Cognitive and Affective

Brain Function Improvements

with Mindfulness Meditation and

Yoga

Mandy Wintink, PhD

@ajwintink

just breathe…

Your experience today

• Introduction to Mindfulness

• Meditation

• Yoga

• Reflection of own brain, mind, thoughts, emotions,

behaviours (NeuroPsychoidiology).

• Attention, Stress Reduction, Compassion

• Evidence of changes in the brain associated with

mindfulness meditation & yoga

What is mindfulness meditation?

Mindfulness is paying attention

Mindfulness is paying attention

to the present moment

Mindfulness is paying attention

to the present moment

without judgment

Sitting

Meditation

Concerns When

Starting to Meditate

• Do I have to close my eyes?

• Do I have to sit cross legged?

• Can I lay down?

• What if I can’t do it?

• My mind is too scattered to

meditate.

• I believe in God, will it conflict?

• I don’t need to meditate. I

understand what it does.

• Will I bliss out?

Concerns When

Starting to Meditate

just breathe…

And so… how was it?

What did you notice about your

Mind Brain

Typical experiences during mindfulness

meditation

start again…

just breath

This is what I’ve noticed

about my brain & mind…

Awareness

• This is me, my body, my mind

Attention

• Focussed

• Productive

• Non-reactive

Stress Reduction

• Heart stopped racing

• Calm

Mindfulness Meditation Changes The Brain

• Gamma waves (Lutz, Greischar, Rawlings, Davidson, 2004)

• Neural habituation to pain: reduced activity in insula,

cingulate, and amygdala before, but heightened

activity during pain. (Lutz, McFarlin, Perlman, Salomons, Davidson 2013).

• Increased Grey Matter in Hippocampus - specifically

subiculum (Luders, Kurth, Toga et al., 2013).

• Stress reduction correlated with decreased grey

matter in the Basolateral Amygdala (Holzel, Carmody, Evans et al.,

2009)

What is yoga?

Yoking…

of the mind & body

with the breath

What is yoga?

Yoking…

of the mind & body

with the breath

Yoga

Meditation in

Motion

And so… how was it?

What did you notice about your

Mind Brain

Typical experiences during yoga

This is what I’ve noticed

about my brain & mind…

• Awareness

• Understanding of my body’s

limits

• i.e., self-care, reduced self-

harm

• Love, appreciation, acceptance, &

compassion for my body

• i.e., positive body image

• Reduced stress

• Physical Benefits

• Flexible, strong, & healthy

What others have noticed:

• Eating disorders: decreased risk in those who follow a yoga program

(review by Klein & Cooko-Cottone, 2013)

• yoga-at-work program: more clear-minded, composed, elated, and

energetic, greater sense of life purpose and satisfaction, and greater self-

confidence in stressful situations. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment, and Health

• Sexual function: 12-week yoga program

• women: improved desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and

pain.

• men: increased desire, intercourse satisfaction, performance,

confidence, partner synchronization, erection, ejaculatory control, and

orgasm. Journal of Sexual Medicine by researchers Dhikav

Yoga Changes The Brain

• Gamma Waves (Vialatte, Bakardjian, Prasa, Cichocki, 2008).

• Pain tolerance correlates with Grey Matter in Insula (Villemure, Ceko, Cotton, Bushnell, 2013)

• Alternate-Nostril Breathing increased spatial

performance scores (Joshi & Telles 2008)

• Decreased cortisol and ACTH and increased

Serotonin, Dopamine, and BDNF in aged male

practitioners (Pal, Singh, Chatterjee, Saha, 2014)

Summary

• You are a neuroscientist

• Check out your inner technology

• Use it wisely

• Reap the benefits

• Mindfulness is available here and now

• Mindfulness is applicable to this, right here

• Mindfulness is a practice

Everyone can practice

mindfulness

meditation & yoga

Thanks to our team!