Entries Tagged 'science' ↓

I’ve just seen a  video by the Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard where he describes how happiness can be achieved, through meditation. We have to change the inner conditions of the mind he says, rather than attempt to be happy by looking to fix things outside, as our control over external events is “ at best limited, temporary and often illusory”.  

He argues that happiness is not pleasure, that it is a much deeper, more authentic reflection of our true nature, which paradoxically, can be present even when we’re sad.

How can happiness be cultivated? Ricard says we can take advantage of the inability of two opposite emotions to exist at the same time. For example it is impossible to feel both benevolence and hatred towards someone simultaneously. And meditating can help generate these positive emotions . We can become familiar enough with our own minds to use what he calls “antidotes” to negative mental states in our daily lives. Another method is to directly observe the emotion itself as it arises in the mind. As he eloquently puts it “it will vanish like frost under the morning sun” . I’ve written about this particular technique in How to Meditate mindfully.

Finally he discusses some of the scientific evidence relating to happiness and mediation, from studies on Buddhist monks, with thousands of hours meditating experience. Their brain activity was monitored during a 3 hr period when they were asked to generate a feeling of compassion (part of their usual practice), and showed levels of activity in the left prefrontal cortex (the area of the brain associated with happiness), far greater than seen in the an average population.

You can see the video here.

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Positive Emotions Protect the Heart

People with depression, anxiety or recurrent anger or hostility are more likely to die from a heart related cause than those without. And there is now evidence that cultivating positive emotions such as compassion may reduce these risks, partly by balancing the autonomic nervous system. Meditation may be practical way
to achieve this.

The Benefits of the Parasympathetic Nervous System

The autonomic nervous system controls our heart rate, breathing, sweating, salivation, urination and digestion without us ever having to consciously think about it. Our emotions have a direct effect on this delicately balanced system. If we’re angry, depressed, anxious or stressed the sympathetic part of the autonomic nervous system becomes more active. Our hearts beat faster and more strongly, blood pressure rises, pupils dilate and breathing quickens. This is known as the fight or flight response. However it seems, when we have feelings of compassion and happiness, the parasympathetic nervous system is activated and these effects are reversed.

How Does This Prevent Heart Disease?

The increase in parasympathetic activity, induced by positive emotions, slows the heart, and increases the beat to beat variation in heart rate.
Our hearts usually beat about 70 times a minute. But this is an average. Over that minute the heart may speed and slow considerably- usually becoming faster when we breathe in, and slowing when we breathe out. This speeding and slowing is known as Heart Rate Variability . When the parasympathetic nervous system is more active, Heart Rate Variability increases, while the sympathetic nervous system has the opposite effect.

And it turns out that hearts with greater rate variability, are more healthy than those with more regular rhythms.

This increase in parasympathetic activity also improves our blood pressure control, by increasing the sensitivity of something called the Baroreceptor Reflex.

So What is the Baroreceptor Reflex?

This is an automatic system which allows us to keep blood pressure at just the right level, whether we’re lying, standing or upside down! When we stand, for instance, there’s a big shift in blood to the feet, blood pressure drops driving less blood to the brain- so we may feel light-headed. Receptors in blood vessels in the neck and chest detect this drop in blood pressure, and send a signal to the heart via the autonomic nervous system. The heart beats faster and more powerfully, blood pressure rises and we start to feel less light-headed.

A more sensitive baroreceptor reflex gives us better control of blood pressure, and seems to reduce our chances of a heart related death.

Compassion Meditation Activates The Parasympathetic

It seems then that meditation, where a feeling compassion for others is generated, increases parasympathetic activity, causing our hearts to slow and increasing beat to beat variability in heart rate. This makes our hearts healthier,and reduces our risk of heart related death.

(More about the effects of compassion in later posts).

Further Reading

Compassion by Paul Gilbert

Related Posts

Does Meditation Protect Us From Stress

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The Relaxation Response

Meditation induces the relaxation response, a physiological state of relaxed alertness, which may protect us from the ill effects of prolonged stress, says physiologist Herbert Benson.It’s a concept developed by Benson during the 1970s, while studying practitioners of Transcendental Meditation. A state where heart rate, breathing and metabolism slow, with the mind remaining alert. He described this as a ” physiological state of quietude, giving us the ability to heal and rejuvenate our bodies”.

Benson says it’s distinct from sleep or simply resting . Like sleep, metabolism slows and the body requires less oxygen, but EEG recordings of brain activity show Alpha waves, usually only found when awake. When simply resting there’s no slowing of the body’s metabolism at all.

The overall effect on the body is opposite to the effect of the stress response (otherwise known as the fight or flight response).

The Stress Response

This is the body’s reflex reaction to perceived danger, preparing us to stay and fight or run for cover. The circulation is flooded with the stress hormones adrenalin and noradrenalin, which have a dramatic effect on the body increasing heart and breathing rates, blood pressure, metabolic rate and blood flow to the muscles. It is extremely effective when facing a danger requiring intense physical activity, but is inappropriate, and sometimes harmful when triggered by modern everyday stress and anxiety.

In fact prolonged exposure to the stress response can lead to high blood pressure, heart attacks and stroke.

Benson says that inducing the relaxation response, for as little as 20 minutes twice a day, can protect us from many of these ill-effects.

How to Induce the Relaxation Response

The key to inducing the relaxation response is breaking the chain of everyday thought by repetition, that is repeating a sound, word, phrase or even movement such as jogging or swimming. Gently guiding yourself back to your repetitive phrase or activity when any thoughts come into your mind, says Benson in an interview with the New York Sun.

The only other essential element, he says, is an attitude of passivity, not striving to achieve anything in particular.

Benson developed a very simple technique to induce the relaxation response:

1. Pick a focus word, short phrase, or prayer that is firmly rooted in your belief system.
2. Sit quietly in a comfortable position.
3. Close your eyes.
4. Relax your muscles, progressing from your feet to your calves, thighs, abdomen, shoulders, head and neck.
5. Breathe slowly and naturally and as you do say your focus word, sound phrase, or prayer silently to yourself as you exhale.
6. Assume a passive attitude. Don’t worry about how well you’re doing. When other thoughts come to mind, simply say to yourself, “Oh Well” and gently returned to your repetition.
7. Continue for 10 to 20 minutes.
8. Do not stand immediately.
9. Continue sitting quietly for a minute or so, allowing other thoughts to return.
10. Then open your eyes and wait several minutes before rising.
11. Practice that only once or twice daily. Good times are just before breakfast and before dinner.

Conclusion

• The relaxation response induces a relaxed alertness, physiologically very different to either sleep or just putting your feet up.
• It’s the physiological opposite to the potentially harmful fight or flight response.
• Inducing it ,for just 20 minutes twice a day, may protect us from the harmful effects of stress.

Further Reading

“The Relaxation Response” By Herbert Benson. Published by Harper Torch

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