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http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-01-mindfulness-meditation-brain-weeks.html
Participants in the MGH study were monitored to document the effects of mindfulness
meditation on stress reduction. Sara Lazar, Ph.D., the study’s senior author, says “This
study demonstrates that changes in brain structure may underlie some of these reported
improvements and that people are not just feeling better because they are spending time
relaxing.” Magnetic resonance images (MRI) were taken of the brain structure of study
participants two weeks before and then after they took part in the eight-week
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Program at the University of
Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness. Over a similar time interval, a set of MRI brain
images were also taken of a control group of participants who didn’t meditate.
The analysis of the MRI found increased gray-matter density in the hippocampus, known
to be important for learning and memory, and in structures associated with self-
awareness, compassion, and introspection. Participant-reported reductions in stress also
were correlated with decreased gray-matter density in the amygdala, which is known to
play an important role in anxiety and stress.
As I explain in the book, the Practice (mindfulness meditation) itself doesn’t care why
you meditate; whether for a scientific research study, for stress reduction, or to recover
from addiction as part of a twelve-step program—the results are the same.
Scientific research is now proving what practitioners have known for centuries:
meditation works. Perhaps the changes to the physical structure of the brain that
researchers are now verifying have their parallel in the psychic changes necessary for
ongoing growth and connectedness provided by working the Twelve Steps.