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Mind-Body Connection in Meditation: New Study Links the Breath to Free Will
According to a recent study by a group of Swiss researchers, breath means more than simple respiration – it is actually linked with the ability to make choices by exercising free will. This research is so groundbreaking because it is another proof-point that attention, when connected with the breath, activates the circuits of the mind-body connection.
by Judith Dreyer, MS, BSN
According to a recent study by a group of Swiss researchers, breath means more than simple respiration – it is actually linked with the ability to make choices by exercising free will. This research is so groundbreaking because it is another proof-point that attention, when connected with the breath, activates the circuits of the mind-body connection.
In the study, these researchers correlated free will with a term called, “Readiness Potential.” According to the study’s results, “Voluntary action is a fundamental element of self-consciousness,” and “participants initiate voluntary actions more frequently during expiration… Our findings demonstrate that voluntary action is coupled with the respiratory system and further suggest that the RP is associated with fluctuations of ongoing neural activity that are driven by the involuntary and cyclic motor act of breathing.” In other words, participants were more likely to exercise free will in decision making when they were breathing out.
For thousands of years, breath has been the most widely used object of focus in meditation. Breathing in and out, we become present. Why? You can’t take a breath in the past. It’s impossible to take a future breath. So - all we can do is breathe in this very moment, right now. However, going deeper, the in-breath can also be differentiated from the out-breath as more than a respiratory direction.
What is less known is that breath stimulates different areas of the human Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). The Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS), which is designed to prepare us for “fight-or-flight” during times of danger or threat, is linked to the in-breath. The Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS), which is the part of our nervous system dedicated to “rest-and-digest,” where we relax and repair, is linked to the out-breath. Both “fight-or-flight” and “rest-and-digest” serve a critical purpose in protecting us and keeping us well. Focusing on the breath as an object of meditation, we are able to gently stimulate both the SNS and PNS, back and forth, in a gently rhythm, to balance out “rest-and-digest,” with “fight-or-flight.”
Please make time for your own mindful wellbeing on a daily basis. It can be as simple as breathing in… and out… What’s good for you is also good for all those you love, all around you.
Change or Chance?
Complementary and Alternative Modalities (CAM) receive a lot of press these days. The COVID-19 pandemic forced us home and socially distanced us. What do we do when we don’t have to be in traffic, physically get to work? In other words, what happened to us when some of our daily business, school, and home activities stopped or redirected? What happened to you if you were a first responder or medical personnel on the front lines?
by Judith Dreyer, MS, BSN
Complementary and Alternative Modalities (CAM) receive a lot of press these days. The COVID-19 pandemic forced us home and socially distanced us. What do we do when we don’t have to be in traffic, physically get to work? In other words, what happened to us when some of our daily business, school, and home activities stopped or redirected? What happened to you if you were a first responder or medical personnel on the front lines?
Change is probably the one thing we resist the most. For some, being home was a welcomed relief despite redirection. For others, life was intense figuring out how to be with family day in or day out, working all online, homeschooling, or with young children or being totally isolated.
No matter the situation, I bet you fit in different shows, maybe took a class, or signed up for webinars, maybe experienced more quiet time, alone time than usual.
Here at Cloud 9 Online, we hope you looked at your daily habits and routines. We encourage you to add a mindful practice, a meditation to your daily routine. I sent my family working on the front lines in the hospitals one of our “Supporting Your Immune System” meditations by Jeff Nelder, our Chief Mindfulness Officer.
Meditation, contemplation practices are not new. But, for some reason, we in the west want what we do quantified, measured in some way. I love our curiosity, our eagerness to prove what the ancient sages advised. Today technological innovations are giving us more and more tools to do just that: to investigate how mindful practices work in our brain. What’s healthy and what’s not.
What mindful practice works best for you? How much time do you have to spend? Breathing awareness, deep yawning, walking all contribute to redirecting our “monkey mind” brain to quiet down. Adverse news reports, disrupted schedules, and uncertainty can be frustrating and disheartening.
Andrew Newberg, MD and Mark Robert Waldman in their book, How God Changes Your Brain, suggest that a basic brain-enhancement program including breathing, relaxation, and meditation for twenty or forty minutes changes our brain’s connectivity. If you are not able to spend that much time, then adjust the timing to fit your schedule. These researchers and practitioners have looked at studies that measure brain activity in active and advanced meditators to explore the question: Do these practices change our brain?
“ Our brain-scan studies of contemplative forms of Buddhist and Christian mediation show that when activity in the parietal areas decreases, a sense of timelessness and spacelessness emerges. This allows the meditator to feel at one with the object of contemplation: with God, the universe, peacefulness, or any other object upon which he or she focuses.”( Pp. 51-52.) Further on, they state that advanced or disciplined practitioners reach a state of oneness with all.
Cloud 9 Online offers you our MediMind app - free for 90 days. Got Stress? Choose MediMind Meditations for your daily practice. Try it for yourself: https://www.c9ohealth.com/download
Brain and Mindfulness in the Time of Uncertainty
“To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.”– Jiddu Krishnamurti
Classics withstand the test of time. The works of Shakespeare, for example, reverberate today in theaters across the world, move us and have for a few centuries. So too with mindfulness practices. Sitting in stillness, observing breath, meditating whether conscious, guided imagery, or using sound are nothing new.
by Judith Dreyer, MS, BSN
“To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.”– Jiddu Krishnamurti
Classics withstand the test of time. The works of Shakespeare, for example, reverberate today in theaters across the world, move us and have for a few centuries. So too with mindfulness practices. Sitting in stillness, observing breath, meditating whether conscious, guided imagery, or using sound are nothing new.
Today with the difficulties we face on many levels and working from home, we have an opportunity to include mindfulness practices. We can sprinkle them within our day to rejuvenate our approach to work and family.
The 2017 National Health Survey found that U.S. adults use of meditation in the past twelve months tripled between 2012-2017. (from 4.2 % to 14.2%) https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/meditation-in-depth[1]
Why are we turning to mindful practices? Why could they be important to include in our daily life?
The NIHCAM reports ongoing studies are showing a positive health response to folks experiencing pain, high blood pressure, IBS, Ulcerative Colitis, anxiety, depression, and insomnia when including a meditation practice into their daily routine. And that meditation practice in particular “can affect activity in the amygdala (a part of the brain involved in processing emotions), and that different types of meditation can affect the amygdala differently even when the person is not meditating. “
What I find fascinating is that meditation studies also suggest that this mindful practice may slow, stall or even reverse changes in our brain as we age. As our population gets older, keeping healthy, strong, and vital on all levels are worthy goals. We retire from employment, have more time to create healthy routines that nourish body, mind, and soul.
What else happens in our brain with mindfulness attention? In How God changes your Brain, by Dr. Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman, researchers found that spiritual practices increase dopamine levels by 65%. We know that dopamine creates increased sensory imagery, generates pleasurable experiences, stimulates positive thoughts, increases your sense of well-being and allows you to feel safe in the world.” (p. 55)
Brain image studies are suggesting that long term meditators “have more folds in the outer layer of the brain. This process, (called gyrification) may increase the brains ability to process information.” (NIHCAM :https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/meditation-in-depth )
Today, uncertainty over finances, jobs, culture, social unrest, travel restrictions can steal our inner calm. Do we feel safe? Can we face all the uncertainties and isolation with more inner peace?
Here at Cloud 9 Online we suggest that yes, we can create more inner clam as we live with and live through these changes. We offer a meditation app for free for a limited time. Easy to find and use on all devices allows you to include meditation, sound in your daily life.
Remember: breathe in... breathe out... with mindfulness. Enjoy your day.
1. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/meditation-in-depth
2. https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/meditation-in-depth[2]
3. How God Changes Your Brain, by Dr. Andrew Newberg and Mark Robert Waldman
Mindfulness and Our Cells
Technology moves in nanoseconds. Innovations in the medical field alone astound us. Technology allows us to venture into micro spaces unheard of a few short years ago. We can verify, quantify, and qualify biological processes reducing harm to our physical body while mending, healing in proactive ways.
The mind, too, is a part of this process. I would say that the days of seeing the mental function separate from our body and seeing our body as just a machine may be over. As we integrate within ourselves and integrate our knowledge that the mind and body, emotions, our spiritual senses, make up who we are, we see our self, our body as an inclusive operating system with many components that interact holistically. Maybe we can start asking the question: If I need to fix or heal an aspect of my heart, what impact will it have on my liver, kidney, sleep, or even my mood?
by Judith Dreyer, MS, BSN
Technology moves in nanoseconds. Innovations in the medical field alone astound us. Technology allows us to venture into micro spaces unheard of a few short years ago. We can verify, quantify, and qualify biological processes reducing harm to our physical body while mending, healing in proactive ways.
The mind, too, is a part of this process. I would say that the days of seeing the mental function separate from our body and seeing our body as just a machine may be over. As we integrate within ourselves and integrate our knowledge that the mind and body, emotions, our spiritual senses, make up who we are, we see our self, our body as an inclusive operating system with many components that interact holistically. Maybe we can start asking the question: If I need to fix or heal an aspect of my heart, what impact will it have on my liver, kidney, sleep, or even my mood?
Today we are living in a time of considerable uncertainty, filled with tensions and stresses some healthy, some detrimental. Yet it is through these very tensions that something stirs us to create, to be something more.
Bruce Lipton, the author of Biology of Belief, is a cellular biologist who began to see the world of a cell from a different perspective. He studied one cell, which led him to discover how cells work together in community. Remember, we are composed of trillions of cells, and somehow, they do work in harmony with each other. Liver cells get to function as liver cells though they connected to bile cells, and kidneys happen to be nearby. His research validates that we are one, and what we do affects the whole. We are a remarkable operating system.
Dr. Lipton discovered that as cells evolved from a single cell into units, a community formed, which changed the rules. What one does, does affect the whole. Dr. Lipton goes on to describe how a cell wall functions as the doorkeeper. The cell wall membrane receives signals from the environment, and they make internal decisions accordingly.
"...a cell's life is controlled by the physical and energetic environment and not by its genes. Genes are simply molecular blueprints used in the construction of cells, tissues, and organs. The environment serves as a "contractor" who reads and engages those genetic blueprints and is ultimately responsible for the character of a cell's life." (Biology of Belief, p 15.)
He stresses that the environment plays an enormous role in determining who gets through the cell membrane's doors. Dr. Lipton discovered and observed that the mind, through its various complex signals, can override the cell's decision making. So, what we think, what we feel directly influences a cell's function. What does this have to do with mindfulness practices? When we sit and focus on our breath, we change our biochemistry.
"When you take a deep breath in, your heart rate quickens slightly. As you exhale, your heart rate slows. Repeated deep breaths will naturally bring your heart rate more in sync with your breath. This leads your brain to release endorphins, which are chemicals that have a natural calming effect. But if you're stuck in shallow breathing, that endorphin release doesn't happen. "(Does Deep Breathing Really Do Anything? Updated April 23, 2019, from NeuroCore)
Now we can penetrate the halls of medicine, bridging ancient wisdom with a science framework that will open the doors to understanding the value of alternative practices such as mindfulness, including various forms of meditation.
Here at MediMind, we seek to offer solutions to everyday living by providing meditations that reach into our holistic nature, that moves us toward health, well-being and strengthens our ability to cope with whatever the outside world brings to our doorstep. Not only that, but meditations can offer ways to create bridges between each other and consider we are one. Remember, take a moment today to breathe in …and breathe… out with mindfulness.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180423135048.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140106190050.htm