Key 1: Meditate to Regenerate Your Brain
Key Points:
1. Meditation is a simple but extremely powerful tool that can be used to improve mental performance and promote longevity.
2. Meditation has been shown to positively impact our mood, stress, and hormonal levels, as well as decrease anxiety, pain, and depression.
3. Meditating for just a few minutes at a time, a few times per week can actually change your brain’s anatomy in as little as a couple of months.
“Meditation is a vital way to purify and quiet the mind, thus rejuvenating the body.”
Over the last few years, I have been integrating meditation into my life in a deliberate and purposeful way. I have also been encouraging all of my athletes, clients, audiences, and readers to do the same. Why? Because it is one of the simplest, most powerful, most wonderful things you can do for yourself. It’s also a scientifically proven method for improving the functioning of your brain and extending your lifespan: People who meditate regularly experience a 23% reduction in all‐cause mortality, a 30% reduction in cardiovascular mortality, and a 51% reduction in rate of cancer mortality—that’s huge!
When we rest while awake—like when we meditate or pause to gaze out the window—the body and the brain take advantage of the decrease in activity to refuel and reset. More specifically, pausing to rest during our waking hours gives our bodies and brains the break that they need to replenish, setting the stage for getting back into the higher activity states that we use to get things done. If you’re already thinking “I don’t have time to take even a short break,” then consider that even 3 minutes of meditation has been shown to have powerful benefits. That’s less than 0.2% of your day!
New research by Adreinne Taren from the Center for Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh has demonstrated that regular meditation helps to change the responses of a region of the brain called the amygdala to environmental events. Overall, these changes result in better emotional control both during the meditation and in the hours that followed.
Dr. Sy Saeed from the East Carolina University Brody School of Medicine has reported that meditation improves mood, stress, your hormone levels, and can reduce anxiety, pain, and depression. It is an incredible tool that will make a huge difference in your life.
When we meditate, we create something called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a protein that helps existing neurons in our nervous systems survive and supports the growth of new ones. Studies have shown that BDNF and meditation have a very specific impact on the part of the brain called grey matter.
Grey matter is what you use to process information. Recent research at Harvard University shows that meditating a few times per week for as little as 8 weeks can increase the grey matter in the parts of the brain responsible for emotional regulation and learning. That means that as little as 2 months of meditation can change your brain!
A Simple Meditation Protocol to Help Calm Your Mind
If you want to get healthier and reach your potential, meditation should become one of your fundamental daily practices.
Find a spot for yourself. A space just for you. Choose a place where you can let your mind completely relax. Let go of the urgent demands of life, just for a while, and try to reconnect to yourself. You can use an app to help you, if you like. I sometimes use Headspace but Calm.com is also very popular. Muse is also a very cool piece of technology (choosemuse.com) that can help you start your own meditation practice.
If you set aside some time every day, even briefly, you will notice an enormous impact on your physical, emotional, and mental health.
Today’s Call to Action: Time Shifts - I Have an Hour to Recharge
Theta brainwaves are all about relaxing, letting your mind water, and getting into a state of calm so you can be creative and perform at your best - at whatever you’re doing. If you have an hour to recharge, there are several things you can do to enter into theta brainwaves and get your brain juices flowing. Refer to the Time Shifts on page 27 in your Rest, Refocus, Recharge Workbook for some ideas. Or write down your own ideas in the Notes section on page 28 of the Rest, Refocus, Recharge Workbook. Good luck!
Today’s Bonus Video
The information and advice provided in this program is intended to assist you with improving your performance, as well as your general health. It is not intended and should not be used in place of advice from your own physician or for treatment or diagnosis of any specific health issue. By participating in this program you acknowledge that undertaking any new health, diet and/or exercise regime involves certain inherent risks, that you assume such risks, and that you release Wells Performance Inc. from any responsibility or claim relating to such participation.