How Mindfulness Changes our Brains

I write a lot about how effective mindfulness exercises can be at reducing stress and improving our physical and mental health. You might ask why or how does it work. Well here is a great article by Dr. Warren Tryon from Psychology Today that seeks to answer that question.

Dr. Tryon speaks to three key concepts - neuroplasticity, rumination, and mindfulness itself. (You can skip down to the "Neuroplasticity" header if you’re not interested in the super science-y introduction.)

Neuroplasticity is the brain's way of learning, remembering, and healing itself. The brain is a great big network of nerve cells that send messages to each other by shooting chemicals across the gaps between them, known as synapses. You can imagine these networks of nerve cells and synapses as a network of highways, streets, and back roads. Over time back roads may turn into large streets, which may in turn, become a highway. We've all seen that old house on the side of a highway and thought what the road must have been like when its first family built it. Well our brains' neural networks are a bit like that - certain pathways can grow and become stronger and more ingrained over time. However, unlike our paved streets and highways, the brain is also good at downgrading pathways that aren't used as much anymore. This process of upgrading and downgrading the pathways between the nerve cells and synapses of our brains is one way to think of neuroplasticity.

Now Dr. Tryon's second concept, "rumination," has a specific psychological definition, but basically, when you feel your brain is stuck in a rut, you are "ruminating." This happens when your brain is trying to solve something, but makes no progress. This "rumination" can combine with our brain's awesome neuroplastic nature to expand those pathways in our brain and hard wire in that repetitive thinking.

However, the beauty of neuroplasticity is that it is neutral. Just as neuroplasticity can engrain the habit of rumination, so too can it engrain the habit of mindfulness, while naturally pruning the habit of rumination. As Dr. Tryon writes, "The simplest definition of mindfulness is paying attention to one’s experience in the present moment." When we do mindfulness-based exercises, like yoga, breath-work, using our senses, movement/walking, and meditation, we shift our attention away from the repetitive thoughts or the troubles of the day and instead focus on the physical world around us - the pattern of our breathing, the movement of the trees, the sound of the wind, the heat of the sun. As we routinely shift our focus in that way, our brain downsizes those pathways in our brain that were so built up by our "rumination." And just as our painful repetitive thoughts used the power of neuroplasticity to hard wire themselves into our brains, so too can mindfulness re-wire our brains so that we automatically shift our focus to the present.

Keep in mind, most anything can be considered “mindfulness”, so start slow and simple - you don’t have to start with a formal meditation practice! I started with short yoga sessions and walks in the woods to cultivate mindfulness because a formal meditation practice was just too jarring and triggering for me at first, I needed to ease in to learning how to slow down and connect to myself and the present moment!