Benefits of Meditation: Train Your Brain

Q: What happens inside my brain when I meditate? I love the feeling but would like to know what's happening in there.
-- Candy, Olympia, WA

A: You've om-ed in on a key reason we're fans of daily meditation: Many studies show it can literally change your gray matter. First, regular meditation gradually rewires your brain. Over time, it produces high-frequency brain waves that increase your ability to focus, pay attention, learn, and remember. Studies of Buddhist monks have found that if you meditate daily, these brain waves can stay ramped up permanently -- particularly in the region where you think happy thoughts. And that actually increases the variability of your heart rate -- a good thing. Imagine one of those serenely smiling statues of Buddha . . . that could be you.

Meditation also helps your brain stay younger longer. Like Agatha Christie's famous detective, Hercule Poirot, you'll grow older and smarter, not slower, as you age because meditation helps you produce more "little gray cells." One study found that extensive meditation practice slows age-related thinning of your frontal cortex. The longer you meditate, the thicker your cortex becomes. This is one time when being a "fathead" is a good thing.