Tag: benefits of meditation

Meditation and Memory: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Neuroscience

Among the well-known benefits of meditation, which include physical relaxation, attention enhancement and better sleep, the mind-body intervention of meditation has been found to contribute positively to the neuroplasticity of the human brain.

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to form structural and functional neural connections throughout life. At a young age, our brains grow exponentially, and during adolescence, this means organizing thoughts and memories to create a healthy understanding of our life experiences. Neural adaptation allows the brain to learn new skills, recover from injury, and adapt to changing environments. Many studies have shown that meditation helps our brain’s memory capacity and cognitive function. So it seems we can teach an old dog new tricks and meditation is one way to go about it.

Practicing meditation trains your brain to focus, and when we add the power of mindfulness — paying attention, on purpose, to one thing in the present moment — it helps us redirect our minds when we get distracted. An article by Dr. Scott Loeb published in Lone Star Neurology explored meditation and memory, stating: “By repeatedly focusing attention and cultivating meditation, it strengthens specific neural pathways. Mental exercise through meditation builds stronger connections between cells.”

Meditation practitioners learn to work with how they perceive the world, ourselves, and others. This can positively affect our lives, behaviors, and relationships.

In the book “Altered Traits,” psychologists Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson discuss research they performed on masters of meditation vs. novice meditators. Using MRI data and gray matter voxels, they examined the brain of Tibetan yogi Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, who began meditating at nine years old and comes from a lineage of Tibetan Buddhism teachers and masters. Rinpoche’s brain looked about eight years younger than what would be considered normal for a 40-year-old.

Additionally, the ability of master meditators to keep their minds focused for long periods indicates that meditation develops areas of the brain engaged in structural growth. Meditation can stimulate changes in the brain that encourage development in the hippocampus, a region vital for memory. As we age, using meditation to stimulate brain areas that enhance attention and memory may be another reason to bring these practices into our lives.

In Buddhism, meditation practitioners learn to work with how we perceive the world, ourselves, and others. This can positively affect our lives, behaviors, and relationships. Although the Tibetan master Rinpoche didn’t need proof of the benefits of his lifelong practice, it was interesting that science corroborated what he already knew from Buddhist philosophy. He has since written extensively about his experience collaborating with brain scientists in the book The Joy of Living.

Meditation also helps maintain attention and working memory during stressful times. Indeed, this is one of the most common impetuses for bringing meditation into a family’s routine. One study on human resources personnel, as explained on neurosciencenews.com, “showed that those who underwent MBSR training were able to maintain their attention and working memory capacity, even during periods of high stress, compared to a control group that did not receive the training.”

What about the most problematic aspect of memory loss, dementia? A study published in the National Library of Medicine in which “the effects of Kirtan Kriya meditation and music listening on cognitive outcomes in adults experiencing subjective cognitive decline, a strong predictor of Alzheimer’s disease,” suggested that the practice of meditation “can significantly enhance both subjective memory function and objective cognitive performance in adults with subjective cognitive decline, and may offer promise for improving outcomes in this population.”

Another study done in Boston and published in Virginian Rehabilitation & Wellness found that meditation strengthened the cerebral cortex, an area of the brain that handles mental functions such as learning, concentration and memory: “Regular meditation increases blood flow to the brain, which leads to a more robust network of blood vessels in the cerebral cortex, which reinforces our ability for memory capacity.”

The potential for using meditation to enhance the brain’s neuroplasticity is exciting. Harvard researchers reviewed more than a dozen recent studies examining the effects of either mindfulness or cognitive training on older adults with MCI (mild cognitive impairment). “For people with MCI, practicing mindfulness over several weeks to months seemed to sharpen attention, memory, and other mental skills, and ease anxiety and depression. Similarly, cognitive training was associated with better memory, executive function, and mood.” Indeed, it is exciting to scientifically notice fundamental changes in key brain areas that traditionally change and weaken over our lifespan.

Regardless of how it’s been proven, incorporating meditation into a family’s daily routine seems like a win-win option for members of all ages, and practicing meditators will confirm these benefits in their own lives. Many options exist if you want to incorporate meditation into your daily routine or your family’s daily routine. Pre-recorded practices can easily be found online, and Mindful Frontiers offers a wide range of guided meditations on Insight Timer and YouTube. A personalized workshop can also be arranged if one-on-one guidance works better for you.

Anne-Marie Emanuelli is the founder and Creative Director at Mindful Frontiers LLC, a Benefit Corporation (BCorp) based in Taos, New Mexico, whose mission is to welcome a mindful future, one present moment at a time, and is dedicated to promoting community wellness through mindfulness and meditation. We offer individuals, families and organizations a variety of practices designed to support and nurture positive social-emotional growth. Anne-Marie, lifelong Taoseña, is a certified meditation leader and labyrinth facilitator. Mindful Frontiers can be found on social media and the Insight Timer app. The website is ⁠MindfulFrontiers.net⁠.

Initially published in The Taos News, May 8, 2025

Welcoming a Mindful New Year: How to Bring Meditation into Your Family’s Routine.

Many people will resolve to change something as they prepare to start a new year. Most New Year’s resolutions start with honest determination and end within a few weeks or months with lassitude.

Meditation and mindfulness benefit the entire family and here are some tips on bringing it into your family’s daily routine and making it stick. It isn’t difficult; like any change, it takes willingness, vulnerability, and practice. Meditation is a “practice” for good reason: it takes repetition, just like an exercise routine, to make it part of our schedule. So how can a family bring mindfulness meditation into an already-busy schedule? It’s simple: one breath, one present moment at a time, and practice.

The reasons for bringing mindfulness meditation (vipassana meditation) into your family’s life are well-researched and proven.

Families learn how present-moment mindfulness awareness can bring relaxation and social-emotional well-being into their homes.
Children learn that they aren’t judged by their thoughts, sensations, and feelings.
Mindfulness is a way to feel good, just as we are as we settle the nervous system.
Parents model what it means to be confident yet relaxed, happy, and at ease and accept that life is never perfect.
Families build strong bonds through a shared activity; the time spent together invests in compassionate relationship-building.

When sitting on my meditation cushion, I invite presence and calm to my body through mindfulness. Usually, I start the day with a brief moment of watching my breath and noticing sensations in my body and thoughts that arise in my mind. This happens upon waking, while still lying in my bed. I spend a few minutes just noticing what’s happening inside me. Then, as I slowly reach full awakeness, I look around my room and see the colors and light coming through the windows. The sun’s rays stream into the room through hanging prisms that cast rainbows of color on the walls. This practice is at the root of how I treat myself and my family; some days more successful than others. I’m not immune to bouts of sadness, anger and frustration. I believe that practicing what’s called Engaged Parenting is a positive way to live. We may think we aren’t doing enough as parents, but I deeply believe that mindful parenting is enough. “The best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment,” says Thich Nhat Hanh. As we care for our children in the present moment, we care for the future.”

Four ways to bring mindfulness into your family’s daily routine:
Mindful Disconnect. Decide as a family when each person will put away their mobile device and engage in a physical activity such as going for a walk, bike ride or drive to the mountains. Even just sitting and staring out the window can be a mindful activity.
Mindful Travelling. When the family drives to and from school or another activity, we can notice sounds, sights and feelings internally and externally in our environment. Electronic devices are put down for a short period of present-moment mindfulness.
Daily Mindfulness. During an active time, we can do some mindful movement. Dancing, yoga, walking, and just jumping around can be an opportunity for mindfulness. Encouraging children to notice what their body is doing, how it feels in the different limbs to move, what sounds are generated by the activity, and if this is happening outside, noticing nature is a great mindful activity.
Mindful Wind-down. Before settling in for the night, the parent can lead a body scan to bring mindful relaxation to the bedtime routine. Bringing attention to each body part, starting from the feet or the head is very relaxing. Imagining a butterfly landing on each body part can add visualization to the body scan.

I suggest experimenting with these for a week and then discussing with your children which ones they enjoy most. Then, rotate between these mindfulness activities occasionally to keep the experience fresh. Children (and parents) like having a predictable routine and can get bored with the same thing after a while so changing it up may make it stick.

Anne-Marie Emanuelli is the founder and Creative Director at Mindful Frontiers LLC. Mindful Frontiers LLC is a Benefit Corporation (BCorp) based in Taos, New Mexico, dedicated to promoting community wellness through mindfulness. We offer schools and organizations a variety of mindfulness meditation tools designed to support and nurture positive social-emotional growth in individuals. Our mission is to “welcome a mindful future, one present moment at a time,” guiding people towards greater awareness, emotional balance, and a deeper connection with themselves and others. Anne-Marie is a certified meditation leader and a certified labyrinth facilitator. Featured practices can be found on the ⁠Welcoming a Mindful Future⁠ podcast and Insight Timer app. Our website is ⁠MindfulFrontiers.net⁠.

Calming the Nervous System With Meditation

Using the five senses to settle and relax.

There are many ways to work with the stress of life. Listening to music, making art, exercising, etc. Mindfulness meditation is a practice that can be done anywhere, anytime. In as little as ten minutes a day, meditation can soothe the effect of anxiety on the body and mind over time and provide a go-to for times of stress.

“Anxiety is something most of us have experienced at least once in our life. Public speaking, performance reviews, and new job responsibilities are some of the work-related situations that can cause even the calmest person to feel a little stressed”. (University of Rochester Medical Center).

The effects of continued stress and anxiety, if not managed, can be quite unsettling. At Harvard Medical School, radiology instructor Gaëlle Desbordes is part of a community of researchers who have been studying how meditation works in recent decades. Desbordes and her colleagues have found that “there are a handful of key areas — including depression, chronic pain, and anxiety — in which well-designed, well-run studies have shown benefits for patients engaging in a mindfulness meditation program, with effects similar to other existing treatments.”

As a mindfulness and meditation instructor, I guide and coach students and individuals in practices that grow resilience into everyday life. Meditation is a centuries-old practice that has been proven to soothe stress and anxiety by bringing our moment-to-moment attention to what is actually happening in the present moment, and in doing so, we move reactions from the limbic part of the brain to the frontal cortex where logic and reason can take place.

Ruminating is something that keeps us stuck in our anxiety and stressful thoughts as a spiral that keeps going around and around without end, much like recycling thoughts. The frontal and outer parts of the brain are where we can stop the spiraling of rumination by engaging our five senses: sight, touch, hearing, taste, and smell.

The following five-step exercise can be very helpful during periods of anxiety or stress by helping to ground us when our mind is recycling uncomfortable thoughts. Before starting this exercise, we pay attention to our breathing for a few minutes. Slow, deep, long breaths can prepare us for a structured meditation practice. Once you are comfortable following your breath, go through the steps that ground the mind and body by moving attention away from the rumination into a space where your entire body can be calmed.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Practice for Individuals and Families

5: Acknowledge FIVE things you SEE around you. It could be a pen, a spot on the ceiling, or anything in your surroundings. Breathe deeply as you acknowledge these things, really noticing the details.

4: Acknowledge FOUR things you can TOUCH around you. It could be your hair, a pillow, or the ground under your feet. Breathe into these feelings and notice the texture.

3: Acknowledge THREE things you HEAR. This could be any external sound. If you can hear your belly rumbling that also counts! See if you can move that attention to sounds outside the room you are in. Breathe as you are noticing the sounds and maybe even pay attention to the silence between them.

2: Acknowledge TWO things you can SMELL. Maybe you are in your office and smell a pencil, or maybe you are in your bedroom and smell perfume. If you need to take a brief walk to find a scent you could smell soap in your bathroom, or nature outside. The sense of smell can be rather subtle so allow yourself time to fully appreciate the scents.

1: Acknowledge ONE thing you can TASTE. What does the inside of your mouth taste like—gum, coffee, or the sandwich from lunch? If you don’t taste anything, that’s okay, too. Just identify what you taste and breathe with it, naming it as well.

When your practice has come to a close, sit with the breath a while longer, noticing how you feel. Next time you find yourself with anxiety or fear, do this practice as soon as you notice yourself starting to ruminate to invite grounding and relaxation.

Originally published in The Taos News, August 14, 2024

Photo credit: Chris Ensey for Unsplash

Originally published in The Taos News, January 18, 2024

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Inviting and Welcoming Silence:

Building the capacity to be fully present through listening.

Awaken to the mystery of being here

and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.

Have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.

Take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
– John O’Donohue, poet

Have you ever just stopped what you were doing and listened? Deeply listened to the sounds and silence around you? Seems like an oxymoron to be encouraging silence and listening. The kind of silence I’m referring to is one where we are mindful of what is going on in the present moment, encouraging a deep awareness that comes from listening to what’s going on inside and outside the body. It is an invitation to put down electronics, the to-do lists, turn off social media engagement, and just be with our surroundings and our senses.

The first time a person tries to sit in meditation can be daunting. I’ve heard many times from those who say they’ve tried meditation and it “didn’t work” for them because they “couldn’t sit still” or they “couldn’t stop thinking.” Both of these expectations are myths to be debunked once and for all.

Indeed, it is impossible to just sit down and stop thinking. Our minds are made to think and when we sit in meditation, there will be thoughts, lots of them. Sometimes, it can be quite challenging to calm the mental chatter, especially if it contains painful or fearful memories. In the beautiful book, “The Joy of Living”, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, a Tibetan monk, recounts how difficult meditation was for him as a child. “From earliest childhood, I was haunted by feelings of fear and anxiety… even after three years of sitting [in meditation] my anxiety increased…” After asking his father for meditation guidance his anxiety continued and his mind wouldn’t rest. “Years later, I would come to realize I … was simply becoming more aware of the constant stream of thoughts and sensations I’d never recognized before.” When we sit in meditation, there may be a period of hyperactivity as the body and mind learn to settle down and our awareness becomes more attuned to the silence.

Nonetheless, the benefits of sitting in meditation are well worth the effort. Some of these include positive mood and outlook, self-discipline and clear attention, healthy sleep patterns, and even increased pain tolerance. To reap these benefits, meditation practice must be consistent so I encourage families to carve out a daily mindfulness moment, and if it is at the same time each day, the body and mind will look forward to the break.

Rather than encouraging a purely Zen style of meditation (Zazen or Shikantaza) where we are supposed to “just sit, following the breath”, mindfulness of sound is something more attainable for beginning meditators, and especially for children. One of the great benefits of meditating on sound is that gradually we learn to detach from reacting to what we hear around us. This is called equanimity and is very helpful in dealing with life’s stresses and experiences. “You can simply listen to what other people say with a much more relaxed and balanced attitude, without being carried away by an emotional response.” (Rinpoche) We stop assigning meaning to sounds and we just notice them as basic content or just the stuff around us. Welcoming moments of silent awareness helps the body relax and be present. Mindfulness invites us to be at ease with all that is going on around us.

The following practice offers a way to bring mindfulness of sound into your family’s routine and I encourage you to set aside fifteen to twenty minutes for this practice since it may take family members a little time to settle down at first. And it would be especially nice to do this practice outdoors.

Meditating on Sound

Begin by just allowing your mind to rest for a few moments and for your body to relax into a comfortable posture. Take several deep, flowing breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth as you also stretch the shoulders and neck muscles. Also, notice the whole body and where it is in contact with your sitting area.
Gradually, allow yourself to become aware of things you hear. Start by noticing sounds close to your ear, such as your heartbeat or your breath, and then move your awareness to things that occur naturally in your immediate surroundings. We can also extend that area to sounds further and further away.
Cultivate a simple acknowledgment of sounds as you hear them. Just notice sounds and even find the pause or silence between the sounds you hear. It is easier to allow yourself to just be aware of everything around you, rather than to focus on a specific sound for too long so let yourself jump around a bit from sound to sound.
Avoid being too rigid with your attention. As with most meditation, you will probably find that you can focus on the sounds for only a few seconds at a time before your mind wanders off. That’s okay.
When you notice that your mind has wandered into thought, just bring your focus back to a relaxed state and then return to noticing sounds and the silence between them.
As your practice progresses, allow yourself to alternate between resting your attention on sounds and then allowing your mind to simply rest in a relaxed state. This is what is called open awareness practice. In time, the silence becomes more pronounced and our body and mind become more relaxed. We may even forget the sounds completely and just enjoy the whole experience with equanimity and complete presence.
Young children can be encouraged to sit and color or write about what they hear. This allows them to be a bit active since sitting still may be difficult for young meditators. In time, all ages can sit in silence and listen to sounds around them.

When your practice is complete, discuss what each person heard and how they felt about the sounds. Did they notice how to body responded to hearing these sounds? Journaling about the experience is also something that can be added to the practice.

Anne-Marie Emanuelli is the founder and Creative Director at Mindful Frontiers LLC. Mindful Frontiers LLC is a Benefit Corporation (BCorp) committed to Community Wellness by providing schools and organizations with mindfulness meditation tools that nurture positive social-emotional growth. With over two decades of meditation experience, Anne-Marie leads meditation workshops and provides coaching for children, families, individuals, groups, and classrooms. She is a certified meditation leader as well as a certified labyrinth facilitator. A full audio version of featured practices can be heard on the ⁠Welcoming a Mindful Future⁠ podcast. Our website can be accessed at ⁠MindfulFrontiers.net⁠.