Sharpen Your Brain With Meditation

Allow me to draw from Buddha’s brainy quote: “All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become.”

Science has finally proven what he strove to impart – meditation clears the mind, and sharpens the brain.

According to news reports from Southern Australia, scientists at the Flinders Medical Centre for Neuroscience have completed the first demonstration of true brain activity changes in meditative states.

By measuring electrical activity in the brain within a group of people as they moved from simple eyes-closed resting stage through to the five states of Buddhist meditation, researchers discovered that Delta brainwaves, linked to drowsiness, decreased and Alpha brainwaves, used for focus and attention increased.

In fact, the number of Alphas necessary to remain alert, also decreased showing the brain needed less of these brain waves to stay alert and focused.

The ability to improve alertness, concentration and mind-over-matter healing, is important if just simply to allow people more confidence in their own ability to self-care.

Alternative and complementary health, hinges on the self-care portion of its philosophy, so this is very good news indeed for CAM studies.

It’s also key for kids who are diagnosed with ADHD. Specialists and pediatricians are already pointing at meditation as an acceptable, alternative substitute to mass over-prescription for this disorder.

The results will be formally reported at the World Congress of Neuroscience, this fall.

Most proponents of Buddhist meditation suggest a minimum of 20 minutes daily, preferably in the morning.

Better than Ginkoba, or a cup of java…