Meditation: Creating a Little Space
Brain Changes Occur From Meditation
A 2019 Psychology Today article noted that while meditation has been used successfully for thousands of years. More recent studies with MRIs have shown proof that meditation’s works well. MRIs show structural changes happening in the brain when one meditates. According to these studies, meditation can help individuals sleep better, cope with mental health disorders like depression and anxiety, ADHD, and ASD.
Recent work by Harvard-based neuroscientists have found that mindfulness meditation “may physically change numerous parts of the brain.” These changes in the brain were detectable after participating in a mindfulness training program for just eight weeks and could impact cognitive faculties that include memory processes, emotion regulation, self-referential processing, and perspective taking.”
Meditation Creates a "Little Space" Between Emotions and Reactions
A 2019 article by the Wall Street Journal on meditation and kids with Autism Spectrum Disorder had the best way to sum up how important meditation can be as quoting Stephanie Pickering, a psychologist with the Seattle Children’s Autism Center, perspective-taking a benefit from using mindfulness,”
“In psychology, we’ve come up to speed in realizing how effective meditation is, [specifically] how important it is to be aware of what we’re experiencing, be aware of the thoughts, feelings, and emotions we have, and then creating a little space in between our experience and our reaction to it,” she said. “There’s so much power in that pause.” I think this is one of the best, most accurate descriptions of meditation and what it can do for you that I have ever read. Creating a little space is exactly what the instructors do in their introductory meditation series, Here and Now: A Beginner’s Guide on Meditation I found on Gaia. It was helpful to remind myself to keep making that space when struggling with insomnia. This is not anything I had really learned in more typical talk-therapy only meditation and CBT to some degree.
Amazing Beginning Meditation Series
Mark Wilson and Bernie Clark start with breathing and the “Relaxation Response” is how to calm your body through breathing. How do you know you are relaxed? I had trouble with this one-knowing when my body was relaxed, but it does not seem to matter. I just show up and do a meditation video each day. The metabolic and breath rate, mental device, and allowing attitude.
The next three episodes teach you the “Relaxation Response” and how you can identify your own relaxation response. How to move your body from flight or fight to relaxed. Use an anchor to help focus on a mental device like body sensations. Practice. No judgment. How to notice your thoughts without judging them. They practice each meditation three times and give you homework to practice during the day. I always forget the homework but still did find learning how to meditate to help reduce anxiety and sleep better.
I love the videos because you can replay them over and over. Number seven, eight, and nine. The next three episodes they use Meditation on Sounds and then the next three episodes use one of my favorites –Meditation on Emotions. He gets specific strategies on how to be more objective with your own emotions.
The next three episodes they use Meditation on Thoughts which is another one of my favorites because your thoughts can sometimes be harder not to act on than feelings for me. Thoughts often feel more like a fact than emotions do.
The last three use Meditation on Mindful Living to help you put everything you’ve learned together. Give yourself a lot of credit for that small step because, with anxiety, it is all about building back your confidence step by step.
