This Is Why Everyone Always Tells You to Meditate
It’s not b.s. — the practice really can strengthen your mind like a muscle
This is a modified excerpt from Inside Your Head 🧠, a weekly newsletter exploring why your brain makes you think, feel, and act the way you do, written by me, Elemental’s senior writer and a former brain scientist. Subscribe here so you won’t miss the next one.
One of the oft-repeated pieces of advice on how to deal with pandemic stress is to meditate. This is not a new or groundbreaking tip — meditation practices such as mindfulness have been recommended for years to combat stress, burnout, anxiety, and depression. But now that many of our normal coping mechanisms have been restricted, meditation is getting more attention than ever as a healthy mood-boosting practice. Why is that? What magic effect does focusing your thoughts and paying attention to your breathing have on your brain?
Full disclosure: I write this newsletter as someone who is not a regular meditator, although I’ve tried to be and felt guilty about it for years. I thought that by digging into the science behind the practice I might finally get myself to stick with it.
