How The Practice Of Meditation Can (Literally) Make Us Feel Superhuman

It’s no secret that meditation is a super healthy and beneficial practice to add to your daily routine. There are loads of different ways to meditate, so whether you’re interested in the spiritual side of it, or simply looking to calm your mind and body down, there’s something in it for everyone. But this article isn’t just about why meditation is always a good idea, it’s about the effects meditating has on your brain and body in the long-run – effects you probably weren’t aware of, but they’ll make you wish you started meditating years ago!

Meditation of any sort has always been recommended as a way to calm yourself down, ground yourself and connect with your breathing and your body. But have you ever looked into how that works? People who incorporate meditation into their daily routines, and who have been meditating for a while, usually say that they feel generally more calm, content and focused throughout the day, compared to their temperament before they started meditating. That’s not just waffle, in fact, there’s solid scientific evidence to back it up. Of course, the best way to understand the effects that meditation can have on the brain is to look into the experiments done on people with an insane amount of hours of meditation behind them, Tibetan Buddhist monks.

Over the past twenty years or so, more and more research is being done on the impact meditation has on brain activity, and also the potential tool it could be regarding brain diseases and conditions like Alzheimer’s. Tibetan monks, or meditators who follow the ancient practice of Tibetan Buddhist meditation, are often used in these studies. Some of these monks and nuns have over 62,000 hours of meditation under their belts. That’s around seven years straight! 

@nikki.neisler 3 Tips to Start Meditating: i feel like we all avoid meditation because we can’t stop thinking and sit still for a few minutes. 1. You’re forcing it. Surrender and notice the thoughts. Let them come and go instead of going down the thought’s path. You are not your thoughts. 2. Sit still. Either in lotus position or in a chair, have your spine straight. This allows you to stay still and not readjust yourself, breaking your concentration. 3. You’re quitting before it even started. Sit somewhere with no noises or distractions. It should feel nice. Take deep breaths and relax into yourself. Stay in it for a while if you expect anything to happen, great things take time… at least 5 minutes. #meditation #beginnermeditation #yogananda #breathwork #healthjourney #healthyliving #sandiego #sandiegocreator #spiritualtok ♬ sidewalks and skeletons goth – Trendformusic🤍🇲🇺

These experiments all resulted in some pretty wild findings. Firstly, experiments that explored the monks’ brain activity while they were in a deep state of meditation found that their brain emitted more frequent and longer lasting gamma waves than the average human. Our brain emits gamma waves when we are engaged in high-level cognitive functions such as a state of deep focus and attention. It was also found that even outside of their meditation sessions, these monks consistently experienced intense levels of gamma waves. 

More research found that the practice of meditation can possibly slow down the ageing of the brain, and by quite a significant amount of years. In one case, a study on the brain of monk and long-time meditator Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche showed that his brain looked to be that of a 33 year old’s. At the time of the study, he was 41 years old. Science has also shown that consistent meditation increases the amount of grey matter in areas of the brain that deal with emotional regulation and memory, so it’s no surprise that this research has piqued the interest of many scientists looking into brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, although more research is needed into this field.

Perhaps the craziest scientific findings regarding deep meditation of all time was the discovery that some monks could drastically regulate their body temperatures through a specific meditation practice known as g Tum-mo. In one experiment, a group of Tibetan monks entered this state of meditation in a cold room (around 4 degrees Celsius), while other monks placed sheets that had been soaked in cold water around their shoulders. Any average person would have been a shivering mess in these conditions, and if left in a state that cold for too long would risk freezing to death. However, by using g Tum-mo, these monks were able to increase their body temperatures to a level where they weren’t even shivering, and they could continue with their meditation despite the circumstances. Crazier still, the monks managed to generate enough body heat to dry the sheets covering them within one hour. 

@sashaexeter Every day mantra 🧘🏾‍♀️ #meditation101 #selfcare #positiveenergy ♬ original sound – NanaTheWitch – Sasha Exeter

In the 1980s, Herbert Benson, an associate professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School, visited remote Tibetan monasteries in the Himalayas to research this phenomenon. During these visits, his team found that the monks there could raise the temperatures of their extremities by a massive 17%. They could also meditate outdoors without being affected by the subzero temperatures of the mountains. It is still unclear as to how these monks manage to achieve this level of control over their body temperatures, but evidence does suggest it is through meditation.

Of course, the average person such as ourselves will most likely never reach this level of harmony and control over our bodies through meditation. These monks and expert practitioners have spent years and years honing this skill and often revolve their life around achieving inner peace and this superhuman connection with their body and surroundings. However, that doesn’t mean that a normal level of meditation won’t have impacts on your own brain, so don’t be discouraged to try it.

Earlier this year, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai carried out experiments on meditators’ brain activity. After their participants, who were novice meditators at the time, completed one session of meditation, researchers found changes in activity in the amygdala and the hippocampus, which are areas of the brain associated with memory and emotional regulation.

People who meditate for even an hour a day will develop a more focused, calm and active brain over time than those who don’t. Sure, you probably won’t be entering a state of oneness with the universe any time soon, and please do not try meditating in subzero conditions, but there’s so many crazy ways that meditating can benefit you. At the very least, meditation, even a simple one-minute breathing exercise, can provide you with little pockets of calm throughout your busy day, and we could all do with some of those.

Namaste!