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Choices
By gartenfische | March 17, 2008
About a year ago, I read Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain, by Sharon Begley, a fascinating look into recent discoveries in the field of neuroscience, particularly in regard to neuroplasticity—the ability of the brain to adapt and change.
The video of Jill Bolte Taylor reminded me of Begley’s book, especially the portions about attention and meditation.
On attention:
Attention, for instance, seems like one of those ephemeral things that comes and goes in the mind but has no real physical presence. Yet attention can alter the layout of the brain as powerfully as a sculptor’s knife can alter a slab of stone.
Through attention, UCSF’s Michael Merzenich and a colleague wrote, ‘We choose and sculpt how our ever-changing minds will work, we choose who we will be the next moment in a very real sense, and these choices are left embossed in physical form on our material selves.’
The discovery that neuroplasticity cannot occur without attention has important implications. If a skill becomes so routine you can do it on autopilot, practicing it will no longer change the brain. And if you take up mental exercises to keep your brain young, they will not be as effective if you become able to do them without paying much attention.
Importantly, we can choose to pay attention, to be present, rather than to switch into autopilot. This is what mindfulness training is about. Even if you are doing a task you’ve done a thousand times before, you do not have to go into autopilot. In Christian Mysticism, William McNamara writes that mysticism is a “standing in, alert and alive, with the highest possible focus of human attention on the present moment.” According to Taylor, when we keep ourselves present, we are also activating the “right brain,” which connects us to all. Our left—obsessively thinking—brain, separates us, from one another, from life.
On meditation:
Richard Davidson and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, recorded brain waves of people while in meditation. The study subjects were eight Buddhist monks plus ten volunteers who were taught “nonreferential compassion” meditation in which “the meditator focuses on unlimited compassion and loving kindness toward all living beings.” (Sounds like metta meditation to me.) Though even the new meditators showed “slight but significant” changes in the brain, Begley writes:
More interesting were the differences between the monks and the novices. The monks had much greater activation in brain regions called the right insula and caudate, a network that underlies empathy and maternal love. They also had stronger connections from the frontal regions to the emotion regions, which is the pathway by which higher thought can control emotions.
In each case, monks with the most hours of meditation showed the most dramatic brain changes. That was a strong hint that mental training makes it easier for the brain to turn on circuits that underlie compassion and empathy.
‘This positive state is a skill that can be trained,” Prof. Davidson says. “Our findings clearly indicate that meditation can change the function of the brain in an enduring way.’
Is that not awesome? And especially wonderful because we can choose to help develop the right brain Taylor talks about in her video and that Davidson says is connected to compassion and peace. We can choose to practice meditation. If we want to get out of the left brain and into the right, I believe this is the surest way.
There is confusion about what meditation is and isn’t. One organization, in a review of Begley’s book, described it as “rigorous thinking.” Meditation is not thinking. (It is also not not-thinking—the blank mind that some people imagine). Begley calls it “mental training,” which it certainly is, and there are various techniques and lots of books that describe these techniques. Mental training is important, and has largely been overlooked by Western society.
From the Christian view, meditation quiets the thinking mind, opening us intentionally to God’s presence and making it easier to perceive God’s proddings. Our minds are so busy that unless we practice some form of mindfulness practice or meditation—mental training—we talk right over the top of God with our left brain chatter. We want to be as open to God as possible. In my experience, slowing the chatter in this way is a life-changing process, an exercise in deep trust that brings deep healing.
For Christians interested in learning to meditate, I highly recommend checking out the Contemplative Outreach programs which use Fr. Thomas Keating’s methods to teach Centering Prayer. Though I was a Buddhist wannabe for many years and tried meditating on my own, going to classes made all the difference for me. I was pretty sure, like many people, that meditation wasn’t for me, that my mind was just too busy—I had tried and failed too many times. I was wrong, I simply needed guidance and support. For those who can’t take classes, Thomas Keating’s book, Open Mind, Open Heart, is an invaluable guide for Christians interested in learning to meditate.
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Listen to a very interesting interview with Sharon Begley at NPR. I highly recommend her book, Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain—the insights she shares are simply astounding (it is not a self-help book, which it sounds like, it’s about the science and written in an engaging and accessible style).
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Please see my post about the Olympics and human rights at wyrdbyrd.
Topics: meditation, Christianity |
March 17th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Hmm, this is the second time today that centring prayer and open mind, open heart has swam into my consciousness. Something important for me I think. Thank you for this post. I’ve discovered your blog through wonderful exchange and beauty from chaos and am very glad I did!
March 17th, 2008 at 11:06 am
G, you’ll be interested in this link — http://www.fallingfruit.tv/episodes/unwavering-samadhi-meditative-achievement-and-its-impact-world
I’m too tired to write about it on my yoga blog — been busy writing about Tibet….
March 17th, 2008 at 11:07 am
we are publishing an interesting conversation between richard davidson and daniel goleman within the next month which you can listen to a free sample of at www.morethansound.net, best wishes
March 17th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Elizabeth, Yeah, sounds like one of those non-coincidental coincidences! I’m glad you found the blog.
Linda, Thanks—I’ll check that out when I’ve got a little time. :)
And Lewis, I’ll have to check that out. Goleman seems like an interesting guy, as does Davidson. The conversation should be enlightening. Thanks.
March 18th, 2008 at 8:34 am
That book sounds fascinating and I’ll have to add it to my ever-growing “to read” list.
March 18th, 2008 at 9:00 am
Neuroplasticity is reaching a turning point. Ah quantum physics. It is on the fulcrum of changing how we look at EVERYTHING to do with the brain.
I read works on this by Dr Jeffrey M. Schwartz two years ago and when I looked up this book by Sharon Begley I noticed they have co-authored another book.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Maureen, Yes, we live in an interesting time. One thing that is so intriguing about Begley’s book is she makes the point that until very recently doctors and scientists were absolutely certain that the brain was set at a young age and that it could not change in the ways that we now know it can.
March 20th, 2008 at 9:06 am
This goes well with the little TED video of Jill Taylor–go look at it at my blog and tell me what you think!
March 22nd, 2008 at 2:51 pm
I’ll have to look at the Begley book for sure. She wrote the intro to one of my favorite books. It’s called “The Hand of God” and weaves quotes by theologians, scientists and mystics among fantastic photos of the universe by the Hubble Space telescope.
March 22nd, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Poodledoc, sounds like a book I’m going to have to check out. Thanks for increasing my reading list! ;)