Body, Mind And Meditation: How Do They Interact?

Do you want to know what happens in a brain that meditates vs a brain that doesn’t and what is its relation to the body? Read this article to learn more about it.

The literature on meditation and its benefits is abundant. Learning to meditate has grown from a novelty brought in from the East to a common habit for many Westerners. There is indeed a close relationship between body, mind and meditation.

The benefits that this practice offers to those who train daily are numerous. But today we want to tell you about how and why it works. That is, what are the changes that occur in the brain and in the body through constant practice.

To understand the relationship between body, mind and meditation – how meditation shapes the brain and how this modeling influences our emotions and our body – we need to know a few technical questions. Let’s find out.

Welcome to the fascinating world of the brain

We are going to open the door to our brain to explain which areas are involved in meditation and how they work:

The lateral prefrontal cortex is the structure of the brain that allows us to have a more rational perspective. The lateral prefrontal cortex participates in the modulation of emotional experiences and slows down the tendency to take things personally. It is known as the Assessment Center
The medial prefrontal cortex is the part of your brain that is constantly talking about you, your experiences, your ideas. It processes all information relating to you and your relationship with others. We know it as the “me” Center or Self-Referral Center. It is composed of two sections: one which participates in the increase of rumination and anxiety. And another which is very important for empathy

The insula is the part of the brain that controls the sensations of the body by experiencing emotions at the intestinal level. The insula or insular cortex is part of the system related to modulating the level of response to what your body is feeling
The amygdala is our organic alarm system. Also known as the Fear Center, it is linked to the fight-or-flight response in situations perceived to be dangerous.

How does a brain that doesn’t meditate

A brain that does not meditate often has strong neural connections between the “me” center and the body’s fear centers. A brain that is not meditating can often feel “stuck in me” because it has a great dependence on this center. In this case, it is the “me” center that processes most of the information received.

This dependence on the “me” center explains why we get stuck in negative thought loops. And this happens because the connection between the “me” center and the assessment center is weak.

As we increase the work capacity of the assessment center, the excessive activity in the part of the center of the “me” that takes things personally decreases. It also improves the activity of the party involved in understanding the feelings of others. It is the way to assimilate all the information received, to get rid of erroneous data, to reduce over-thinking and worry.

The brain in meditation

Several things happen in a brain that meditates regularly. The connection between the “me” center and the bodily fear centers begins to break. This decreases the strength of the fear response and is part of the reason why anxiety decreases when we meditate regularly.

Instead, a stronger neural connection is created between the assessment center and the bodily sensation centers of fear. This means that when a bodily sensation of fear of a potentially dangerous thing reaches the brain, the brain can assess it rather rationally rather than automatically reacting to fear. It also reduces the likelihood of being caught in a continual production of hypotheses about what “might be or mean” what is happening to me.

Empathy, the other advantage

In a brain that meditates regularly, there is a significant increase in the connections between the center of the “me” and the center of bodily sensations related to empathy, and we activate the part of the brain involved in the actual experience of it. empathy: the insula. In this way, we become more able to infer other people’s mental states, their desires, dreams and motivations.