The synergy of mind-brain function strengthens with mindful awareness.

The contemplative and reflective practice of mindful-awareness training gives rise to changes in the way we live. How we pay attention- or the way we pay attention with our minds actually helps to harness our extended nervous systems, and enhances our adaptive capacity for the many challenges we face in day to day living. Let us suggest that intention to pay attention (i.e. “aim & sustain”) in very specific ways can actually improve our mental and physiological functioning toward greater health and well-being.

Neuroscientists have found that the way we pay attention activates the brain in certain very specific ways. The practice of mindful awareness is an activated state of mind. Through continual focus, this brain activation or “mind state” will eventually become a “trait” when recreated over and over again. A routine practice of mindfulness meditation and/or mindful-awareness training may actually precipitate structural changes in the brain itself as new neural firings and connections emerge (i.e. neuroplasticity).

Let us also suggest that the “mind” is an integrated process- embodied and relational- regulating flow of information and energy (D. Siegel, M.D.). The brain is a collection of neurons distributed in the skull and throughout the body. Energy and information flow can ride across these neuron connections (i.e. neural pathways or networks). As we focus energy and information flow in a certain way, we can actually activate the brain in particular ways. Through repetition, we reinforce these new neural connections (i.e. neuroplasticity). When we use our intention (i.e.“aim & sustain”) to pay attention in a certain way, we may be actually sculpting our brains. When intentionally trying to create a mindful state, we are altering the connections of the brain toward health and well-being (D. Siegel, MD).

In our contemplative and reflective practice of mindfulness meditation and mindful-awareness training, we are using the focused yet free attention of our minds to alter the neurological functioning of our brains- to liberate our potential both internally and interpersonally (i.e. “attunement”)- and to improve our physiological, mental, and relational well-being.

The neurological “activation” associated with mindful states is mainly driven by a part of the brain that is referred to as the “middle pre-frontal cortex”. This is where the executive functioning of our brain takes place- it is here where awareness is monitoring what is going on in our experience- and influencing activation in the brain- and across our extended nervous system. The middle pre-frontal cortex is what is controlling & regulating the subcortical regions of the brain such as the limbic area where we find our amygdala which is thought to be our fear-regulator. Also in this subcortical area, we find the hypothalmus, our hormonal-regulator, as well as the hippocampus which is associated with long-term memory function. The amygdala, hypothalmus, and hippocampus are all thought to contribute to the arousal of our “affective” or emotional states. The practice of mindful awareness has been proven scientifically to help modulate these “affective” and sometimes “afflictive” states through the way we focus our attention.

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