Adriana Barton: Meditation can change the brain from a mass of neurons twitching with anxiety to grey matter humming on a Zen wavelength. And you needn’t be a Buddhist monk to benefit.
Neuroscientists have discovered that after just eight weeks, non-meditators who start a mindfulness practice show decreased brain activity in the amygdala – the brain region that controls anxiety – and increased grey matter in regions involved in perspective-taking and regulating emotions.
Too bad the idea of meditation stresses people out.
People think they have to sit in a formal cross-legged pose and “get rid of their thoughts,” says Dee Willock, the …