Neuroscience and Psychology of Meditation in Everyday Life

by Dusana Dorjee

  Alongside the metacognitive introspective awareness which particularly helps to monitor for and notice distractions when we are trying to focus, meditation practices develop the ability to shift attention away from distraction and stay focused on the object of meditation. The object of meditation can vary from sensations associated with breathing, to sounds and visualizations of complex sacred images. Focused contemplation on a certain topic (such as impermanence of our perceptions, material things or bodies) can also train attention control and attention focus whilst the metacognitive introspective awareness monitors for distractions or divergence in thinking to other topics. These fundamental attention skills together with metacognitive introspective awareness are the basis of any meditation training. This is because without stability of these skills the mind is unsettled and any examination of its mental processes, contents, habits and their roots is easily interrupted. Such distractibility would prevent deepening of understanding and experiential exploration.

  Another aspect of self-regulation specifically cultivated through meditation training aims to develop particular emotional qualities and strategies of regulating emotions. Emotions such as loving kindness and compassion are central to contemplative training in the Buddhist tradition. Some Buddhist schools equally emphasize sympathetic joy of own and others’ virtue and equanimity in relating to all beings, not only those who are close and dear to us, with loving kindness and compassion (Wallace, 1999). These emotional qualities are in Buddhism intrinsically linked to understanding and conscious effort in cultivating virtue and avoiding non-virtue. This ethical dimension of practice gives distinctive direction to practice goals and the progression of meditation training (Dorjee, 2013).

  Cultivation of these emotional qualities is intertwined with development of specific emotion regulation strategies which enable the practitioner to manage emotions. For example, the meditation-specific emotion regulation strategies may involve grounding of attention focus on a neutral anchor such as breath sensations when anxiety or anger arises. Other strategies may encourage ‘transformation’ of negative emotions into their positive antidotes, for instance, by invoking images and feelings of loving kindness in response to experiencing anger. Another approach to emotion regulation through meditation-based techniques may involve experiential examination of the nature of emotions which can lead to realization of their neutral experiential ground from which they arise.

  The enhancement of attention skills and the development of certain emotional qualities and strategies is also coupled with changes in patterns of thinking and experiencing – in conceptual processing. For example, as a result of conscious cultivation of healthy emotions and well-being supporting ways of responding, we may spend less time in negative rumination about our experiences. Rumination often happens in the form of speech (expressed out loud or silently); it often brings up certain emotional feelings and sometimes also visual images or other sensations. The shift in patterns of rumination as a result of engaging in meditation practices may lead to changes in how often we access negative meanings and negative schemas associated with a distinct pattern of brain activation. For example, a recent study found that those with higher trait mindfulness, people naturally more mindful even without explicit training in meditation, are less likely to access negative word meanings (Dorjee et al., 2015). Other studies have found less activation in brain areas associated with language processing in meditators (e.g., Pagnoni, Cekic and Guo, 2008), which suggests that meditators are less prone to rumination.

  The outlined changes in attention, emotion regulation and conceptual processing do not work in isolation; they interact and cumulatively contribute to the changes in self-regulation resulting from meditation. Their distinctive feature is that they specifically rely on the metacognitive (introspective) awareness of thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations which enables the development of effective self-regulation. In this way, meditation seems to uniquely target a particular propensity of the mind for metacognitive self-regulation which has been termed the ‘metacognitive self-regulatory capacity of the mind’ (MSRC) (Dorjee, 2016). Since most previous research on self-regulation did not consider the contribution of the introspective metacognitive awareness to self-regulation or the interactions between attention/emotion regulation and conceptual processing, our understanding of the MSRC and its role in our health and well-being is fairly limited. However, the available evidence on well-being and the health-conducive effects of meditation indirectly suggests that improvements in the MSRC might be pivotal to these beneficial outcomes. We will now look closer at possible physiological pathways mediating the impact of the MSRC on bodily functioning.

  So far, all the changes in the MSRC we have discussed – including self-regulation, emotion regulation and conceptual processing – were about modifications in the mind and brain with meditation. But these changes would have little impact on our well-being if they did not affect the physiological processes in the body. This link is rarely emphasized in current research on meditation and deserves much more attention in future research. Most research has so far focused either on changes in the mind and brain or on changes in bodily functioning, but not on associations between them. The main physiological mechanisms enabling interactions between the brain and body physiology involve regulation of hormones, hence the relevant physiological pathways are often labelled as ‘neuroendocrine’. These pathways involve the release of hormones in the brain, often in response to a real or imaged threat such as a speeding car or a memory of an argument. Through the blood stream these hormones travel throughout the body and can activate the release of stress hormones (most relevant here is the hormone cortisol) in the adrenal glands. The stress hormones are released into the blood stream and then travel to the brain, signalling the need for downregulation of the stress response. If the brain isn’t able to downregulate the stress hormone levels, over time the heightened levels of cortisol can lead to a damage in some brain structures which have cortisol receptors (such as the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex). This can manifest as difficulties in remembering, concentrating, decision making etc.

  Research studies on the impact of meditation practice on the neuroendocrine functioning are still scarce. Initial evidence suggests that more meditation practice is associated with stronger reductions in morning levels of cortisol (Brand et al., 2012). Another study showed increases in physiological markers of parasympathetic system activity (a branch of the autonomic nervous system associated with rest and digest response in contrast to the sympathetic fight and flight response) after ten days of Vipassana meditation retreat (Krygier et al., 2013). The research evidence on the impact of secular meditation programmes on the stress physiology is mixed (O’Leary, O’Neill and Dockray, 2015) with positive effects reported in some studies but not in others. And very few studies examined the links between brain activation and body physiology more directly. As an exception, one study found close associations between increases in the activity of a brain region involved in attention control (ACC – anterior cingulate cortex) and increases in parasympathetic system response (Tang et al., 2009). There is a need for more studies of this type.

  Purpose, meaning and modes of existential awareness

  Aside from improvements in the metacognitive self-regulatory capacity, the impact of meditation on the sense of meaning and purpose in life is probably equally, if not more strongly, responsible for the beneficial effects of meditation. Studies outside of meditation research have repeatedly supported a positive link between health and a sense of meaning and purpose. Just like improved self-regulation is associated with better health outcomes, higher existential well-being (sense of meaning and purpose in life) is also linked to better health. For example, higher sense of existential well-being is associated with fewer depressive symptoms and less risk-taking behaviour in adolescents (Cotton et al., 2005). Another study with a larger sample of a broad age range found that adults with higher existential well-being (top tertile) had 70% lesser odds of
becoming depressed than those with lower existential well-being (lower tertile) (Maselko, Gilman and Buka, 2009). And research with cancer survivors found that their existential well-being predicted their health-related quality of life (Edmondson et al., 2008).

  Interestingly, in all these studies existential well-being was dissociated from religious well-being. Religious well-being describes the formal sense of belonging to a religious group and behaviour such as attendance of religious services. Higher religious well-being did not predict depressive symptoms in adolescents as strongly as existential well-being (Cotton et al., 2005). Similarly, religious well-being (unlike existential well-being) was not linked to improvements in health-related quality of life in cancer survivors (Edmondson et al., 2008). These findings provide research support to the essential importance of the sense of meaning and purpose to well-being, health and resilience which has been emphasized in existential psychology (Frankl, 1985) and humanistic psychology for many decades.

  Existential well-being also overlaps with and is central to eudaimonic well-being, which can be described in terms of accomplishing one’s potential, focusing on long-term goals and having a sense of meaning and purpose in life. In contrast, existential well-being is not linked to hedonistic well-being, which focuses on pleasure-based, more short-term gratification. Interestingly, the two types of well-being have also been associated with different biological health patterns. Specifically, eudaimonic well-being, but not hedonistic well-being, has been linked to lower levels of morning cortisol associated with lower stress, better sleep patterns, better immune system functioning and lower cardiovascular risks (Ryff, Singer and Love, 2004).

  This mounting research evidence supporting positive links between health and existential well-being suggests that interventions which support development of existential meaning and purpose, rather than those encouraging religiousness or hedonistic well-being, can have particularly positive impact on health and quality of life. Meditation-based techniques seem very relevant here given their traditional role in supporting existential exploration and initial research evidence suggesting their effectiveness in enhancing existential well-being. For example, improvements in the sense of purpose and meaning in life have been documented after three months of Buddhist meditation retreat which combined training in attention control and stability with development of loving kindness and compassion (Jacobs et al., 2011). The study also reported that the retreat group showed increases in telomerase – higher levels of this enzyme are associated with lower likelihood of chromosomal mutations linked to disease. But of particular relevance is a finding from this study which revealed that increases in purpose in life, but not in mindfulness, mediated the increase in levels of telomerase. Since mindfulness is primarily related to self-regulation, these findings highlight the essential contribution of changes in meaning and purpose in life to health-enhancing effects resulting from meditation training.

  Nevertheless, increases in the sense of meaning and purpose have also been found after secular mindfulness-based programmes even though links to health-related outcomes were less direct. For example, Carmody et al. (2008) found increases in spiritual well-being (related to meaning and purpose in life) after eight weeks of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) training and these improvements were inversely linked to decreases in psychological distress and health-related symptoms. Similarly, Labelle et al. (2015) found increases in meaning and purpose (more broadly spirituality) in cancer patients after they participated in an MBSR programme. Even though MBSR is a hallmark mindfulness-based intervention, these improvements were likely not due to mindfulness (as primarily a form of attention training) as such since MBSR training also involves development of acceptance, self-compassion and decentring which may have contributed to the existential well-being effects more strongly. It is up to future research to disentangle the contribution of the different elements of mindfulness-based programmes to such outcomes. But overall, these encouraging initial findings provide support to the expected close positive relation between meditation training and improvements in existential meaning and purpose.

  The enhancements in the sense of meaning and purpose with meditation also raise further questions about how meditation training produces such effects, particularly since the meditation practices involved in the studies we have discussed did not target the existential dimension of experience directly. The possible answer to these questions may lie in the links between changes in the MSRC of the mind and shifts in our sense of who we are and our perception reality. For example, many of us derive our sense of self from our family history, the place where we grew up, our profession, sense of belonging to certain communities and groups. Such sense of self is mostly built up from experiences and memories of our life, and schemas of how we learned to perceive ourselves are often based on what others told us. Through meditation practice these typical ways of self-construal gradually loosen up; some meditation practices impact the sense of self only indirectly while other practices directly aim to shift it.

  Decentring (Fresco et al., 2007) is a term used in the context of mindfulness-based approaches to describe initial modifications in the construal of self resulting from meditation practice. Decentring describes a mode of awareness arising when feelings, thoughts and emotions (mental contents and processes in general) are perceived as changeable and fleeing and the usual immersion and identification with them lessens. Such a mode of awareness can have protective effects on health and well-being, particularly because it prevents spiralling into negative rumi-nation and identification with thoughts, emotions and cognitive schemas. Indeed, in the context of prevention of depression relapse, decentring has been suggested as the main mechanism enabling effective regulation of depressive symptoms (Bieling et al., 2012). Decentring has also been generally discussed as the main mechanism responsible for beneficial therapeutic outcomes of mindfulness-based approaches (Shapiro et al., 2006 – these authors use the term ‘re-perceiving’ instead of decentring, but both terms very closely overlap in their meanings).

  Decentring is likely only an initial, yet pivotal, step towards further changes in modes of awareness with meditation training. Since these modes of awareness pertain to our construal of self and reality which has existential implications for our sense of meaning and purpose, the term ‘modes of existential awareness’ (MEA) has been proposed to specifically describe them (Dorjee, 2016). More advanced MEA are virtually unexplored in Western science, but they are clearly described in traditional meditation literature. For example, the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of Dzogchen outlines a progression from initial stages of decentring towards experiential understanding of the constructed nature of self, then experiential understanding of the illusory nature of reality and finally experiential recognition of the non-construed nature of mind called ‘rigpa’ from which all experience of self and reality arises (Mipham, 2007).

  The experience of rigpa can be fully understood only experientially, but it is often described as a non-conceptual state in which clarity, knowing, unconditional compassion and subtle joy and tranquillity arise simultaneously. It is a MEA of ultimate balance and stability which is not subject to the transient ups and downs of self-construal, thoughts, sensations and emotions. From the perspective of Dzogchen, rigpa is unchangeably always present, but whether it is accessible to us is subject to experiential insight into the deeper layers of the mind after stabilizing our thought patterns, emotions and sensations. And even after we initially recognize the nature of the mind, the accessibility to rigpa may easily shift until, with further training, we are able to maintain the access to rigpa continuously most or all of the time.

  Experiential realization of the different states in the MEA progression requires long-term meditation practice grounded in an established contemplative system of meditation which has proven effective in enabling practitioners to progress to the most advanced MEA. The sequence of meditation training in the Buddhist tradition typically involves foundational training in contem
plative exploration of four topics – preciousness and opportunity of human life, impermanence, the law of cause and effect and suffering. While continuing these contemplations, the practitioner then examines ethical principles of virtue and non-virtue continuously throughout further meditation training. These foundational contemplations set out the motivation for engagement in the long-term meditation practice.

  The motivation for practicing meditation can vary slightly across Buddhist schools and can develop and change as practitioners progress in their meditation training – it usually ranges from the motivation of liberating oneself from suffering in the deeper sense of recognizing the construed nature of self to liberating oneself through recognizing the nature of mind so that one can support other beings on their spiritual path. Grounded in the contemplative exploration of the foundational topics, broader ethical principles and virtuous motivation, the practitioner engages in further training which first aims to enhance and stabilize attention and then develops emotional stability. After the mind has been sufficiently stabilized, the practitioner more directly engages in the exploration of deeper layers of the mind with the aim of deconstructing the notions of self and ultimately recognizing the nature of the mind. Throughout the meditation training, the practices engage different facets of the sense of meaning and purpose in life, from contemplating the purpose of human life and nature of suffering, to direct experiential knowing of life’s meaning and purpose. Abiding in the nature of mind, in rigpa, is considered a culmination of this exploration which provides the ultimate experiential answers to the questions of meaning and purpose.