How Meditation Calms an Overactive Brain
Stress is harmful to our memory because the stress hormone cortisol can lead to shrinkage of the hippocampus, our brain’s memory processor. The shrinkage is caused when cortisol weakens or kills neurons in the hippocampus. Lowering stress hormone levels enables the hippocampus to operate more effectively, enhancing memory capacity.
Because our brains are so vigilant to threat, our thoughts can intensify stress and anxiety. People with overactive brains may experience excessive fast brain waves, which are electrical impulses. The hyperactive brain can be experienced as worry, overthinking, or sleep problems. Faster brain waves (Beta) are associated with concentration, activation, and a busy mind, and slower brain waves (Alpha) are associated with relaxation, deactivation, and a quiet mind.
Thoughts are events of the mind, and meditation practice can help us slow our brains and calm our minds.
Meditation is defined by Jeff Tarrant as “a systematic mental training designed to challenge habits of attending, thinking, feeling, and perceiving.” During meditation, focus on your breath (usually deep slow breaths), and notice any sensations, thoughts, or feelings that arise. Rather than judging these events of the mind, allow them to pass like clouds in the sky. Return your focus to your breath.
Research has shown that meditation can:
Increase slow brain waves and decrease fast brain waves, leading to greater serenity;
Decrease stress hormone levels, reducing stress and anxiety, which may also improve memory;
Increase the neurotransmitters serotonin and GABA, enhancing happiness and increasing calm;
Enhance brain growth via neuroplasticity, improving attention and concentration, and
Foster growth in the hippocampus, improving memory.
Takeaway: Meditation can increase mindfulness, calm an overactive brain, reduce stress hormones, and improve attention, concentration, and memory. Consider trying guided meditations on an app or website.
Well-being is a journey, not a quick fix.
The Legal Brain: A Lawyer’s Guide to Well-being and Better Job Performance is available on Amazon.
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David B. Jaffe, Associate Dean for Student Affairs, American University Washington College of Law
Sources
Jeff Tarrant, Meditation Interventions to Rewire the Brain: Integrating Neuroscience Strategies for ADHD, Anxiety, Depression, and PTSD 1, 54, 57-58, 65-66, 69 (2017).
Rachel Lit, What Happens When You Meditate | STANFORD magazine, March 13, 2023.
Eileen Luders, et al., The underlying anatomical correlates of long-term meditation: Larger hippocampal and frontal volumes of gray matter - ScienceDirect, April 15, 2009.
Jha, A.P., et al., Examining the protective effects of mindfulness training on working memory capacity and affective experience., 2010.
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