Meditation in the Digital Age

Carolyn Gregoire provides some online meditation tools that many may find useful.

Meditation demonstration

Here is a video on basic zazen for those interested in Zen and other forms of Buddhist meditation:
How to Meditate: Instructions for Basic Zazen from Rinzai Zen Community on Vimeo.

Meditation and the sunk cost bias

The sunk cost bias refers to the fact that people find it difficult to give up on a goal into which they have already made a large investment. Even once the goal has gone stale or proven unworkable, there’s a tendency to throw good money (or effort) after bad, simply because a significant investment has already been made. The effects of the sunk cost bias can be seen in public projects that go way over budget and in military campaigns which continue long after their objectives have proven unworkable. One of the strengths of meditation is that it shifts mental focus into the present moment. Across two separate experiments, researchers tested this by giving one group of participants a 15-minute meditation induction. Then they were given a business scenario which was designed to test the sunk cost bias. In comparison to a control condition, meditating doubled the number of people who could avoid the sunk cost bias. In the control condition just over 40% of people were able to resist the bias. This shot up to almost 80% among those who had meditated. The researchers achieved similar results in another experiment and then went on to examine exactly how meditation is helpful. In a third experiment they found that meditation increases the focus on the present moment. A focus on the present in turn reduced negative feelings participants had about the sunk cost – the time, money and effort that had gone to waste. This reduction in negative emotion meant participants were much better equipped to resist the bias. The finding builds on previous research which has found that meditation can help people fight the negativity bias: people’s natural tendency to focus too much on negative information. If this is the kind of improvement that can be seen after just 15 minutes of meditation, just imagine how much consistent, regular meditation can improve thinking and decision-making skills.

Basic meditation instructions

A lot of people hold the mistaken belief that meditation is complicated. In fact, it is quite the opposite since it is a perfectly natural act. This is how you meditate:

Find a quiet place and sit comfortably in a chair with your back relatively straight so that you do not fall asleep. Breathe in and out through your nose but only if this is comfortable. If it is uncomfortable then breathe through your mouth. When breathing in, think, "in." When you exhale, think, "out." If you prefer you can use a special word that has deep personal meaning to you instead such as "God", "love", "peace", "joy", etc. Another alternative is to count your breaths with your first inhale being "one", your first exhale being "two", your second inhale being "three", your second exhale being "four" and so on up to "ten" after which you start again at "one." Any time you realize that your attention has wandered, gently but firmly return to "in" and "out" or your special word. If you are counting your breaths, begin over again from "one" every time you realize that your attention has wandered. Use your chosen form of meditation for at least five minutes a day.

Any questions?

Scientists have found evidence of specific molecular changes in the body following a period of meditation

A study has investigated the effects of a day of intensive meditation practice in a group of experienced meditators, compared to a group of untrained control subjects who engaged in quiet non-meditative activities. After eight hours of meditation practice, the meditators showed a range of genetic and molecular differences, including altered levels of gene-regulating machinery and reduced levels of pro-inflammatory genes, which in turn correlated with faster physical recovery from a stressful situation. Most interestingly, the changes were observed in genes that are the current targets of anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs. Meditation-based trainings have shown beneficial effects on inflammatory disorders in prior clinical studies and are endorsed by the American Heart Association as a preventative intervention. The new results provide a possible biological mechanism for therapeutic effects. The results show a down-regulation of genes that have been implicated in inflammation. The affected genes include the pro-inflammatory genes RIPK2 and COX2 as well as several histone deacetylase (HDAC) genes, which regulate the activity of other genes epigenetically by removing a type of chemical tag. What’s more, the extent to which some of those genes were down-regulated was associated with faster cortisol recovery to a social stress test involving an impromptu speech and tasks requiring mental calculations performed in front of an audience and video camera. Perhaps surprisingly, the researchers say, there was no difference in the tested genes between the two groups of people at the start of the study. The observed effects were seen only in the meditators following meditation practice. In addition, several other DNA-modifying genes showed no differences between groups, suggesting that the meditation practice specifically affected certain regulatory pathways.

Mental illness and meditation

George Hofmann has a very interesting blog about meditation for people living with mental illness. Check it out at: Practicing Mental Illness