The Relationship Between Body, Mind And Meditation

Want to know what’s going on in the brain of a person doing meditation and how it relates to the body? Keep reading!

Much has been written about meditation and its benefits. Meditation was once a novelty from the East, but today it has become a common practice for many Westerners. However, not everyone may know that the relationship between body, mind and meditation is close.

The benefits of daily meditation are many. But today we are talking about how and why meditation works; in other words, we go through the changes that occur in the brain and body with the persistent practice of meditation.

Meditation kind of shapes the brain, as a result of which it affects the emotions and the body. In order to understand the interaction between body, mind and meditation, a few technical details need to be gone through. Let’s take a closer look at this.

Welcome to the fascinating world of the brain

Here are the brain areas involved in meditation and their function:

The lateral prefrontal cortex is the brain structure that allows us to form a more rational perspective on things. This area of the brain is involved in regulating emotional experiences and curbing the tendency to take things personally. This area of the brain is commonly known as the assessment center.
The medial prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that is in constant conversation about yourself; your experiences, thoughts, and goals. It handles all the information related to you and your relationships with your loved ones. It is known as the “I-center” and consists of two sections: one involved in the increase in chewing and caring, while the other plays a very important role in feeling empathy.

The brain island is the part of the brain that controls bodily sensations, the experience of emotions on a physical level. The cerebral islet is part of a system that helps adjust the intensity of the reaction depending on the body’s sensations.
The almond kernel is a person’s own alarm system, also known as the fear center. It is related to the “run away or fight” reaction in situations that a person considers dangerous.

The relationship between mind and meditation is close

How the meditation of the unruly brain works

In the brain of the non-meditator, there is usually a strong connection between the self-center and the body centers associated with fear. The brains of the non-meditator can often be “stuck in themselves” as they are heavily dependent on this center. In this case, it is the self-center that handles most of the human perceptions.

This dependence on the self-center explains why some people get stuck in negative thoughts. This is because the connection between the self-center and the assessment center is weak.

As the work capacity of the assessment center increases, the activity of the self-center decreases significantly, the latter was therefore the area of the brain that tends to take matters in person. This also improves the functioning of the part of the brain that is involved in understanding other people’s emotions. In this way, the brain digests all the information it receives, rejecting erroneous information and reducing excessive thinking and caring.

The brain of a meditating person

Many changes take place in the brain of a person who meditates regularly. The connection between the self-center and the fear centers of the body begins to break down. This reduces the intensity of an individual’s fear reactions and contributes to explaining why anxiety is reduced through regular practice of meditation.

Instead, a stronger neural cell connection emerges between the assessment center and the body’s fear centers. This means that when the perception of fear in the body caused by a potentially dangerous thing reaches the brain, they are able to assess the situation more rationally instead of automatically reacting to the fear. In addition, this helps a person reduce the creation of hypotheses about what something “might” have happened to him or her (chewing things).

Empathy: an added benefit of meditation

In the brains of people who meditate regularly, there is a marked increase in connections between the self-center and the center of empathy-related bodily sensations. Through meditation, we can activate the part of the brain that is involved in feeling empathy: the brain island. In this way, we are better able to draw conclusions about other people’s states of mind, their hopes, dreams, and motivations.