Science of the Mindful Brain

A short, very readable piece by my favorite integrator, Dan Siegel, MD, on “The Science of the Mindful Brain.” Dan’s newest book, Mindsight, is now out, and at the very top of my reading list. His thinking about mindfulness, the brain, and living more fully are superb!

By Dan Siegel, MD.

All too often, the inner side of our human experience, the subjective texture of our interior world, remains far from the focus of the buzzing hive of activity in our everyday lives. We are usually pushed to be outward-peering human doings, far from the inner peace achievable by human beings living their innate potential. Mindfulness practices offer a way to focus on the inner journey and, as we shall see, also contribute to overall health and well-being.

My journey into the formal study of mindfulness began in an unexpected way. I had coauthored a book on parenting called Parenting from the Inside Out and several people asked how we would teach meditation to the participants attending workshops on the book. I was puzzled. Meditation? I had never meditated. The inquiring person would point to the word “mindfulness” in our book—a term that we chose to use for an important principle of parenting—and assume it implied “meditation.” For us, mindfulness meant the act of being intentional, awake, and conscientious in one’s actions as a parent. Unaware until then of mindfulness meditation, these questions motivated me to personally explore this ancient practice—and its more recent scientific findings.

Mindfulness Basics

Mindful awareness can be enhanced through various means, such as the traditional practices of mindfulness meditation, yoga, tai chi, qigong, and centering prayer. These practices create a state in which the individual experiences a widening of awareness that encompasses a sense of attention to one’s own intention, an immersion in the rich sensations of the body and the breath, and an awareness of the mind itself—an awareness of awareness. This self-observation comes with the capacity to experience the mind’s activities with objectivity. In this way, a thought or feeling becomes sensed as just that, a thought or feeling, rather than the totality of the person’s identity in the moment.

The three foundational elements of mindfulness—objectivity, openness, and observation—create a tripod that stabilizes the mind’s attentional lens. This enables the mind to become conscious of the mind itself and thus become liberated from the common ways in which it is imprisoned by its own preoccupations. This is why, through mindfulness practice, we can transform self-created suffering into personal liberation.

As we engage in mindful awareness practices, we have the potential to develop long-term personality traits from intentionally created mindful states. Research has suggested that these mindfulness traits include the capacity to suspend judgments, to act in awareness of our moment-to-moment experience, to achieve emotional equilibrium or equanimity, to describe our internal world with language, and to have a burgeoning sense of self-observation. (Baer et al. 2006).

Mindfulness and Well-Being

Studies of long-term practitioners of mindfulness meditation suggest that mindfulness practice leads to improvements in physiological, psychological, and interpersonal health. Specifically, it appears to lead to a number of changes in the brain that can explain this spectrum of health—from the functioning of the immune system to the ways we empathically relate to others. Why would the focus of our awareness result in such a broad range of health benefits?

To investigate this question, I went on an expedition into the mind to see how mindfulness promotes well-being, and I began to see a fascinating convergence in the domains of relationships, brain function, and mindfulness.

Click HERE to continue reading this articles at kripalu.org.

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Tagged as: Meditation and Well-Being, mindfulness, rewire brain