Meditation and the brain
- Season: Season 4
- Posted On:
Mindfulness meditation's effect in daily life
There's growing evidence that the routine practice of meditation improves quality of life (including relief from anxiety, increased focus, and the mitigation of negative emotions) and that these benefits can be seen after as few as five sessions of meditation. But we didn't really need scientific journals to tell us that: practitioners of mindfulness meditation have been enjoying the benefits of this natural brain hack for millennia.
On today's program, host Seán Collins talks with a pioneering neuroscience researcher who describes what goes on in the brains of people who meditate, with a hospice doctor who trains his colleagues in techniques of meditation to help them deal with the stresses of their work, and with the founder of a program in Southern California that teaches at-risk youth to meditate as part of a program in effective social and emotional learning.
An online transcript is available
Professor Emeritus
Department of Psychology
University of Oregon
Eugene, Ore.
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Chief Medical Officer
Providence Hospice, Los Angeles County
Torrance, Calif.
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Founder
Redondo Beach, Calif.
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MORE INFORMATION
Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation (Tang, Posner, et al., 2007)
Short-term meditation induces white matter changes in the anterior cingulate (Tang, Posner, et al., 2010)
Mechanisms of white matter change induced by meditation training (Posner, Tang, & Lynch, 2014)
Circuitry of self-control and its role in reducing addiction (Tang, Posner, et al., 2015)
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction vs Escitalopram for the Treatment of Adults With Anxiety Disorders (Hoge, et al. 2023)
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Seán refers to the Balance appwhich is available on both the Apple and Android platforms.
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CONTRIBUTORS
- Michael I Posner Ph.D.
- Glen Komatsu M.D.
- Patricia Jones
- Seán Collins
KEYWORDS
- brain research
- caregiver distress
- at-risk youth
- stress-relief
- mindfulness meditation
- brain changes and meditation
- anti-anxiety techniques
- neurology
- meditation
- social and emotional learning