Reshape Your Brain

  It comes as no surprise that our brains change according to our experiences. Learning a new skill, like dancing or a foreign language, causes our brain to grow in new ways.

  The ability of our brain to develop new connections throughout life is called neuroplasticity. Signs of neuroplasticity have been found everywhere. Navigation skills development, language learning, cultivation of musical abilities are some of the areas where neuroplasticity has been observed. It is clear that our brains adjust and grow stronger or weaker in certain areas according to our everyday activities or how much and in what ways we use them.

  This brain transformation is affected not only by what we do but what we think and feel. If you feel depressed most of the time then the regions of your brain associated with that feeling will grow stronger and the pathways of your brain that are related to happiness will be weakened. Fortunately the opposite is true too.

  That is why meditation is so powerful. Through meditation we achieve a more positive outlook on life.

  People who meditate regularly develop different brain neural structures and can process much higher levels of compassion and awareness than a normal person. It seems that meditation, “thinking about your thinking”, trains us to be more attuned to the needs of others.

  Research suggests that through meditation, and the changes it causes in our brain’s structure, we also achieve lower levels of stress and anxiety and greater well-being.

  And if you think that you will need to be meditating for years to start reaping the benefits then think again. According to one study brain transformations can already be observed after just 8 weeks of regular meditation.

  Furthermore, as your brain is effectively being rewired through meditation, this affects your everyday life. More and more, you see yourself reacting to everyday life with a sense of calm, compassion, and awareness that was not there before.

  You become more mindful until, eventually, mindfulness is effortless to you, like second nature. And more mindfulness translates to greater levels of happiness and self-satisfaction.

     Alter Your Genes

  So the way we behave in our everyday lives, the choices we make, what we do, think and feel cause changes in our brains and affect the brain’s structure. This information is probably not totally unfamiliar to you.

  But did you know that our genes can also be altered by our thoughts and our state of mind?

  We all know that our genes transform over time and that, as humans, we have evolved and changed since the time of our ancestors from a few thousand years ago.

  So altering genes is obviously possible, but it seems to take years and generations for this to happen.

  Well, that is not the case. There is scientific evidence that just spending a few hours focusing your attention and awareness on the present can lead to dramatic positive changes to your genetic makeup.

  This means that by learning how to focus your attention through mindful meditation, you have the power to increase your health and prosperity, by directly affecting the genes which control inflammation and allow for new growth to take place.

  Your genetic makeup is not set-in-stone, you have the ability to shape it with your mind.

  Inherited from Buddhist tradition, the practice of mindfulness is about focusing your attention and awareness on the present.

  Mindful meditation involves awakening your mind to everything you are experiencing in a given moment, and observing your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them as being good or bad.

  Although the practice of meditation has long been known to have positive health effects, a recent study by researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Institute of Biomedical Research of Barcelona (published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology) has given evidence of how mindful meditation can literally alter gene expression.

  In fact, these results were observed after just a single 8-hour period of intensive mindfulness practice in a group of experienced meditators, compared to a group of untrained control subjects who spent the same 8 hours engaged in quiet non-meditative activities.

  At the end of these eight hours, the meditators showed some significant genetic and molecular differences, including reduced levels of pro-inflammatory genes and altered levels of HDACs (enzymes which regulate DNA expression).

  There was no difference between the two groups of people in these genes at the beginning of the study.

  Not only did the meditation group experience these positive genetic changes, they also physically recovered faster from a stressful situation they had to partake in at the end of the study, involving giving an impromptu speech and performing mentally challenging tasks in front of an audience. And this faster physical recovery time was directly associated with the changes in their genome.

  As several other DNA-modifying genes showed no differences between the meditation and non-meditation groups, this study suggests that mindfulness practice specifically affects the regulation of HDACs and inflammatory pathways.

  This is especially interesting as these very genes are actually the same genes which anti-inflammatory and pain-killing drugs are currently targeting. This means that mindful meditation can be just as (if not more) effective as a method for treating pain and inflammation.

  Although this study did not show us any long-term genetic effects of mindful meditation training, it did indicate to us the impact that just a single day can have on your well-being.

  Not only can our genes be altered by our external environment, they can also be altered by our internal environment, including our conscious and subconscious thoughts, and calmness of mind.

    Change Your Life

  This is the truly amazing power of mindfulness and meditation to transform and dramatically improve our lives.

  They don’t just induce a rewiring of our brains but even effect changes in our genes—making us stronger, happier, more compassionate, more aware and in control of our lives.

  If you are interested to know how to start doing this on your own, you can start with simply a single minute of meditation, sitting in silence or listening to a guided meditation, then gradually increase your time.

  And regardless of whether you’re totally new to meditation or you’ve been sitting in silence every morning for years—you’ll find a variety of tools, guided meditation exercises and other wellness-promoting activities in the Manifestation Miracle system where you’ll learn how to create and manifest the life of your dreams.