Calm by Design: How Mindfulness Rewires the Brain
- Tyne Buchy
- 4 days ago
- 18 min read
Exploring how mindfulness changes your nervous system, rewires your brain, helps you heal, and the simple daily strategies you can do
Have you ever wondered why so many people seem to be on the train of mindfulness? Why does almost every mental health professional talk about mindfulness and how can this seemingly simple thing "fix" anything? If you are similar to many of my clients, you may face some apprehensions around believing in the act of mindfulness as an effective strategy for dealing with some of the most difficult challenges we as humans can face. After all, how can something so simple, focusing on nothing, be effective at helping reduce emotional distress, heal from horrific traumas and be powerful enough to rewire the brain? In this blog, we are going to talk about just that; the real science behind mindfulness, what we know about it, and simple things you can do to improve mindfulness daily.
What is Mindfulness? Where did it come from and how did it get to where it is today?
The origins of mindfulness date back to around 2500 years ago, in the ancient Buddhist traditions, where it was a central practice. It emphasized focus to somatic bodily feelings,
emotions, mind, and phenomena. While rooted in Buddhism, similar contemplative practices emphasizing awareness and presence exist in Hinduism, Taoism, and other wisdom traditions. In the 1970s, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, developed the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program.
Kabat-Zinn’s goal was to bring mindfulness into healthcare as a secular, evidence-based tool for managing chronic pain, stress, and illness. MBSR stripped mindfulness of religious framing while retaining the practice of intentional, non-judgmental awareness. Starting in the 1980-1990's, researchers began to look at mindfulness and it's connections to the brain, neuroscience and cognitive psychology. They used advanced scientific methods such as Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), electroencephalogram (EEG's) and hormone assays to look at the impacts of meditation and mindfulness. These studies were some of the first to show how mindfulness strategies reduced stress reactivity. Furthermore, they showed improvements in emotional regulation, and even changes in brain plasticity (which is the growth of the grey matter areas in the brain). Soon afterwards, mindfulness based strategies, including mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) became more widely studied and used in mental health treatment, with endorsement from the American Psychological Association as an evidence-based intervention for anxiety, depression and stress. Further clinical trials have connected mindfulness practices with improved sleep, immune function and even reduced markers of inflammation. In modern times, studies have shown mindfulness-based strategies have significant effects on the nervous system, particularly autonomic regulation and vagus nerve activity and stress hormones, like cortisol. Through a behavioral lens, mindfulness-based strategies have shown benefits to attention, working memory, and resiliency. So what is mindfulness exactly? How do you know if you are being mindful? Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to the present moment with openness, curiosity, and without judgment.
A deeper connection: Looking at the Nervous System and Mindfulness
Now that you know a little bit about where mindfulness came from and how it evolved in psychology, we can look specifically at how mindfulness-based practices impact your nervous system. Why should you care about the impacts to your nervous system? The nervous system is the one of the most important command centers in your entire body. It is the control center for how you handle stress, focus and even how well you sleep. It plays a central role in regulation of hormones, digestion, immunity and every other function that our body's do. Importantly, our nervous system is responsible for our flight, fight, freeze and fawn responses. These responses play an integral part in our survival and are activated when we are put in circumstances where our survival is threatened. Whether from traumatic circumstances or daily chronic stress, when your nervous system is overtaxed, you can experience anxiety, stress, burnout, tension, and exhaustion. In general, mindfulness practices help us calm the fight or flight response from our nervous system, while helping to strengthen the rest and restore side of the nervous system. What this means for you is, improved resiliency of the nervous system, steadier more stable moods, and better over all health- benefits that reach far beyond just feeling relaxed in the moment.
The research is clear, mindfulness-based strategies positively impact the nervous system. Multiple studies show that indicators of parasympathetic drive (the rest and digest nervous system) increase, meaning the parasympathetic and vagal nerve activation has increased AKA you are going into your resting and digesting nervous system, during and after mindfulness or breathing and body scanning exercises. Meanwhile, measures that indicate stress and sympathetic nerve activity (your fight or flight nervous system) drop after mindfulness interventions, indicating lowered fight or flight responses. This included stress indicators of sympathetic nerve activity, blood pressure, skin conductance, etc. Research also showed that mindfulness-based activities lowered heart rate in participants and in some studies it was found that heart-rate variability increased- (when heart rate variability is reduced it is an indicator of stress and/or illness). These effects were more distinct in populations who experienced stress or clinical populations compared to lower stress and healthy populations.
Even more significant than just the calming physiological effects on the nervous system are the substantial changes that can happen in the brain. In an 8 week long program of MBSR (mindfulness-based stress reduction), results showed increased grey matter density in the hippocampus (responsible for memory and learning), posterior cingulate cortex (responsible for self-awareness),temporo-parietal junction (responsible for empathy), and cerebellum (responsible for voluntary movement, balance, posture, and motor learning).(Hölzel et al., 2011, Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging). Research conducted by Lazar and associations (2005) showed that long-term meditators have thicker prefrontal cortices, which is the region of the brain responsible for attention, decision-making, and emotional regulation. Other areas in the brain that showed amazing results from the introduction of mindfulness-based practices included; the amygdala (our emotional center in the brain) which became smaller and less reactive, coupled with the prefrontal cortex becoming more active, resulting in improved emotional regulation for the participants (Taren et al., 2013, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience). Looking at how the brain communicated between different regions, participants who practiced mindfulness showed stronger connections to the default network mode (which is linked to mind-wandering) and the attention network. This helped participants focus more easily and move away from rumination or repetitive thoughts (Brewer et al., 2011, PNAS). Lastly, and very importantly, long term meditators brains showed traits that indicated slower brain aging compared to non-meditators. Their brains appeared to be on average 7.5 years younger than the non-meditators of the same age groups. This indicates that meditation and mindfulness practices help to preserve the grey matter volume in the brain (Luders et al., 2015, Frontiers in Psychology).
In summary, meditation and mindfulness-based strategies support nervous system regulation shown through various measures that indicate a reduction in sympathetic drive (the flight or fight system) and increased activity in the parasympathetic drive (the rest and digest nervous system). A diverse number of studies have looked at the implications to the brain and have shown improvements in retention of grey matter, indicating neuroplasticity of the brain and improvements in many areas of brain functioning.
How to incorporate mindfulness into your day and improve your brain health, mental health and overall well-being
Now that we have a better understanding of the foundations of mindfulness, the bigger question is how do we practice mindfulness? For many of my clients, where they get stuck is on the abstract nature of mindfulness. How do you do something that is the opposite of doing anything, it is in fact doing nothing but being present with yourself. Remember the key objectives of mindfulness- Be present, Regulate your Breathing, Meet yourself with Curiosity and Compassion, and Without Judgement. The recommended format for mindfulness practice is a minimum of 8 weeks with sessions being 20 to 45 minutes long, 5-6x per week. However, research shows that even small doses of mindfulness help improve participants overall wellbeing. Mindfulness isn't meant to be hard, or stressful. I always advise my client's to do what they can, when they can. In structured studies, there is more space to practice the gold standard for mindfulness, in real life, we need to find what works for you. That is the same here. If you are going to incorporate mindfulness into your daily life, find a way that it actually works for you. This may be while you are having your morning coffee, or even before you get out of bed. It could be while you are stretching after your workout, or escaping from your busy family and home life for a 15 minute (or 5 minute) shower. The key to incorporating mindfulness is that it can be done in small acts throughout your busy day and still be meaningful. For some of us, we may have to create some boundaries around our time, so that we can actually achieve what we have set out to practice. That may mean putting our phones away 15 minutes early before bedtime, or taking some guilt free personal time away from our family obligations. Regardless of how you choose to incorporate it into your day, remember that you are worth 15 minutes a day to benefit your health. Another key to remember is that consistency over intensity is more important for health benefits. Doing shorter more frequent sessions showed better health outcomes than longer infrequent sessions. Neuroplasticity is built through repetition.
Mindfulness Exercises
There are different ways to practice mindfulness- structured formal practices and unstructured informal practices.
Formal Mindfulness Practices
Mindful breathing
Body scan meditation
Guided meditation
Progressive-relaxation techniques
Mindful eating practices
Mindful yoga or stretching exercises
Mindful journaling (prompted)
Mindful active listening exercises
Three-minute breathing space
Informal Mindfulness Practices
Bringing awareness to daily activities
Pausing to notice sensations, thoughts, emotions
Mindful technology use
Mindful walking
Mindful grounding (using sensory information around you)
Mindful gratitude pause
Mindful pause
As you can see from the above examples, you can bring mindfulness into almost anything you do. We can mindfully wait in line, or in traffic (shown to improve overall health outcomes from chronic daily stress), we can mindfully engage with any activity that we chose. Integrating mindfulness into your lifestyle can be seamless with a little habit building and intention. Let's look at a few of these activities in more detail.
Mindful Breathing
Start by finding a quiet place where you can focus your attention to the exercise. Sit or lay comfortably, with your eyes open or closed, whichever feels the most comfortable to you.
Start by taking a deep breathe in for a count of 4. At the top of that breathe in, hold the breathe for 4 counts. After the hold, you will breathe out for 4 counts. At the bottom of the breathe, you will pause for 4 counts before restarting the sequence again.
Imagine you are making a perfect square with your breathes- 4 counts in, 4 counts hold, 4 counts out, 4 counts pause.
During this exercise focus on the breathing. If other thoughts come into your awareness, see them without judgement, and gently bring your attention back to your breathing.
Some helpful prompts for this exercise are:
Notice how it feels to breathe the air into your lungs- what do you notice as your chest expands?
Does the air have a taste or a smell as you are breathing it in?
Notice what it feels like to expel the air out of your lungs? What does that feel like in your body?
Notice if there are any areas of tension while you are breathing in or out?
Notice what it is like to hold the breathe? Does that feel challenging? Does that feel good?
If you can, notice what your heart rate feels like while you are breathing? Has it decreased or perhaps increased?
Notice what has changed in your body over the course of the exercise? Is there a difference you are feeling physically from the beginning, middle, end?
Notice what you feel emotionally. Is there a difference in how you are feeling emotionally from the beginning, middle, end?
You can make adaptations to any of the exercises to suit your needs. If 4 seconds feels to long for you, shorten it to three. If you want more nervous system regulation, increase the breathing out interval longer than the breathing in interval (i.e. 4 counts in, 4 counts hold, 6 counts out, 4 counts pause). Try the exercise sitting and then perhaps laying down. Experiment with what feels best to you. There is no right or wrong way to practice mindfulness. Remember the keys- be present, regulate your breathing, be curious and compassionate, and no judgement.
Body Scan + Progressive Relaxation
Body scanning and progressive relaxation are two separate mindfulness techniques that are often paired together. You can do them separately or together depending on how you are feeling, time that you have, and the environment that you are in. Body scanning can be done almost any time- a quick check in at the office desk, before starting a meal, while out for a walk, or resting on the couch. Progressive relaxation is best done in either a comfortable seated position or while laying down.
With the body scan you're going to be focusing on each area of the body as we "scan" looking for somatic sensations (physiological feelings)- I'll provide more prompts on this below. We will transition each area with a deep breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth.
A full list of prompts for each area is provided below as a downloadable worksheet.
Starting with your attention on your breathing. As always, start the exercise with a few deep breathes in. In through the nose, out through the mouth- between 3-10 breathes (depending on your time).
Now move your attention to the top of your head. While focusing on your head and face, notice any sensations you feel here. Transitioning to the neck and shoulders with a deep breathe in and out. Notice what sensations you feel in the neck and shoulders. Again, with the transitioning breathe you will move downward to each body part with slow intentional focus- the chest, each arm, hands, and fingers, abdomen, back, pelvis, each leg, foot, and toes. Remember to breathe between each transition.
Progressive Relaxation is a technique designed to show the difference between tensed body parts and relaxed body parts. After you have practiced the body scanning a few times, you can add in the progressive relaxation exercise. Starting the same way as the scan- from the head to the toes, you will focus on each body part individually. Notice any sensations that you feel in those parts. After noticing, flex each muscle (i.e. bringing your shoulders up to your ears, balling your fingers into fists) and then relax them back to rest. Notice the differences between the tension during the flexed stage and the relaxation during the rest stage. Remember to reset during the transition to each different part with a deep breathe in and out. For guided instructions download the worksheet below.
Somatic Sensations:
Somatic sensations are the physiological or physical feelings you experience in your body. Our bodies tell us a lot of information and our somatic experiences are closely linked to our emotional states. We experience somatic sensations when we are hungry (growling in the stomach, hollowness/emptiness, pain), when we are angry (fluttering or pounding of the heart, heat or sweating, dizzy or lightheadedness, tightness in our muscles), or even when we are just sitting around doing nothing (pressure where the chair is touching the backs of your legs, tightness in your hip or a dull ache in your lower back).
Some of the somatic sensations that you may feel during this exercise are:
warmth
coolness
heat/cold
chills/hot flashes
heaviness
lightness
groundedness
floating
compression
twitching
numbness
itching
aching
burning
thirst
hunger
urges (to yawn, sneeze, stretch, move)
expansion
swaying
rocking
pulsing
vibrations
stillness
balance/imbalance
orientation in space
tightness
constriction
looseness
softening
stiffness
rigidity
digestive sensations (gurgling, emptiness, fullness, nausea)
sharpness
dullness
tingling (“buzzing” or “electric” sensation)
vibrancy
restlessness
calm/still energy
fatigue/heaviness
surges or waves of energy
heartbeat (fast, slow, pounding)
breath movement (expansion, contraction, ease, restriction)
Prompts for this exercise:
Head/Face:
notice what your hairline feels like- what sensations are present
notice what your eyes, ears, nose and mouth feel like
notice what your jaw and brow line feel like
notice what differences are present between the relaxed state and the flexed state
Neck/Shoulders:
notice what your neck and shoulders feel like in general
notice if there are any changes with your breathing
notice if it feels like the sensations are muscular or in the skeleton
notice what movement feels like
notice what differences are present between the relaxed state and the flexed state
Chest/Back:
notice what the chest and back feel like in general
notice if there are any changes in these feelings with your breathing
notice if the sensations feel like they are in the muscles or in the bones
notice what movement feels like
notice what differences are present between the relaxed state and the flexed state
Arms/Hands/Fingers
notice what the arms, hands and fingers feel like in general
notice if there are any changes in these feelings with your breathing
notice if the sensations feel like they are in the muscles or in the bones
notice what movement feels like in these areas
notice what differences are present between the relaxed state and the flexed state
Trunk/Abdomen
notice what the trunk and abdomen feel like in general
notice if there are any changes in these feelings with your breathing
notice what your ribs feel like in general
notice what they feel like when you breathe
notice if the sensations feel like they are in the muscles or in the bones
notice what movement feels like
notice what differences are present between the relaxed state and the flexed state
Pelvis and Glutes
notice what the pelvis and glutes feel like in general
notice if there are any changes in these feelings with your breathing
notice if the sensations feel like they are in the muscles or in the bones
notice what movement feels like in these areas
notice what differences are present between the relaxed state and the flexed state
Upper and Lower Leg
notice what the upper and lower legs feel like in general
notice if there is a difference between the front of the legs and the back
notice if there are any changes in these feelings with your breathing
notice if the sensations feel like they are in the muscles or in the bones
notice what movement feels like these areas
notice what differences are present between the relaxed state and the flexed state
Feet and Toes
notice what the feet and toes feel like in general
notice if there are any changes in these feelings with your breathing
notice if the sensations feel like they are in the muscles or in the bones
notice what movement feels like areas
notice what differences are present between the relaxed state and the flexed state
Download the Scripts
Mindful Journaling
Mindful journaling is a simple way to incorporate mindfulness practices into your daily or weekly routine. It includes the practice of bringing attention and awareness to what is happening for you in the moment, including reflection on your thoughts, emotions, and the situations.
Ways that mindful journaling supports your mental health include:
Support with Emotional Regulation: writing with awareness helps identify and process difficult emotions rather than suppressing them. This in turns, promotes nervous system regulation and reduces emotional reactivity.
Helps to interrupt rumination: mindful journaling slows down racing thoughts by putting them into words. Further, seeing the thoughts on paper helps to create distance from them, allowing you to cognitively process, breaking cycles of worry or overthinking.
Promotes increased self-awareness: by noticing our body sensations, emotions, and thoughts that arise we are strengthening the skills of self-awareness and reflection. This promotes improved insight into our triggers, habits and patterns.
Supports relaxation and stress reduction: when we write expressively with intention and awareness, research shows reduced cortisol levels and improved immune function. It also shows a greater impact on relaxation and clarity.
Helps shift our focus encouraging gratitude and positive reframing: practices that include gratitude journaling or positive experiences can shift our attentional awareness to positives counteracting our negativity bias.
Helps to promote cognitive flexibility: writing mindfully, without judgement, can help us to see more than one perspective. When we strengthen our cognitive flexibility we also strengthen our resiliency and adaptability for stressful situations.
Tips for Success
You can set the stage for your journaling to have the optimal effects on your mental health by:
1) Setting up your space. Make sure that you have a space that feels good, comfortable, peaceful, with limited distractions. Ways to improve your space include, a clean and decluttered area, limited distractions and noise, and is comfortable for your physical body.
2) Engage other senses. As long as it's not distracting, having peaceful, relaxing, soft music (think spa music) on in the background, a candle or diffuser going, soft lighting, etc. helps set the tone for your writing, bringing your nervous system into a sense of calm.
3) Use journal prompts to explore more themes or help inspire you to write. Having prompts helps you focus on areas you might be avoiding, or helps you tap in to emotions, feelings, or thoughts when you feel stuck. Prompt's also help you focus on the here and now.
4) Really focus on your presence with journaling. As with all mindfulness, the goal is to focus on the here and now and be present, without judgement. If you find yourself wandering, come back to the here and now of your prompt. If you are wandering somewhere meaningful, explore that more in depth with a sense of presence and purposefulness.
5) Remember to be kind to yourself. Practicing self-compassion and without judgement is a key to mindfulness practices. No matter what comes up or where you are while journaling, be kind to yourself, find acceptance, and do not pass judgements.
Journaling Prompts:
No matter where you are in your mindfulness journey- a newbie, intermediate, or a pro- we can all benefit from learning new ways of incorporating mindfulness into our daily lives. As discussed, mindfulness has been shown to have profound, life changing effects on our physical and mental health. Despite common misconceptions, you don't have to be perfect at it, or do it for hours daily, to see the benefits. Incorporating even small, intentional acts of mindfulness in your day to day being, shows benefits- so give some of the exercises above a try, fine tune them for what work's for you, make them your own. If you are feeling a little lost still, you can join mindfulness groups, source out wonderful resources on Youtube or Spotify (for both exercises and guided meditations), try one to one individual therapy, or practice with a friend.
Frequently Asked Questions:
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to the present moment with openness, curiosity, and without judgment.
Do I have to do hours of Mindfulness to see the benefits?
No, even short mindfulness practices have shown benefits. Research shows that even practicing mindfulness for 5-15 minutes a few times are week improves markers of brain health, mental health and physical health. Remember consistency showed better results than intensity.
What if none of the exercises listed work for me?
The exercises given are just examples of common and easy practices to use. You can be mindful in informal ways- like practicing mindfulness while walking or stretching, taking mindful pauses at work, practicing informal mindful gratitude. Make the exercises your own, adapt them, be creative, find ways to make things work for you and feel good. Just remember, be present, intentional, curious and without judgement.
How does mindfulness impact my brain?
Mindfulness practices have been shown to have profound impacts on the brain and nervous system. For the brain, it has shown to decrease activation in areas that are responsible for emotional reactivity, and increase growth and activation in areas that are responsible for self awareness, memory, learning, balance, movement, empathy, among other things. Further, mindfulness improves retention of grey matter and shows decreased brain aging.
How does mindfulness impact my nervous system?
Mindfulness practices have shown to improve nervous system regulation, and help with prevention and promote recovery from stress, illness and burnout. It impacts both the sympathetic drive (fight and fight responses) and parasympathetic drive (freeze and rest and digest responses). It has been shown to decrease sympathetic drive and increase parasympathetic drive.
Where can I learn more exercises or resources for Mindfulness
Depending on your location, you can search out local mindfulness based groups, one to one therapy that incorporates or focuses on mindfulness, search for guided meditations on media sources like Youtube or listen to podcasts and guided meditations on Spotify.
How do I sit with things that are hard, big or overwhelming?
If you are finding that a lot of really big, hard, emotional things are coming up for you or that there are big feelings in your body, it is time to work with someone professionally. If you are working with someone, bring this to their attention. If you are not, find a licensed practitioner that can help you process and work through what your body is storing.
Upcoming Blogs:
Mindfulness for Children- How can parents help develop mindfulness.
Mindful Eating and Exercise- Reconnecting ourselves to healthy and intuitive practices.
Gratitude- How we can change our perspectives and rewire our brain through simple gratitude practices.
References
Gray matter changes with MBSR (hippocampus, PCC, empathy areas) Hölzel, B. K., Carmody, J., Vangel, M., Congleton, C., Yerramsetti, S. M., Gard, T., & Lazar, S. W. (2011). Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 191(1), 36–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pscychresns.2010.08.006
Thicker prefrontal cortex in meditators Lazar, S. W., Kerr, C. E., Wasserman, R. H., Gray, J. R., Greve, D. N., Treadway, M. T., McGarvey, M., Quinn, B. T., Dusek, J. A., Benson, H., Rauch, S. L., Moore, C. I., & Fischl, B. (2005). Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness. NeuroReport, 16(17), 1893–1897. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.wnr.0000186598.66243.19
Amygdala changes (stress reactivity) Taren, A. A., Creswell, J. D., & Gianaros, P. J. (2013). Dispositional mindfulness co-varies with smaller amygdala and caudate volumes in community adults. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 8(1), 92–99. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nss046
Connectivity between default mode network and attention network Brewer, J. A., Worhunsky, P. D., Gray, J. R., Tang, Y.-Y., Weber, J., & Kober, H. (2011). Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(50), 20254–20259. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1112029108
Slower brain aging in meditators Luders, E., Cherbuin, N., & Kurth, F. (2015). Forever Young(er): Potential age-defying effects of long-term meditation on gray matter atrophy. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1551. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01551
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