, such as precuneus, left parietal lobe and insula, which all have an important role with emotions and inner states.
Insulea: I wanna punch this guy in the throat!
Precuneus: According to my files, last time we saw hime he called us *censored*
Left parietal mode: Guys, meditation taught us to communicate, so let’s be rational about this. Let’s wait until his back is turned and we’ll hit him in the neck.
Meditation thickens learning center
A study found that eight weeks of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) increases cortical thickness in the hippocampus, which controls learning and memory. Evidence also shows a decreases in brain cell volume in the amygdala, which is responsible for fear, anxiety, and stress
So next time someone calls you thick: “thanks, it’s all the meditation”
Meditation and mind control
In another study, Eight sessions of mindfulness-based awareness training gives participants a significant advantage in their ability to master brain-computer interfaces and the time it took to control the machine over those who did not take meditation trainings.
I had to mention this because ROBOT? What? How can I participate in these studies？ I wanna get a robot arm. Can I be the next Robocop?
Some more benefits
There are many more studies that shows that meditation reduces stress hormones, helps improve memory, sleep, mood and quality of life. Music and meditation alters biomarkers of Alzheimer. Long-term meditation may lead to less age-related gray matter atrophy in the human brain.
And meditation also helps reducing symptoms and anxiety related to IBS or irritable bowel syndrome.
Stomach: “It’s not what you said it’s how you said it!”.
MEDITATION IS GOOD FOR THE MIND
Survival mode
When anxiety is high, we function in survival mode. In Survival mode we are focus on self preservation. So we think about making money, product ourselves, and fighting others.
-I’ll fight you Miranda
-But… I’m your daughter.
We become selfish because we feel the need to be safe. We become close minded because it’s not time to look for new opportunities. You gotta hide. We become tense because it’s no time to heal. Fight the empire!
It’s not a bad thing to think about money and safety but we can’t be ON all the time or the body cannot recover. It’s like you are at the gym all day everyday, you get hurt. Mental and physical health degrades. We hurt ourselves and our relationships.
-Give me the cookie Miranda!
-Hello, I’m still your daughter!
Meditation reduces the DMN
Study finds that meditation reduced the DMN or default mode network aka monkey mind aka “ego” aka “give me the cookie Miranda.”
The DMN is not a cool rapper’s name, which it probably should. It is responsible fo the wandering mind and self-referential thoughts. It is “on” when we’re not thinking about anything specific, like when you think at all the things you could have said to the guy you cut off the line to get the last toilet paper roll at the peak of the Toilet-Paper-Gate during the first lockdown . The DMN is associated worrying about the past and future, that’s why it’s important to slow it down.
Many studies have demonstrated that meditation, quiets the DMN. And even when the mind does start to wander, because of the new physical connections that formed in the brain, meditators are better at snapping back out of it.
Oh Snap!
Meditation reduces depression and anxiety
A study found that mindfulness meditation can reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and pain. the effect size of meditation is moderate, at 0.3. Sounds pretty low right?
But did you know that the effect size for antidepressants is also 0.3.
Mind – bloooooown!
Meditation helps with ADD and concentration
Problem concentrating isn’t just a kid thing. It affects millions of adults. Current content consumption habits is probably not helping strengthening concentration… I’m still on tiktok tho!
A study found that with just a couple of weeks of meditation training helped people with focus and memory.
Meditation helps with addictions
More and more studies show that, meditation is helping people recover from all kinds of addictions. Because its effects on the self-control regions of the brain.
In fact one study found that people who practice mindfulness during their treatment are much more likely to quit smoking by the end of the training, and at 17 weeks follow-up, than those who are not.
Meditation helps people “decouple” the craving from the act of smoking. We become aware of the craving and can ride the wave until it passes instead of acting upon it.
Gnarly dude!
Short Meditation Breaks Can Help Kids in School
in San Francisco, or Friscooo as most people call it, a school district started a twice daily meditation program in some of its high-risk schools. Results show a decrease in suspensions, as well as GPAs and attendance increase.
*mic drop*
Types of meditations
There are many types of Meditation. Earliest records are during 6th century BCE. Or -600. That’s like a really long time ago.
Yep, before Buddha even. The Sanskrit root of the word is “imaginative vision”. It is usually interpreted as “self knowledge”, “contemplation” or “sustain attention”. Not “absence if thought” or “dozing off while watching soccer” which is my dads interpretation.
There are many types of meditation and relaxation techniques that have meditation components. Most share the same goal of achieving inner peace. Some have another goal too, to rewire and reprogram your mind.
Here are the most popular ones:
- Guided meditation. In Guided meditations or guided imagery, you form mental images of places or situations you find relaxing. Or to experience catharsis and transformation. The meditator uses as many senses as possible to have an inner journey. Usually done with a guide. On my channel you will find some of these meditations but they all go beyond relaxation and aim to experience and develop your inner potential.
Fire beard evolve to Blazobeard/
- Mantra meditation. During a Mantra meditations, you repeat vocally or in your head a calming word, sound, thought or phrase to prevent distracting thoughts. Transcendantal mediation uses that technique. Except you have a personal mantra assigned to you and it shall remain secret for ever, or David Lynch will personally kidnap your soul during your next meditation. It’s very popular among Hollywood stars.
I’m totally into TM, since David, lynch, and I had a crunch bar for lunch
- Mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness meditation is based on having an increased awareness and acceptance of living in the present moment. Eckhart Tolle loves this type of meditation. The Power of Now is my favorite book her wrote.
In mindfulness meditation, you expand your conscious awareness. You focus on what you experience during your practice like the flow of your breath. You can also observe your thoughts and emotions without attaching any meaning to them and letting them go.
You also have meditations that involve movement like Taichi, yoga, walking meditations and so forth. If you want me to. Are videos for each meditation styles with more details on each. Let me know in the comments.
The Zone
The meditative state, alpha brain wave is also compared to “the zone” as athletes and artists call it. So you can find mindfulness in creating, hiking or cooking. Except if you cook for Gordon Ramsey.
How to chose
So now, how do you choose which one?
There are like so manyyy!
-The best way to choose is first to know why you meditate.
Is it to reduce and learn to manage anxiety, to help with sleep, to strengthen your attention and focus, to deal with emotions or depression, to help with studying, to get motivated, to stay forever young or to change your mindset.
–Relaxing meditations like mindfulness, you can do them sitting or lying down and it will help with sleep, anxiety, or to accept emotions to let them go. For many years I have practiced them to relax using music or with guided meditations. I would lie down and whenever I found myself in my thoughts, I would bring my awareness back to my body. It helped me relax but I also had some pretty crazy experiences. Sometimes I would feel like there were little feet walking on my body and I had to open my eyes to check that it wasn’t roaches. I hate roaches… I would feel like falling, like my body was huge or too small to contain me. It’s a lot of fun! You should try it.
-Now sitting, standing, walking meditation, breathing practice mixed with guided visualization aiming to make you go through a specific journey to reprogram your mind is the best to change your mindset. Depending on the topic of the meditation, it can help with depression, addiction, emotions, compassion or gratitude. It can get you energized and fired up. Excited for a new life filled with opportunities. It can change how you see the world, your thought process and general demeanor.
Best way to change
In fact, It’s the fastes way you can really change on purpose. Why? Because the way we see life is based on our mindset. And the mindset won’t recognize or a knowledge transforming information for self preservation and because it cannot see outside it’s own limitations. Think of it as a pair of green glasses. You won’t be able to see the full scope of other colors.
It depends on your personality, but for most, we don’t run into fear and explore our behavior, psych of mindset because The ego places fears to keep a certain stability. So we slowly change over the years but mostly passively. We encounter roadblocks and reassess bur usually we wait until everything falls apart to change.
Me: What did I do to deserve this gooood? –
God: Nothing, you are just st the end of a pattern
Me:I can’t hear you
God: Oh for my sake!
Sometimes we have a person of authority like a parent or teacher, who tells us something new and we go “ oh I never thought about it this way” and the mind starts changing. Some triggers like certain words may unlock our mind, because our beliefs are based on these specific terms we heard as kids. Or relationships, because we love or care about our partner we start changing our system of belief to meet them in the middle. Certain drugs can have similar effects and it is getting back into treatments now. And the rarestest of them all would be mystical or extatique experiences, these are really cool!
“I can see the universe floating in my eye bulb”
But there isn’t enough study on that matter for me to tell you how to trigger them.
So, the best way to change and grow in the direction YOU want, is through meditation. Once you step out of your system of belief. And plant in your subconscious the seed of your new beliefs. Yeah, just like inception!
The same way commercials do it, check out the video I did about brainwaves to know more about that, but basically we have to put ourselves on the alpha brainwave and direct our mind, with an idea, an image an emotion and feelings to build the foundation of our new personality.
Remember you cannot change your life without changing the way you see it. Or you will keep making the same choices lessening you to the same walls.
How to meditate
There isn’t a right or wrong way to meditate. Meditation is about self awareness. So no matter what happens during your meditation, that you acknowledge it and remember the guidelines I’m about to explain, you ll be fine.
Here we gooooo!
Here’s how you can practice on your own:
- Sit up in a comfy position
- Breath deeply. We often tighten our breathing, especially when are expediting anxiety. Deep and slow breaths teaches the body that we are safe and will help relaxation.
- Body scan. Check if you have any tensions and relax them. Become aware of any other sensations in your body. When you drift away with your thoughts, you can focus back to your breathing or bodily sensations to return to the present moment.
- Depending on the objective of your meditation you can use a mantra or a phrase that calms and engages your focus. You can use prayers, poems, quotes or whatever works for you. If you are doing a guided mediation /just listen to the voice/
Tips to start meditating
Now some tips sponsored by…JK I ain’t sponsored by nobody… but if you want to support my work, here is my Patreon!
- Meditation takes practice
So don’t judge yourself your “meditation” skills, which will only increase your stress.
No judgy B’s here!
- Thoughts
Your mind will wander during meditation, even experts experience that. when your attention wanders, just return to the object, sensation or movement you’re focusing on, like I said earlier. Focusing your attention is what helps free your mind from the many distractions that cause stress and worry. So practice until it gets easier.
3. Where and when.
The best time to meditate for transformation is in the morning before picking up your phone or doing anything so you don’t get into your own story.
Don’t meditate in bed or lying down unless you use meditation to help you fall asleep.
Meditate in a quite place with low lights. To meditate in nature can be great too. I love to meditate by the beach or a waterfall.
So cliché!
But it’s true, the water is great because water is a natural white noise machine and does help relax. Study finds that walking in a forest significantly lowers heart rates and lifts heart rate variability (which means less stress).
4. A comfortable position
If the pretzel sitting position, where your heals are behind your head, isn’t your thing. You can sit on a chair, or extend your legs. You can have a pillow under your bum. I tend to meditate with back support. I have a support team holding my back and massing me at all time. The best 1000 dollar I have event spent. Not but for realisies, stay comfy or it ll be hard to relax and focus on yourself.
- No distractions
Especially for beginners, keep all distractions away. no television, radios, fax machine or cellphones around. Turn off notifications on your computer. Keep the switch away, the PS4 unplugged, the smart fridge and Japanese toilet on quiet mode, put the dog and cats away, turn off your husband, wife and kids.
Eventually you ll get more skilled and be able to meditate in traffic jams, when your manager is scolding you for divulging important information on social media or right before a sword fight like Tom cruise in The last Samura
6. Put meditation in your routine
Every morning or night. Is what I recommend. But you could do it during your lunch break or before dinner. Whatever works with your schedule. Just make sure you have enough time to relax. Like block an hour in your schedule for that. If you don’t have time. Look at your schedule. Are you binge watching any shows? Playing Zelda for hours? Or tiktoking? Scrolling down on Ig? Or spending time on MySpace? Take a moment out of these other activities and allocate it to invest in yourself.
Read more about it
If you want to know more about meditation, check out Being Supernatural by Dr Joe Dispenza or Think Like a Monk by Jay Shetty . If you don’t have time for reading grab two free audio books when you subscribe to audible here.
Conclusion
Meditation may sound daunting when you haven’t started it. But once you try it out, it is a great practice to help you find peace and balance in your life. I have seen my life transform when I started meditating on a daily basis. Try it out. 5 minutes first, and the slowly increase the length. Soon enough, you will become an expert!
Luca Nicora 