How meditation helps in anxiety and depression

Depression is an incredibly complex disease caused by a combination of biological, psychological and sociological factors. Living with depression or anxiety can make everyday life a challenge. Depression tends to make people feel worthless, while people with anxiety are prone to excessive worry. If you suffer from depression or anxiety, chances are, negative thoughts are swirling around your head all day and causing you great emotional pain. Meditation is a great method of observing those thoughts.

Posterior Cingulate

The posterior cingulate is connected with wandering thoughts and self-relevance – that is, the degree of subjectivity and referral to oneself when processing information. It seems that the larger and stronger the posterior cingulate, the less the mind wanders and the more realistic the sense of self can be.

Two of the vitally important effects that meditation has on the mind are the ability to remain attuned to the present momentwithout judgment, regret or anticipation; and the ability to observe sensations and emotions that arise in the mindstream without necessarily identifying with them. Meditation seems to increase the density of the posterior cingulate.

Pons

This is a very busy and important part of the brain where many of the neurotransmitters that help regulate brain activity are produced. Located in the middle of the brain stem, its name, pons, comes from the Latin for “bridge.” The pons is involved in a great number of essential functions, including sleep, facial expressions, processing sensory input, and basic physical functioning. Meditation strengthens the pons.

The Temporo Parietal Junction (TPJ)

We like to think that we’re good people – empathetic, humane and just. Empathy and compassion are associated with the temporoparietal junction of the brain, or TPJ, as is our sense of perspective. We might say that the posterior cingulate focuses on “me” while the TPJ shines a light on everything else. The TPJ becomes more active when we put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, for example. A stronger TPJ—combined with other benefits of meditation like lower stress and present moment awareness—can help us be the good people we aspire to become.

Amygdala

There is another area of the brain that is changed through meditation: the amygdala. But it doesn’t get larger; it shrinks. The amygdala—that pesky corner of the brain that produces feelings of anxiety, fear and general stress—is physically smaller in the brains of expert meditators. For the rest of us, even an eight-week crash course in mindfulness-based stress reduction leads to a measurable decrease in the size of the amygdala. The smaller it is, the less apt it is to dictate our emotional responses, especially those of the “fight-or-flight” genre. No wonder we feel so great when a daily meditation regimen is incorporated into our lives.

If you’re interested in learning more about meditation’s effects on the brain, check out our companion article What Happens to your Mind, Brain and Body During Meditation.  Also, Altered Traits: What Science Reveals About How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body by Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson will provide you with insights and plenty of food for thought.

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