5 Ways Meditation Gives Your Brain a Boost

I never in a million years thought I'd be the type of person who meditates. I've had an aversion to all things airy-fairy since age five, when my parents – recovering hippies – sent me to a yoga class for kids. The teacher, who disapproved of the jeans I was wearing, made me strip down and do sun salutations in my tighty-whities.

But then, a few years ago, I heard about an explosion of scientific research suggesting that meditation has an extraordinary range of health benefits. In particular, I found the neuroscience compelling. Studies say you can sculpt your brain through meditation just as you build and tone your body through exercise.

Even though this research is still in its embryonic stages, what it suggests about human happiness is radical. Many of us assume that our levels of well-being, resilience, and impulse control are set from birth. Apparently, though, we have the power to essentially perform neurosurgery on ourselves, to rewire the three pounds of matter we carry around in our skull. Happiness, it turns out, is a skill.

Here are the five most mind-bending examples from the neuroscience of meditation. (MORE)

Source: ABC News