Your job is stressful. Private school administrators are among some of the hardest-working, devoted professionals out there. You work long hours, you’re constantly on the move from one project to the next, and your busy season seems to never end—there’s always something on the rise.
Good news—Harvard Science released a new study revealing participants in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program appear to have made measurable changes in their brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress. This is the first study to document meditation-produced changes over time in the brain’s gray matter.
This study shows that people who spend a minimum of 27 minutes a day practicing mindfulness exercises are not just feeling better because they’re relaxing—their brains are actually changing. Magnetic resonance (MR) images were taken of the 16 participants' brain structure two weeks before the study and two weeks after the conclusion. Increased gray-matter density in the hippocampus—responsible for learning and memory as well as associated with self-awareness, compassion and introspection—was shown in those participating. Images also revealed decreased gray-matter density in the amygdala, which is known to play a role in anxiety and stress.
Other good excuses to set aside “a little quiet time for yourself.”
In 2009, the American Heart Association released an abstract concluding stress reduction with the transcendental meditation program was associated with a 43% reduction in risk for all causes of mortality, myocardial infarction, and stroke in a high-risk sample of African Americans.
Also in 2009, The American Journal of Hypertension released a study concluding, “transcendental meditation/mind–body programs may reduce the risk for future development of hypertension in young adults.”
In 2007, the Public Library of Science published an abstract that concluded, “findings demonstrate that meditative training can improve performance on a novel task that requires the trained attentional abilities.”
