A longer version of this article appeared in the April/May 2018 print issue under the title “Zen Arcade: The Why, What, and How of Starting and Keeping a Meditation Practice.”
Why Meditate?
Two words: stress reduction. Most of us have had stress ruffle our ability to sleep soundly, and the impact can be devastating. Mood, memory, appetite control, and overall health can quickly deteriorate when the tension of everyday life gets our minds churning when we should be sleeping.3 When that happens, when whatever was bugging you a little at noon seems like the only thing you can think about when it’s time to sleep, meditation can help.
In a randomized clinical trial among older adults, chosen because that population has some of the largest reported incidences of sleep disturbance, a six-week course of daily meditation produced stronger results in improving sleep—and in reducing both daytime fatigue and depression—than pharmacological interventions.4
From a clinical perspective, the goal of meditation is “to function on arousal and neurocognitive processes that mediate the relationship between perception of stimuli and appraisal.”4 Put simply, that’s using meditation to change the way your brain responds to stress.
In fact, regular meditation actually rewires your brain, creating new neural pathways.5 Sleep problems often arise from what researchers call “automatic arousal, dysfunctional cognitions, and consequential distress,”4 i.e., your brain embarks on a stress bender and you can’t seem to refocus or calm down. Meditation “induces a set of integrated physiologic changes termed the relaxation response,” and “activates neural structures involved in attention and control of the autonomic nervous system.”6 Translated: meditation doesn’t eliminate stress, but it helps you control your brain’s response. In the middle of the night, when insomnia comes creeping, that enhanced ability to properly handle stress can be the difference in whether you sleep well or not at all
But the benefits of meditation are not solely sleep-related. If your brain’s response to stress is improved, that improvement won’t manifest itself only at 3 a.m. When a crazy driver cuts you off in traffic, or your boss hands you that assignment that needed to be finished yesterday, what might have been a subsequent freakout can be diminished, or even eliminated.
Meditation also has been shown to improve digestion.7 A Harvard study demonstrated significant improvement in the symptoms of patients with inflammatory bowel disease when those patients meditated daily for nine weeks.8 Researchers reported that the relaxation response caused by meditation actually altered patients’ expression of genes “known to contribute to pathways involved with stress response and inflammation.”11
More generally, another randomized clinical trial concluded that while many different relaxation techniques are helpful in reducing stress and improving mood, “mindfulness meditation may be specific in its ability to reduce distractive and ruminative thoughts and behaviors.”9 Those noisy baboons in your brain can be hushed, or at least they can be made to pipe down a bit.
How To Meditate
There are many different ways to meditate, but the goal in every practice is to focus on the present moment. So for now, don’t worry about chanting, candles, music, essential oils, or other accoutrements. There’s nothing wrong with any of those things, but they can clutter or complicate the initial meditation experience. It’s too easy to get caught up in—or bogged down by—all the rituals and forget the basic point.
Keep it simple: Sit down. Shut up. Stare at a wall.
Find a comfortable spot in a quiet room. Sit in a chair, cross-legged on the floor, on a pillow, or in some similar position that is comfortable but keeps you alert. Now, focus on the wall in front of you. Think about the wall. It is the only thing you are concentrating on in that moment. Everything else is in the past or future. Your focus is on the here and now, and, right now, the here and now is just that blank wall in front of you.
But, as Brad Warner advises, “don’t make any effort to stop your thoughts.”2 Just return to what’s in front of you. When your mind takes a detour elsewhere—and, seriously, it will do that every few seconds when you’re first starting—think about the wall again.
Repeat that focusing and refocusing exercise for a period of time. Start with two minutes, or five minutes, or ten. Start with less time than you think you’re capable of completing.
That’s it—you’ve meditated!
As the classic meditation manual Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind teaches, “The meaning of meditation lies in the effort itself.”11 Translated to non-Zen speak, that means that whether or not you actually immediately refocus on that wall every time your mind wanders is not the measure of “success.” One “succeeds” at meditation simply by trying.
And let’s be clear: those first few attempts can be frustrating if one enters the practice, as we almost all do, with any sort of concrete expectations. More than a few consecutive seconds of concentration on the wall without a thought of something else interfering is rare. But that’s okay, because the point is to try.
You are training your brain in the art of refocusing. And once you can refocus in that controlled environment, you can begin to take those skills into your everyday life. Everyone’s mind is on overdrive. Even the “great Eastern masters of times gone by” had minds that “were just as hyperactive as yours.”2 They just learned how to refocus.
You’ve heard the motto “just do it.” Nothing could be more apt for meditation. By the simple act of focusing, in a quiet room, on a blank wall, and then, as the mind inevitably wanders, refocusing on that wall, and repeating that cycle over and over, a person slowly trains the brain to deal with the clutter of an overly busy mind. The goal of meditation is not an empty mind, but rather, a mind that has learned how to “be ready for observing things, and to be ready for thinking,”11 depending on which is appropriate in the moment. One observes a random thought and either dismisses it or goes with that thought.
Sit down. Shut up. Stare at a wall. Breathe. Your brain will thank you.
SOURCES
1 Ireland T. “What Does Mindfulness Meditation Do to Your Brain?” Scientific American. 19 January 2018. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/what-does-mindfulness-meditation-do-to-your-brain/
2 Warner B. Hardcore Zen. Wisdom Publications, 2003.
3 Finan P. “The Effects of Sleep Deprivation.” Johns Hopkins Medicine. 19 January 2018. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/healthy-sleep/health-risks/the-effects-of-sleep-deprivation
4 Black DS, O’Reilly GA, Olmstead R, Breen EC, Irwin MR. “Mindfulness Meditation and Improvement in Sleep Quality and Daytime Impairment among Older Adults with Sleep Disturbances.” JAMA Intern Med. 2015;175(4):494-501. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2014.8081
5 Gladding R. “This Is Your Brain on Meditation.” Psychology Today. 19 January 2018. https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/use-your-mind-change-your-brain/201305/is-your-brain-meditation
6 Lazar SW, Bush G, Gollub RL, Fricchione GL, Khalsa G, Benson H.. “Functional Brain Mapping of the Relaxation Response and Meditation.” Neuroreport. 2000 May 15;11(7):1581-5.
7 Walia A. “Harvard Study Reveals What Meditation Literally Does to Gastrointestinal (Bowel) Disorders.” Collective Evolution. 19 January 2018. http://www.collective-evolution.com/2015/08/05/harvard-study-reveals-what-meditation-literally-does-to-gastrointestinal-bowel-disorders/
8 McGreevey S. “Meditation May Relieve IBS and IBD.” The Harvard Gazette. 19 January 2018. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2015/05/meditation-may-relieve-ibs-and-ibd/
9 Jain S, Shapiro SL, Swanick S, Roesch SC, Mills PJ, et al. “A Randomized Controlled Trial of Mindfulness Meditation Versus Relaxation Training: Effects on Distress, Positive States of Mind, Rumination, and Distraction.” Ann Behav Med. 2007 Feb;33(1):11-21. DOI: 10.1207/s15324796abm3301_2
10 Prentiss C. Zen and the Art of Happiness. Power Press, 2006.
11 Suzuki S. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. Shambhala, 2006.
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