{"id":234,"date":"2011-02-02T06:08:20","date_gmt":"2011-02-02T06:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/the-mindfulness-revolution-in-your-brain.html"},"modified":"2011-02-02T06:08:20","modified_gmt":"2011-02-02T06:08:20","slug":"the-mindfulness-revolution-in-your-brain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/the-mindfulness-revolution-in-your-brain.html","title":{"rendered":"Wisdom Wednesday :: The Mindfulness Revolution in Your Brain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/BS07002.JPG\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"BS07002.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/96\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/07\/BS07002-thumb-350x231-16643.jpg\" width=\"350\" height=\"231\" class=\"mt-image-left\" style=\"float: left;margin: 0 20px 20px 0\" \/><\/a><\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/well.blogs.nytimes.com\/2011\/01\/28\/how-meditation-may-change-the-brain\/?emc=eta1\">The New York Times<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.boston.com\/lifestyle\/health\/articles\/2011\/01\/31\/mindfulness_therapy_puts_the_focus_on_improving_the_quality_of_body_and_spirit\/?page=2\">Boston Globe<\/a> have recently written about a forthcoming study on the brain changes associated with mindfulness meditation. This is great news and is not really new. Researches such as Britta Holzl, Sarah Lazar, and others have been conducting and publishing studies for years documenting the brain-changing effects of meditation.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>To their credit, neuroscientists have been cautionary about their findings; after all the brain is the most complex thing in the known universe (just consider 100 billion neurons making up to 100,000 connections each, and each of these connections can be in any one of ten electrical states).&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>But consider this. The brain is plastic; its constantly changing. Every time you learn something new your brain changes in some way to represent this new knowledge (that is, one of those trillions upon trillions of connections). So it makes sense that meditation would change the brain. And we&#8217;ve known that it does for a long time, every since the brain could be measured through EEG. Go into meditation and your brain waves change.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>However, what is surprising and important about the research coming out of the labs studying meditation is that these changes are not just state changes &#8212; they are enduring changes and can be seen in the very structure of the brain. The brain gets thicker in places, meaning neural connections are piling up. And these changes are showing up in some very interesting places.&nbsp;For example, the parts of the brain that deal with regulating our emotions, including knowing when to quiet fear.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Studies such as these are at the forefront of the mindfulness revolution. It&#8217;s one thing to note subjective changes in well-being, it&#8217;s quite another to demonstrate them in objective fashion. We&#8217;ve had anecdotes for thousands of years and neuroscientists are beginning to show us the inner workings of wisdom practices.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The New York Times and the Boston Globe have recently written about a forthcoming study on the brain changes associated with mindfulness meditation. This is great news and is not really new. Researches such as Britta Holzl, Sarah Lazar, and others have been conducting and publishing studies for years documenting the brain-changing effects of meditation.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":268,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mindfulnesss","category-the-laboratory"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Wisdom Wednesday :: The Mindfulness Revolution in Your Brain - Mindfulness Matters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/the-mindfulness-revolution-in-your-brain.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wisdom Wednesday :: The Mindfulness Revolution in Your Brain - Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The New York Times and the Boston Globe have recently written about a forthcoming study on the brain changes associated with mindfulness meditation. This is great news and is not really new. Researches such as Britta Holzl, Sarah Lazar, and others have been conducting and publishing studies for years documenting the brain-changing effects of meditation.&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/the-mindfulness-revolution-in-your-brain.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mindfulness Matters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-02-02T06:08:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/07\/BS07002-thumb-350x231-16643.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Arnie Kozak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wisdom Wednesday :: The Mindfulness Revolution in Your Brain - Mindfulness Matters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/the-mindfulness-revolution-in-your-brain.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wisdom Wednesday :: The Mindfulness Revolution in Your Brain - Mindfulness Matters","og_description":"The New York Times and the Boston Globe have recently written about a forthcoming study on the brain changes associated with mindfulness meditation. This is great news and is not really new. Researches such as Britta Holzl, Sarah Lazar, and others have been conducting and publishing studies for years documenting the brain-changing effects of meditation.&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/the-mindfulness-revolution-in-your-brain.html","og_site_name":"Mindfulness Matters","article_published_time":"2011-02-02T06:08:20+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/07\/BS07002-thumb-350x231-16643.jpg"}],"author":"Dr. Arnie Kozak","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/the-mindfulness-revolution-in-your-brain.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/the-mindfulness-revolution-in-your-brain.html","name":"Wisdom Wednesday :: The Mindfulness Revolution in Your Brain - Mindfulness Matters","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/the-mindfulness-revolution-in-your-brain.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/the-mindfulness-revolution-in-your-brain.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/07\/BS07002-thumb-350x231-16643.jpg","datePublished":"2011-02-02T06:08:20+00:00","dateModified":"2011-02-02T06:08:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#\/schema\/person\/5f92cf2ae15fbe04e74ca47527ac68d8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/the-mindfulness-revolution-in-your-brain.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/the-mindfulness-revolution-in-your-brain.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/the-mindfulness-revolution-in-your-brain.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/07\/BS07002-thumb-350x231-16643.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/mindfulnessmatters\/files\/import\/assets_c\/2010\/07\/BS07002-thumb-350x231-16643.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/2011\/02\/the-mindfulness-revolution-in-your-brain.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wisdom Wednesday :: The Mindfulness Revolution in Your Brain"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/","name":"Mindfulness Matters","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Arnie Kozak","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#\/schema\/person\/5f92cf2ae15fbe04e74ca47527ac68d8","name":"Dr. Arnie Kozak","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6ab\/6abd6f3205265768510a13d66ac2aff7x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6ab\/6abd6f3205265768510a13d66ac2aff7x96.jpg","caption":"Dr. Arnie Kozak"},"description":"Recognized as an innovator in the field of mindfulness-based psychology, Dr. Arnie Kozak is northern New England's leading expert in the field. Dr. Kozak's ability to translate ancient healing traditions into pragmatic applications suitable for modern lifestyles through the use of metaphors have made him a strong voice in healthcare and business. Beginning with a journey to India in the 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where he took the Bodhisattva vows from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Arnie Dr. Kozak began his lifelong practice in mindfulness meditation. Intent on finding a way to bring the practical healing attributes of mindfulness he began incorporating these techniques in his private practice. In 2002 Dr. Kozak created Exquisite Mind in Burlington, Vermont as a vehicle that could expand his wisdom to larger audiences beyond individual psychotherapy to professionals and corporations, health care providers, public groups and, most recently with Exquisite Mind Golf, amateur and professional golfers. His award-winning new book, Wild Chickens and Petty Tyrants: 108 Metaphors for Mindfulness (Wisdom Publications, 2009) is a thoughtful, funny, and inspiring translation of mindfulness practice through the inventive use of metaphor applicable to our daily lives. In addition to his work with Exquisite Mind, Arnie Kozak, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist\u00e2\u20ac\u201dDoctorate has been a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Vermont and is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry and Medicine, University of Vermont College of Medicine. He has studied and practiced clinical psychology, meditation, and yoga for more than 25 years. He has studied with several meditation masters, including S. N. Goenka, Larry Rosenberg, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. After receiving his bachelors degree with honors from Tufts University, he was awarded a Presidential Fellowship to get his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University at Buffalo. He completed his training as a Psychological Fellow at the Harvard Medical School. Prior to founding the Exquisite Mind in 2002, Arnie worked ten years in the private sector for the PKC Corporation consulting on mental health content for this revolutionary software company.","sameAs":["http:\/\/exquisitemind.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/author\/akozak"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/mindfulnessmatters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}