Mindfulness - the game changer

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I have been practising mindfulness for many years, in various degrees. Over the last 10 years I have been teaching the power of using mindfulness in our lives to students, readers, schools, government officials and businesses.

Why? Because it is a game changer.

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Sara Lazar, a neuroscientist and professor of psychology at Harvard University, and her team led an investigation to some of the most powerful scientific data regarding the holistic benefits of mindfulness practices.

Lazar and her researchers chose people who had never meditated and instructed half of them to meditate every day for eight weeks. An MRI scan of their brain was done before starting this journey.

At the end of eight weeks, the post-brain scans of the meditators, showed significant positive changes when compared to both their beginning scans.

Their research found the brain changed dramatic in areas creating increased focus, memory and information retention and improved emotional regulation. There was a noted reduction in stress levels and a calming of the nervous systems. There were many remarkable results reported in this experiment, including the fact that the gray matter density in a 50-year-old brain increased to the level of a healthy 25-year-old brain after just eight weeks of daily meditation practice.

As well, meditators demonstrate superior performance on tests of self-regulation, resisting distractions and making correct answers more often than non-meditators.

Neuroscientists have shown that practicing mindfulness affects brain areas related to perception, body awareness, pain tolerance, emotion regulation, introspection, complex thinking, and sense of self.

In addition to training your mind through meditation for personal benefit, many bonuses have been seen with advancements in performance for professional athletes, businesses and corporations implementing mindfulness into their trainings and organizations.

By disconnecting from the world, we slow down. We get to enjoy the moment, which we often neglect in our chaotic worlds. The conclusions of the benefits of a relaxed body-mind state cannot be overestimated. Once self-awareness expands to include breathing, and the body state in general, we are more grounded, mentally focused, and capable of making significant changes and reaching new heights of wellness and success.

Mindfulness should be considered an essential way to keep our brains healthy, to support effective decision-making capabilities, and to protect ourselves from toxic stress.

When we are mindful, we have the power to control our lives.   This power can deeply and profoundly improve our experience, our leadership and our life by compelling and forceful benefits.

If you are interested in online mindful mediation classes, please email kelly@indigolounge.ca.