Mindfulness, Cognition, and Neurogenesis: Part 2

Earlier this week we started to take on a research and evidence-based approach by looking at the cognitive benefits of a mindfulness practice. We briefly explored 3 important structures within the brain that research has determined to be potent sources of emotion regulation; the connections of which are highly plastic and trainable in both clinical and individual mindfulness practices. If you haven’t read that yet, I recommend jumping over and giving it a quick read – its only about a 3-4 minute investment. This week, I’d like to look at another function of cognition that mindfulness has been shown to improve: concentration, and how it lends towards psychological stress reduction. I believe both of these cognitive functions (emotion regulation and concentration) are very useful when one is trying to initiate change, especially when that change is motivated by a sense of dysfunction or imbalance in one’s life.

Concentration: Addition by subtraction

I like to think that the ability to concentrate and hone in on a given task can be likened to the sharpness of a knife. If your concentration is sharp, you can complete your task in a very clean, precise way without leaving your cutting board all marked up. Alternatively, if your concentration is dull and fleeting, you may still complete your task, but it’s probably done in a half-assed, slapped together way that results in something that we tend to be less proud of. Concentration in the short and long term is important when trying to instill change in one’s life because without it, our aim is always changing, we spend our energy on the wrong things, and we end up feeling tired and unfulfilled. Training our capacity to concentrate both in the moment, and long-term will lend to increased self esteem as we feel more focused, determined, and better equipped to complete whatever it is we have set out to do.

Mindfulness programs have repetitively been shown to increase one’s ability to concentrate for longer periods of time across several domains which lead to improvements in working and long term memory such as remembering: where things are or were, longer strings of numbers, differences in facial features, and most importantly… remembering to pay attention. Within a few particular studies, researchers decided to include a number of different types of mindfulness practice like loving-kindness (where one concentrates on generating warm and loving feelings towards another individual or themselves), body scan (like we did in this article here), and breathing meditation (like Vipassana meditation; paying attention to internal sensations such as breathing). The results found improvements across several types of mindfulness or meditative techniques, each donating to a specific psychological or cognitive domain. For example, the loving-kindness mindfulness practice lead to increased feelings of love and gratitude towards others, while breathing meditation increased awareness of internal sensations, emotional labeling, and regulation. Interestingly, all forms of mindfulness have been shown to lead to a significant increase in one’s ability to hold concentration for longer periods of time. This is because concentration is a precondition necessary for any type of contemplative task, be it towards breathing, loving, feeling, or noticing, and thus the base skill that is required and further developed through these practices.

Some of the structures that we spoke about in Part 1 that are responsible for emotional regulation happen to also be involved in concentration, namely the Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC), and Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex (VMPFC) and their wide spanning connections throughout the brain. These areas are specialized for reorienting and maintaining concentration towards meaningful tasks or objects. To do this, they do a large amount of inhibiting neuronal messaging rather than activating. But anyone who has tried to sit down and pay attention to the tip of their nose for more than 30 seconds would know that its not so much the variation in “clarity” that makes this practice difficult, but rather the uninhibited, often intrusive thoughts that make it difficult. So by practicing concentrating on your breath, generating warm feelings towards people, or paying attention to any object within consciousness, you are increasing your brain’s ability to inhibit unnecessary and intrusive thoughts, leaving you with an opened, expansive, non-judging, blue sky mind.

Psychological Stress Reduction

Although there are many other domains of individual psychology and cognition that benefit from mindfulness, the last concept I’d like to explore today is the reduction of psychological stress. This is a huge topic that I couldn’t possibly say enough about in a quick 5 minute article like this one, but my main goal here is to get you thinking and recognizing the ways that mindfulness can reduce psychological stress in your own life. Be it from the simple fact that for every moment we spend paying attention to some piece of the sensory experience, that’s a moment spent outside of our typical tangential way of thinking that leads to a considerable amount of suffering for many people. By improving your capacity to regulate emotion and concentrate, you can quickly label and diffuse uncomfortable feelings in times where you’re feeling drained and don’t wish to lose yourself in a negatively biased way of thinking, and instead spend more energy on things that are more conducive for your happiness. You are always rewiring old neurons and growing new neurons, and by educating them with these practices, you are seriously helping your cause towards living a more peaceful and resilient life.

Before you leave here today, I want to give you another exercise you can begin doing to invite these changes into your own life. It will be slightly different from the body scan we did earlier this month, but I promise it will leave you feeling relaxed and present.

Box Breathing Exercise

This exercise can be done anytime of day, whether its before bed, before a class presentation, or in the middle of a panic attack. Don’t let it’s simplicity fool you, this is a great tool to keep in your back pocket.

Inhale: 4 seconds

Hold: 4 seconds

Exhale: 4 seconds

Hold: 4 seconds

That’s it. I’ll bite my tongue here and forego the explanation surrounding the effectiveness and why this type of breathing shatters anxiety and stress… for now. So, see if you can do 2 2 minute sessions each day. My favourite times are right when I wake up, while I’m in the shower, while I’m eating, while I’m walking, while I’m warming up to work out, while I’m using the bathroom… come to think of it I must spend half my day with this type of breathing. Give it a shot, and let me know how it goes

I’ve been loving all the personal messages and emails I’m receiving in response to these pieces and it really fills me with joy to hear that some of you are getting something from this. As always, if you would like to hear about or tell me about something under the umbrella of psychological and physiological resilience, please send me direct message to Our Blue Sky Minds on Instagram or Facebook which you can find at the bottom of this page, or send me an email at ourblueskyminds@gmail.com. I love to hear from all of you.

Until next week,

Our Blue Sky Minds 

References

Kropp, A., Sedlmeier, P. What Makes Mindfulness-Based Interventions Effective? An Examination of Common Components. Mindfulness 10, 2060–2072 (2019). DOI: 10.1007/s12671-019-01167-x

Wheeler, M.S., Arnkoff, D.B. & Glass, C.R. The Neuroscience of Mindfulness: How Mindfulness Alters the Brain and Facilitates Emotion Regulation. Mindfulness 8, 1471–1487 (2017). DOI: 10.1007/s12671-017-0742-x