The 07/4/2016
Meditation like yoga has conquered millions of French people. Some find it a way to escape their negative and anxious thoughts, others better manage their back pain or other symptoms or illnesses. According to a study, practicing meditation leads us to be more aware of our subconscious.
To meditate is to understand.
Mindfulness is everywhere and according to a study from the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, researchers have shown that people who practice mindful meditation, that is, who become fully aware of the present moment and who focus their attention on the moment, on what they are and feel, are more aware of unconscious brain activity in their brain.
A study was conducted in 1983 by the famous neuroscientist Benjamin Libet, which focused on the consciousness of the individual in his decision-making. During the experiment, the analyzed subject must push a button whenever he feels like it. During the reflection and the act, Benjamin Libet monitored the brain activity of the subject and examined the time between the decision-making made by the brain and the conscious act of the person.
So he found that subjects decide to press the button about 200 milliseconds before the physical push of the button, but that person’s unconscious brain makes the decision to press about 150 milliseconds before. He therefore concludes that we do not have the control that we thought we had over our body.
From meditation comes wisdom.
This new study was based in the same way on 57 participants, including 11 subjects who regularly practice conscious meditation and 46 who do not. The subjects were also made to push a button and the scientists observed the gap between decision-making and the physical act: as a result, the first 11 subjects have a larger gap with 149 milliseconds compared to 68 milliseconds for the other 46. The result falls: those who meditate are more in tune with themselves and their subconscious.
Another experiment was combined with the first to understand which subjects are the most sensitive to hypnosis. It was found that those who fall into hypnosis more easily were slower to understand the decision made by their subconscious and consequently pushed the button later. It turns out that those who meditate have a better connection with their subconscious.
Be careful, it is obvious that the sample is not representative of an entire population. The study simply suggests that we don’t pay enough attention to our subconscious in decision-making and that it can sometimes turn out to be too quick and not thoughtful enough. It was also proven in February 2016, by American researchers, that people who meditate reduce their level of interleukin-6, a cytokine associated with cancers.
Read also: Everything you need to know about meditation