{"id":8457,"date":"2015-04-27T00:14:26","date_gmt":"2015-04-26T21:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeadvancer.com\/?p=8457"},"modified":"2015-04-27T00:14:26","modified_gmt":"2015-04-26T21:14:26","slug":"26-scientifically-proven-superhuman-benefits-of-meditation-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeadvancer.com\/26-scientifically-proven-superhuman-benefits-of-meditation-2\/","title":{"rendered":"26 Scientifically Proven Superhuman Benefits of Meditation"},"content":{"rendered":"
I go through cycles of meditating 20 minutes a day\u00a0and then slowly \u2018forget\u2019 and\u00a0slide into not meditating until I feel I need to \u2014 until I feel like crap.<\/p>\n
Sound familiar?<\/p>\n
But recently things have been different.<\/p>\n
For the last 30 days, I\u2019ve meditated for 25 minutes in the morning, 25 minutes in the evening and taken multiple 5-minute mindfulness breaks throughout the day.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve written posts on the\u00a0myths of\u00a0motivation\u00a0in the past going into the science of what makes people\u00a0tick, but what I didn\u2019t mention is what I believe the ultimate motivator is: reasons to act.<\/strong><\/p>\n Simple I know, but when you have enough reasons to do something, motivating yourself to do it becomes a non-issue\u00a0\u2014 this is why I tell everyone to read a book on a habit they want to change.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t eat any vegetables until I was 20. I read a book on the benefits of healthy eating and I\u2019ve eaten them every day since. \u201cVegetables are good for you\u201d<\/em> is not a good reason to eat them.<\/p>\n But after I read that book I had so many compelling reasons to eat nutritionally dense food it was harder not to.\u00a0The same goes for any habit.<\/p>\n Want to\u00a0give up smoking? How many books on anti-smoking have you read?<\/p>\n I decided to take this \u2018bombard your brain<\/em>\u2019 approach with meditation. For the last few months, I\u2019ve researched countless books, studies, and lectures to find out the benefits of meditation and now I\u2019m going to share these 26 Scientifically Proven Superhuman Benefits of Meditation with you!<\/a><\/p>\n The Mind of a Meditator<\/strong><\/p>\n In Social Psychologist\u00a0Daniel Goleman\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0book\u00a0Destructive Emotions,\u00a0he recounts his experience of performing the\u00a0first scientific studies on the\u00a0mind of a mediator.\u00a0Among the scientists present were\u00a0Richie Davidson<\/strong>, a neuroscientist, and\u00a0Paul Ekman<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 one of the worlds leading researchers on emotions.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Dalai Lama<\/strong>\u00a0himself, who helped this meeting of the minds between East and West, said of it, \u201cI want to put everything under scrutiny,\u00a0what doesn\u2019t work, even if it was there for thousands of years we\u2019ll take out.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n He gave the scientists his right-hand man\u00a0Lama Oser<\/strong>\u00a0to study \u2014 a European monk with over 30 years of meditative experience.<\/p>\n They tested him on various parameters.<\/p>\n This is where our story of the superhuman benefits of meditation begins.<\/p>\n Breathe in.<\/p>\n The first thing they looked at was Lama Oser\u2019s\u00a0left-to-right prefrontal cortex activity ratio. People who are happier tend to have a higher left-to-right ratio in terms of brain activity, more neural pathways\u00a0on the left side of the prefrontal cortex than on the right side.<\/p>\n The happier you are the larger that ratio is. Also, left-to-right ratios predict how quickly you will recover from stresses both psychologically and physically.<\/p>\n Lama Oser\u2019s ratio was measured and compared to a sample of 175 people.\u00a0He was quite literally off the chart.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This off the chart prefrontal cortex activity ratio asymmetry suggests insane levels of equanimity, well-being and resilience to setbacks.<\/p>\n But\u00a0this is not the only thing they looked at in Lama Oser\u2026<\/p>\n Paul Ekman has\u00a0revolutionized the way we\u00a0understand emotions and facial expressions. The lead character in the TV show \u2018Lie To Me<\/em>\u2018 was based on him and his research. Ekman was the first person to discover\u00a0what he coined micro expressions \u2014 fleeting millisecond expressions that reveal our true emotions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ekman has tested hundreds of people on their ability to detect these subtle expressions from FBI agents to clinical psychologists and college students. When they tested Lama Oser nobody could have predicted the results.<\/p>\n Lama Oser was the best at detecting these subtle expressions Ekman had ever recorded.<\/p>\n Ever.<\/strong><\/p>\n Along with body language expertise, this tells us two further superhuman traits Lama Oser had.<\/p>\n The ability to recognize emotions\u00a0in other people\u00a0is associated with levels of empathy. If Lama Oser was the best at detecting these micro expressions they\u2019ve ever tested, by default, he also had more empathy than any other person they\u2019ve ever tested.<\/strong><\/p>\n Empathy alone wouldn\u2019t have helped him notice these super fast micro expressions. They last sometimes hundredths of a second. Lama Oser\u2019s mind must have been sharp, focused and fast to catch them and process them. Faster than anyone else\u2019s they tested.<\/p>\n Paul Ekman has been studying the startle response in people for decades. \u00a0The startle response is what happens if something loud or surprising happens to us suddenly. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve experienced it.\u00a0Weblink for a millisecond; it\u2019s an innate reaction.<\/p>\n They find it in every single person. Even in policemen and women. They practice their\u00a0shooting all the time, constantly, yet every time the gun goes off they blink slightly \u2013 they startle.\u00a0Everyone has a startle response.<\/p>\n Or so they thought\u2026<\/p>\n Lama Oser was the first person in recorded history to\u00a0suppress his\u00a0startle response. When he is meditating, he is so relaxed, so focused on whatever he\u2019s meditating on that nothing startles him.<\/p>\n Because\u00a0there is a strong correlation between levels of anxiety and how easily somebody startles, the implications for this are huge.<\/strong><\/p>\n Practicing meditation didn\u2019t just affect Lama Oser, it also influenced\u00a0everyone he interacted\u00a0with. They did this experiment where they had him sit down with Western scientists and talk about controversial issues such as why scientists should give up science and become monks and reincarnation.<\/p>\n He interacted with two people. The first was a chilled out scientist. They both had a good chat and remained calm. Then they brought in the second scientist and they picked this scientist because he was extremely contentious, harsh and intolerant. I guess they were just curious about what would happen.<\/p>\n Here is what that argumentative scientist\u00a0had to say after the discussion:<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t be confrontational. I was always met with reason and smiles. It\u2019s overwhelming. I felt something like a shadow or aura and I couldn\u2019t be aggressive.<\/em>\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The scientist was calm and friendly, something totally unexpected. Lama Oser\u2019s levels of equanimity rubbed off on him<\/strong>. Emotions are contagious<\/strong>.<\/p>\n But what does this prove? It\u2019s fantastic and shocking but do we also have to meditate for 30 years to reap similar benefits?<\/p>\n Let\u2019s find out.<\/p>\n There are a few problems with the Lama Oser studies. The sample size was very small. The study showed correlation, not causation (perhaps it was genetics<\/em>), and well, the guy was a monk. We don\u2019t all have 30 years to spare.<\/p>\n This is where\u00a0Jon Kabat-Zinn\u00a0comes in.<\/p>\n Jon Kabat-Zinn came up with\u00a0an experimental design that had\u00a0a control group and an experimental group. The control group signed up to a mindfulness meditation program but remained\u00a0on the waiting list. The experimental group, who were compared to the control group, did a meditation program.<\/p>\n The program was 8 weeks long. They meditated on average for 45 minutes a day, they did a little bit of yoga, mindful breathing, body scans and had workshops talking to them about meditation.<\/p>\n In\u00a0this experiment, Jon Kabat-Zinn showed that\u00a0the benefits of meditation don\u2019t just apply to monks. In just 8 weeks, those who meditated achieved significant changes, both mentally and physically.<\/p>\n The first was a significant\u00a0decrease in\u00a0anxiety<\/a> levels\u00a0during the program and after compared to the control group.<\/p>\n The scanned the participant\u2019s brains in the Jon Kabat-Zinn study. Like Lama Oser, their left-to-right prefrontal cortex activity ratio changed compared to the control group.<\/p>\n Their positive emotions<\/a> increased and their negative emotions decreased.<\/p>\n Jon Kabatt-Zinn also injected participants with a cold virus to see how their immune system would respond. Those who\u00a0were in the program had a stronger immune response and recovered faster.<\/p>\n The benefits of meditation are not just psychological, but physical.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Lama Oser experiments and the Jon Kabat-Zinn experiment made the world, and the science community, start to take notice. From here on out, I\u2019m going to list some really unexpected superhuman benefits<\/a> of meditation.<\/p>\n Imagine you are betting money on a slot machine. You allow\u00a0yourself to spend $50. Even though\u00a0after an hour of betting you haven\u2019t won a dime, you\u2019ve repeatedly come close to winning the $10,000 jackpot. Problem is, you\u2019ve just spent your fiftieth dollar.<\/p>\n Seen as you\u2019ve already spent so much time and money, rather than let it all go to \u2018waste\u2019, perhaps you should spend another $10 to at least recoup your losses. Somebody has to win, right?<\/p>\n This type of thinking is irrational (easy to say that when it\u2019s not you<\/em>) and known to the critical thinking crowd as the\u00a0sunk-cost fallacy. It\u2019s a\u00a0subtle form of cognitive distortion\u00a0that negatively affects\u00a0our decision-making. Whether it\u2019s putting more money into a failing business or simply deciding to endure a film you\u2019re not enjoying because you\u2019ve paid for it.<\/p>\n But we can get around it.<\/p>\n With just one 15-minute focused-breathing meditation we can de-bias our brains\u00a0and make smarter decisions. By bringing our\u00a0attention to the present moment we can think clearly about our decisions and avoid\u00a0ruminating on past events, which can distort our thinking.<\/p>\n A pilot study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center suggests that the brain changes associated with meditation and stress reduction may play an important role in slowing the progression of age-related cognitive disorders like Alzheimer\u2019s disease and other dementias.<\/p>\n After an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction program the Alzheimer\u2019s patients who took part showed less cognitive decline than the control group.<\/p>\n They also reported higher levels of well-being, which in turn also improves recovery.<\/p>\n The two main ingredients of creativity\u00a0are divergent thinking \u2014 coming up with lots of ideas \u2014 and convergent thinking, solidifying\u00a0those ideas into a single \u2018aha moment\u2018.<\/p>\n Cognitive psychologist Lorenza Colzato and her fellow researchers at Leiden University performed a study looking at the effects of two different types of meditation practices on divergent and convergent thinking.<\/p>\nBombarding your brain with reasons to act\u00a0makes motivation easy.<\/h3>\n
1. Insane Equanimity and Wellbeing<\/h3>\n
2. Body Language\u00a0Expertise<\/h3>\n
3. Empathic Intelligence<\/h3>\n
4. Super Fast\u00a0Cognitive Functioning<\/h3>\n
5. No\u00a0Startle Response<\/h3>\n
6. Negotiation Expertise<\/h3>\n
7. Less\u00a0Anxiety<\/h3>\n
8.\u00a0Better Mood<\/h3>\n
9.\u00a0Stronger Immune System<\/h3>\n
10. Improved Decision-Making<\/h3>\n
11. Slowdown Neurodegenerative\u00a0Diseases<\/h3>\n
12. Enhanced Creativity<\/h3>\n