The Neuroscience of Meditation

Dr. SARA LAZAR is an Associate Researcher in the Psychiatry Department at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School. The focus of her research is on the neural mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of yoga and meditation, both in clinical settings and in healthy individuals. Here she speaks about how meditation impacts the brain.

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I want to start with a definition of Mindfulness, derived by Jon Kabat-Zinn: purposely paying attention to experiences in the present moment in a non-judgmental way. There is a cartoon that describes it beautifully – one woman is walking in nature, completely oblivious to what’s around her. She’s thinking about the bills, meals, kids, chores, and is not at all aware of her present experience. Another woman is completely tuned in to her surroundings, noticing the trees, the sunlight, perhaps the feel of the warmth of the sun on her face. That’s what Mindfulness is – awareness of the present moment. Neither one of them is meditating. Mindfulness can be done anytime, anywhere.

Anyone can kick a ball. If I ask you to kick a ball down a field and put it through the goalposts, you can do that. But if I put you on that same field with some professional soccer players, and tell you, “Okay, kick the ball down the field into the posts,” that’s much more difficult.