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Research on meditation, has revealed many important discoveries that are pertinent for people who have experienced trauma. For instance, meditation stimulates the production of natural opiates, such as serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins in the brain and body; generating natural feelings of safety, ease, well-being, joy, and interconnectedness with self and others. During meditation, the Default Network (DN) in the brain, which gives rise to negative thinking and self-criticism, calms down, and self-referential negative thinking diminishes, or even stops altogether. The Present Centered Network (PCN), which is involved with creative thinking, insight, and producing feelings of peace, equanimity, and connectedness with self, others, and the world, comes more ‘online’. And limbic structures within the brain that have either enlarged — such as the amygdala (which is associated with emotional regulation, fear, anxiety, and depression) — or decreased in size — such as the hippocampus (which is associated with the ability to maintain context, perspective and consequences of actions) — increase to normal size. These structural changes are critical for people navigating symptoms associated with PTS/PTSD.
Without our ability to maintain context, perspective, and understanding of the consequences of our actions (hippocampus), and when we are held hostage by our emotions (amygdala), we lose our ability to navigate the circumstances of our life. When people with PTS/PTSD are able to manage their symptoms — through therapy, or alternative methods like yoga and meditation — they regain control over their emotional and cognitive faculties, which they had previously lost. These large-scale brain and body transformations are the ultimate goal of iRest Meditation, which I have dedicated my professional life to developing.
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