4 Ways Mindfulness Can Drastically Improve Your Brain

The practice of mindfulness has been around for thousands of years. Mindfulness was originally a Buddhist concept, but now the practice of slowing down and connecting with the mind has become popular worldwide. Anyone can practice mindfulness; it’s free, it doesn’t take much time out of your day, and it’s fairly easy to do. It’s also extremely effective as a therapeutic tool for people who struggle with anxiety and mood disorders.

Mindfulness involves paying attention to our feelings, thoughts, and sensations to emotionally regulate and relax. Mental body scanning, belly breathing, and the 3–2–1 sensory technique (focus on three things you can hear, two things you can see, and one thing you can feel) are common examples of mindfulness exercises.

When we use mindfulness to connect with our inner experiences, our brains can quite literally change and become stronger. Here are four ways mindfulness can drastically improve the functioning of the brain.

1. Increases Grey Matter

Practicing mindfulness can increase grey matter in multiple areas of the brain. Studies conducted by numerous researchers in Australia, Canada, and the United States found that people who participated in an eight-week intensive mindfulness program had more grey matter in their brains, as viewed in neuroimaging scans.

Grey matter is a type of tissue found in the human brain and spinal cord, and it starts developing at birth. Grey matter is responsible for almost all of our day-to-day operations, such as logical thinking and reasoning, paying attention, learning new things, speaking, remembering, and much more.

The more grey matter a person has in their brain, the better they will function. Therefore, practicing mindfulness is a great way to improve your memory, attention span, and learning processes.

2. Improves ACC Activity

Mindfulness can also increase activity in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The ACC sits in the frontal lobe area and is responsible for our ability to feel and regulate (or control) emotions.

People who have problems with their ACC region often have difficulties remaining calm under duress and may be quicker to anger and react inappropriately to various life stressors. They may worry more about things they can’t control and experience anxiety. These people often show reduced activity levels in the ACC region of their brains, meaning their ACC is not working as effectively as it should.

Those who practice mindfulness, even if only for a few minutes per day, have been shown to have increased activity in their ACC region, leading to decreased levels of anxiety and an improved ability to deal with stress.

3. Improves Ability to Manage Pain

Practicing mindfulness meditation regularly can help people to notice bodily sensations, accept them, and then “release” them. As it relates to feeling physical pain, mindfulness allows a person to notice the pain, accept it, and feel less of it.

Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine conducted a study on mindfulness meditation and how it relates to the perception of pain. The researchers concluded that people who practiced mindfulness meditation more often were able to intercept the pain sensations in their brains and therefore feel less pain.

“One of the central tenets of mindfulness is the principle that you are not your experiences. You train yourself to experience thoughts and sensations without attaching your ego or sense of self to them, and we’re now finally seeing how this plays out in the brain during the experience of acute pain,” notes Fadel Zeidan, PhD, a senior author of the study.

When we accept our feelings and sensations and release responsibility for them, the pain we feel controls less of our daily lives. People with chronic pain may show drastic improvements in day-to-day functioning if they practice mindfulness meditation regularly.

4. Makes the Brain Happier

Mindfulness can make you and your brain happier. One of the main pillars of mindfulness is acceptance of one’s emotions and thoughts. Complete acceptance means not judging yourself for feeling negative emotions or thinking negative thoughts. Thoughts and feelings just are, and when you learn to let go of judgment of yourself, it can be very emotionally freeing.

Mindfulness meditation and practices help us feel happy by boosting our creativity, calming us down, connecting us with our spiritual selves, and increasing our self-confidence. People who feel more self-confident and secure in their identities often feel much more at peace in life. Their relationships improve and they can even become more efficient and effective at work.