Meditation is a practice that has been on the rise for several years. More and more young people are also looking for ways to relieve their stress or their anxieties, indirect consequences of the Covid-19 epidemic. But what does science say? Are the benefits of meditation scientifically proven?

A healthy mind in a healthy body. Here is a beautiful goal of life which can be acquired by the food hygiene, the practice of certain sports, but also by carrying out brain exercises. The structure of the brain makes it very complex and it is the control center of the human body. It is possible to stimulate him, thanks to intellectual games, but also to offer him training, thanks to meditation. There are different types, including mindfulness meditation. The latter consists in concentrating, by means of thought, only the present moment. This spiritual activity would have many benefits on the mind, because thanks to it, negative thoughts or anxieties take second place. Thus, the person who practices meditation feels freed from certain mental constraints and refocuses on the essential, especially through deep and relaxing breathing. Meditation allows you to take a “break” from the hectic pace of everyday life and to better understand certain obstacles or anxious states, by focusing on feelings and emotions. That’s not all, because this technique would also have potential effects, literally, on the brain.

American researchers carried out a study, the results of which were published in the scientific journal Nature. Meditation is said to have an impact on brain activity, making the brain work faster. Ten young participants, aged 19 or 20, were recruited. Each week, they were to meditate 5 times for 10 to 15 minutes and keep a journal. MRI-type examinations (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) were also carried out to observe the different functions of the brain. According to scientists at Binghamton University in New York, this spiritual training allowed the two brain states of consciousness to make connections more quickly, and only after two months of practice.

One is called the default mode network, which activates when the organ is at rest and does not interact with its environment, that is, when the mind is wandering. The other is the dorsal attention network, activated once the person concentrates. According to the study’s authors, “ The results indicate the potential effects of meditation on improving the brain’s ability to quickly switch between mental wandering and focused attention and to maintain attention once in an attentive state. Through mindfulness meditation, the connections between these two states speed up, allowing the mind to focus faster, but also for longer.