I highly recommend Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Much Meditation Changes your Mind, Brain, and Body written by two leading PhD scientists Richard Davidson and Daniel Goleman.
Davidson and Goleman discuss their own experiences as lifelong meditators, their travels to ashrams and retreats all over the globe, and their meetings with yogis and monks – including the Dalai Lama. A must read for anyone interested in learning how meditation affects the body physically, mentally, and spiritually.
In addition to talking about how meditation leads to altered traits (what’s an altered trait? read on!), they review scientific studies done on meditation over the last fifty years, ancient practices of meditation, how the West tried to replicate them, the beginning steps to becoming an advanced meditator, and what deep meditation is.
Highlights:
- Meditation leads to altered traits
- Altered traits are traits that remain after meditation sessions have ended and endure for the long term versus short-term, Another way of saying this is, beyond the pleasant states meditation can produce, the real payoffs are the lasting personality traits that can result.
- 8 minutes is enough to reap short term changes to the brain
- After two weeks of meditation practice, participants began to see changes: less reaction to stress, better focus, less mind wandering, improved memory, more compassion, and less bodily inflammation.
- Long-term meditators (those with 1,000 hours of meditation) benefited from the following altered traits: significant prefrontal cortex development; significantly less stressful cortisol resulting in less inflammation and decreased reaction to stress; greater sustained and selective attention; and slower breath and metabolic rates
Enjoy and happy meditating!