Meditation can help reduce your stress and focus your attention, and now, according to new research, it’s effects are long-term.
The study, published in Frontiers of Human Neuroscience, found that participating in an eight-week meditation training program can have a measurable effect on how the brain manages its response to emotional stimuli even after the conclusion of meditation.
Researchers conducted brain scans of their subjects three weeks in to the training program and after its conclusion. During the scans, they showed the subjects a series of images of people exhibiting positive, negative, or neutral emotions. Researchers found a decrease in brain activity in the right amygdala, a structure in the brain known to be involved with processing emotion and memory. The control group of the study had no decrease.
So, want to take better control of your emotions (and stress)? Maybe it’s time to sign up for that meditation class at the Y.
