Meditation - Find a focus in the present moment.

Summary

Each time you intentionally focus on something that can be perceived with any of your five senses. That's meditation. When you meditate, you focus on something real that is perceived in the present moment.

The reason why breathing exercises has become so central in meditation, is when you're adding the slow breathing to your focus, you trigger the calm state of your brain, which trains your brain to stay in that "rest and digest mode" and not set off the "fight or flight mode". The reason why sitting meditation with focus on the breath has become the corner-stone of meditation, is that sitting makes it easier to relax but yet stay alert, compared to laying down or standing.

You don't have to choose sitting meditation as your only practice to gain benifits from meditation (since it's one of the most challenging forms, especially for beginners). I suggest trying different forms of meditation, to find what works best for you at the moment. There are many forms of meditation. Both in stillness and in movement. All benefit the quality of life!

What exactly is meditation?

Under construction...

The impact of meditation

Meditation train the brain to choose a less stressful line of thoughts when we are exposed to e.g. bodily pain, painful memories or worrying thoughts of the future.
When stress is reduced, capacity is released to enhance the overall quality of life.

Another purpose is to get the insight that the thoughts that generate stress are not part of the personality but constitutes a conditioning that other people have conveyed and which contributes to a false identity. With total awareness in the present moment, the false "I" disappears and then the stream of spontanious thoughts can be questioned and more objectivly observed.

Some of the common meditation exercises are sitting meditation with focus on the breath, walking meditation and yoga.

All sorts of meditation use the same technique: Paying attention on purpose in the present moment, without judging or assessing what is observed.

Improved judgement and reduced anxiety
Exercises that are objectively focusing on something real, something that can be perceived in the present moment, reinforces the nerve pathways in a younger part of the brain (cortex), associated with higher order brain functions such as awareness, attention, impuls control, foresight, decision-making and empathy. Stress activates an older, more primitive part of the brain (the Limbic system) where the functions are impuls driven rather than rationally thinking. The Limbic system ("the emotional brain") is assosiated with aggression and anxiety.
I.e. exercises that stimulates the cortex, reinforces the logical and rational part of the brain, while the emotional brain weakens during meditation. Similar to when a certain group of muscles becomes stronger through an intensive training at the gym, while another group which is not stimulated, gradually weakens.

The challenging environment of today
A stressful world generates a vicious spiral by activating and thus strengthening the emotional brain for a large portion of the day. The brain prefers the reinforced nerve pathways since they are less energy-consuming to re-activate (these reinforcements of the brain are what we in casual conversation call habitual patterns).
When the brain receives a stimuli (e.g. information about a deadline at work), it is more likely that this stimuli causes stress if the nerve pathways in the emotional brain been reinforced by earlier stress impact. If this visious spiral isn't broaken by an active reduction of the emotional brain stimulation and in that way reduce its nerve pathways, it can lead to mental illness. But if it's possible to through mindfulness e.g., build a habitual pattern (reinforcement) in the "logical brain" (cortex), the the risk of experienced stress is drastically reduced.

Stimulated nerve pathways generates reinforced nerve pathways = habitual patterns.
Habitual patterns = energy saving nerve pathways = automated reconnected thought patterns.

In scientific articles, you can read about how the stress center of the brain shrinks and the logical part is growing with meditation practise.

The consequences of a reinforced emotional brain
One of the problems with having an overstimulated emotional brain, is that you can't "reach" the creative and life quality enhancement parts of the brain if the emotional brain is reinforced and thus prioritized. We've all experienced how hard it is to think logically or creatively under stress. Stress is also a significantly more energy intensive process than to be consciously present.

Two nervous systems
Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system and meditation practise activates the parasympathetic nervous system. Both these nervous system are included in the autonomic nervous system where these two work against each other (antagonistic). This is why the stress subside during meditation.

An activation of the Sympathic nervous system (fight & flight, energy-intensive) affects the body by:

An activation of the Parasympathic nervous system (rest & digest, energy-saving) causes:

Train the brain with focused breathing
The term: "breathing in or through a sensation" means that with focused breathing, the brain practises to activate the parasympathetic nervous system to dissolve a triggered stress mark by relocating the brain activity from the emotional brain to the prefrontal cortex. It can be stress in terms of a challenging stretch in yoga, a bodily pain, a tension in the body or an experienced anxiety. When the calm, natural breathing which activates the parasympathetic nervous system connects to the current stress sensation, the brain receives an experience of linking a calm mind with the current activity /experience that has triggered stress. This means in the future that the brain decrease or even refrain from activating the emotional brain (the stress center) during the activity that previously caused stress. Instead, the prefrontal cortex which is associated with logical and creative thinking, is activated. This means that you can teach the brain to think clearly and constructively instead of letting your activity be blocked by stress. The brain's talent to activate (by earlier repeated activation) the reinforced prefrontal cortex instead of the emotional brain, is an example of what we commonly call experience. Another example of experience is when you automatically extend your arm to a certain side of the bed in the morning to turn off your alarm clock. If you later refurnish your bedroom and place the alarm clock on the other side of the bed, then it is likely that you stretch your hand straight into the wall on the opposite side of the alarm clock when it starts to ring....

Conscious focus in everyday life
In addition to set aside regular time for exercises with conscious focus, it's good to include a reduced stimulation of the emotional brain in everyday life. You will soon notice that many activities during the day runs on so-called "autopilot". It's natural that the brain uses past experiences to perform a task as it requires less energy to use existing brain paths than strengthen new ones. Nobel prize winner Daniel Kahneman describes this phenomenon in his famous book: Thinking, fast and slow. In this book he talks about system 1 which is fast, low-energy-consuming and act automatically, without conscious control and that makes it possible for us to walk and talk at the same time. System 2 is slow and muted until system 1 announces that it needs assistance to solve a task. You may have noticed that you stop when you want to explain something complicated because you need to mobilize your resources when system 2 is activated.

Fear brings a prejudiced image of the now
If thoughts of the past (let's call them experiences), or thoughts about the future (speculations) are part in the observation of the present moment, it will contribute to a prejudiced view of reality. These interpretations of the past or guesses about the future normally contain a big portion of fear regarding possible consequences of what has happened in the past or of what could happen in the future, which generates an unnecessary stimulation of the emotional brain. The present moment is the only moment in which we can get a true picture of reality, but if experience or speculation takes precedence, the experience of reality is clouded and therefore not entirely true.
There are no judgements of the the present experience during total presence in the now, since judgements and evaluations are collected from experiences in the past. It is encouraged within meditation, to be non-judgmental. Judgements and evaluations are both products of experiences stored in the mind, so to be judgemental is a sign that focus in the present moment, is broaken. The rest of the body is excluded in the interpretation of the reality when judgement is involved. Judgment involves fear and therefore activates the emotional brain.

"- When we are judging someone, it's our primitive brain analyzing threats and assessing the world around us."

The image become clearer
If you intentively exercise meditation over a few days (e.g. at a retreat), you can experience how the surroundings you look at, become clearer and more intense. This is because you've trained your brain to actively focus on what you experience, without prejudice. Most of us see the world through prodigious eyes. I.e. we put on a "filter" of thoughts that obscure our experience, but with an active focus on what you see, the experience becomes different and may even touch emotionally.
This phenomenon has even got a name: "Reveal the veil".
Music, touch and food, are other examples that can be perceived more clearly.

The breathing can be used as a focus for meditation, but also as a bridge between the head and the rest of the body, where it's used as an amplifier of the emotional state at a given moment. The breathing is affected by every thought and every action. Breathing is also one of the few bodily functions that can be controlled both subconsciously by the autonomic nervous system and by conscious breathing. So you can actually trick your body to calm down by breathing calmly when you are stressed, because stress and rest is controlled by two different parts of the autonomic nervous system.
Digestion is also controlled by the autonomic nervous system, specifically the parasympathetic nervous system. Since stress (fight & flight) is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system, it is not surprising that the stomach malfunctions during stress.

Exercising focus reduces anxiety
An example of unnecessary stimulation of the emotional brain, is to always experience stress when your boss unexpectedly shows up at your office desk. If you observe your breathing for a few seconds or feel the contact surface of your feet instead of letting stress take over, you'll notice a drop in the stress level and your focus is facilitated. After frequent practicing of this method, the brain will remember this choice (experience) in future meetings with your boss and the stress level will become lower. This method can also be used if you e.g. are experiencing a fear of heights, fear of flying or other perceived danger that doesn't constitute an immediate threat. This is illustrated in the opening scene of a movie, where John McLane who has a fear of flying, receives a proposal from a fellow traveler: "Take off your shoes and make fists with your toes."

" If you worry about what might happen or what might have happened, you'll be missing what is."

Increased honesty and self-esteem
By exercising meditation, the life energy that previous was spent to manage anxiety, is now available to raise the overall quality of life. This practice also contributes to a greater self-awareness as 'filters' which previously gave a blurred picture of reality, now gradually becomes thinner. The true picture of yourself thus becomes clearer.
Similarly, a gradual increase of honesty will grow, since you no longer have to hide behind a filter of fear.
This contibutes to an increase of self-esteem, which consequently reduces the need for external confirmation.

"- By practicing meditation, the brain's opportunity to rationalize thoughts is reinforced, which prevents impulses from taking control."

Practice makes perfect
The effect that meditation exercices have on the brain can e.g. be compared with the brain's influence at learning to juggle. After some months of intensive juggling practice, pictures from MRI-scanning displays that parts of the brain that handles coordination has grown stronger. Nerve pathways have become thicker, so that the feedback to this area requires less energy and therefore gives the brain a greater aptitude to re-connect in these areas. This is what we colloquially call experience. The brain has simply become more experienced when it comes to coordinate rapid movements.

To read about, think about or talk about meditation, can't replace the actual contemplation of the now. It is the practice that transforms you!

System reset
Meditation helps our brain to bring us back to our "original position". This is where we should be in order to be able to regain the harmony that we once had when we were very young. Small children seldom have any reason to think about things in the past or to what might happen in the future. They live, speak and play in freedom, without follow anyones habitual patterns or expressing prejudices. Who are laughing the most: children or adults?
Meditation can help regaining the simple natural confidence we had as children. When we without fear could approach a foreign child and ask: "Can we play?" or "What's your name?"

Of course it's not possible to be consciously present all the time, but with the help of meditation we can accustom our mind to not always be "parked" in ruminations. This is where neuroplasticity comes in: to alter the structure of the brain, using another experience than the brain has been accustomed to.

"- If you are not present in the moment, you are limiting your actual resources."

The brain is focusing on threats
The increased focus on mindfulness today, is partly due to the fact that we are mostly trained to be distracted in this information society of today and we are also trained to be able to do several things at the same time. In addition, the media is doing its best to keep the amygdala active with headlines such as .: "- The epedemic is spreading and is getting closer to our country.", "- This food can make you sick.", "- The world economy might become bad next year." or "- Violence is increasing."

Following film describes the drawback of reading about events in the world which we perceive as alarming and therefore activates the amygdala

The amygdala is a key contributor to the present sickness rate. The amygdala becomes easely over stimulated in our world that signals stress and worries.

Meditation = reduced stimulation of the emotional brain, increased stimulation of the frontal lobe.