The prefrontal cortex area of our brain processes risk and emotional response and is the most sensitive part of the brain to the detrimental effects of chronic stress.
A recent Yale study finds that improving coping skills to help manage stress more effectively can be built by strengthening the brain’s physiological response – and that can be done by ‘rewiring the brain’ by creating new neural pathways (neuroplasticity) with mindfulness, which is a specific way of noticing and responding to life as it is happening in the present moment.
Dr. Russ Harris of The Happiness Trap suggests we can experience the following health benefits with regular mindfulness practice:
- to be fully present, here and now
- to experience unpleasant thoughts and feelings safely
- to become aware of what you’re avoiding
- to become more connected to yourself, to others and to the world around you
- to increase self-awareness
- to become less disturbed by and less reactive to unpleasant experiences
- to learn the distinction between you and your thoughts
- to have more direct contact with the world, rather than living through your thoughts
- to learn that everything changes; that thoughts and feelings come and go like the weather
- to have more balance, less emotional volatility
- to experience more calm and peacefulness
- to develop self-acceptance and self-compassion