I want to understand if meditation is scientific. Also, can meditation work for a person like me who can’t turn off their brain?
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“Is physical exercise for me who don’t have any muscle mass…” you’re the exact person it is for.
That being said, “meditation” cover an extremely wide range of internalized exercises, ranging from merely being focus/concentration training to stillness/openness at the opposite end, or the full spectrum: increasing the amount of life moving through your entirety.
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There really isn’t any need for the question whether meditation is scientific. That’d be like asking whether vizualizing things in your mind’s eye is scientific.
There’s nothing special, let alone supernatural, to it. It’s simply a way in which you can train and use your own mind. It’s no more extraordinary than calculating in your head, or remembering numbers, or whatever else.
Expanding on what others have said (“meditation is exactly FOR people who can’t turn their brain off”), I’d like to point out that meditation isn’t really about turning your thoughts off. It’s about becoming aware of your mental processes without judging, analyzing or otherwise engaging with them. You don’t so much stop your thoughts as disengage from them and do your best to become a neutral observer, robbing the chaos of your thinking mind of its power over you.
Again, this is not something that you just do. It’s something that requires practice, and patience with yourself.
It’s scientific in the sense that it’s use and benefits have been wildly studied, and the results are traditionally positive or at the very least inconclusive. (Put another way, there’s no negative drawbacks to trying it.) It’s not scientific in the sense where a doctor is going to “prescribe it” with a guaranteed list of results, or any meditation book or tape can give you an exact list of it’s benefits or even the “right” way to do it.
If you’re curious about trying it, here’s some advice from someone who’s been practicing for over 20 years. Try a little bit of everything, and find the technique that *works for you*. These days it’s easier than ever to access methods. The thing I’ve learned is that it’s like working out, no one specific plan is going to work for everyone. Don’t feel like you “need” that special music, to sit in that specific pose, say those exact phrases, etc.
For example, I find it impossible to sit in the cross legged pose a lot of techniques suggest, so I either lay comfortably on my back or a chair. I start with a few minutes of breath in for 5, hold for 5, exhale for five. Then I move on to repeating a “mantra” in my head. From there, depending on what I’m trying to do (relax, go to sleep, destress) I either count/focus on my breathing, “accept” the thoughts in my head before going back to focus, do a “system check” of my body from the feet up, and so on and so on.
Think of meditation as basically running yourself in “safe mode”; all the vital stuff like your brain, heart, and lungs are operating, but you’re not expending thought or energy with movement, making choices, dealing with people or situations; you’re free to simply “read” the thoughts in your head as an observer without pressure or judgement.
I’ve been meditating daily since 2000. Lots of people hear about meditation and enlightenment and believe there’s some way to gain a permanently blissful state. Lots of books about Buddhism explain that enlightenment is not something to be achieved, but to be pursued. As humans, there’s no way to achieve a mental state where nothing bothers you and you’re permanently happy.
What meditation can achieve is to simply clear your mind temporarily. Think of a cup that you use each day and maybe rinse out, but never fully clean. That’s sort of what your mind is like without meditation. Going to sleep resets your brain, but doesn’t fully clear out all of your emotions, thoughts, and worries. Meditation assists you by helping reset and relax your mind during the day. Instead of simply emptying out the drinking cup, you’re carefully washing and cleaning it.
Your body has 10 million sensors in it, 8 million of which are in your eyes. The second you close your eyes, your brain gets to go on vacation because all it no longer has to process 80% of the information your body is receiving. There’s a saying that the human body cannot be in an agitated state when the breath is regulated. If you’re breathing slowly, deliberately, consciously, your body relaxes and you can’t be upset.
The combination of shutting your eyes and focusing on slow, deliberate breathing allows your body to slow down, and clears out your mind. This is the act of meditation. It isn’t a permanent state, it’s temporary, but this mental and physical “reset” allows you to reframe and re-approach your existence.
“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” – Thich Nhat Hang
Meditation can help you, immediately, in this moment. Will it change the way you think and feel forever? No, but it can relax you at the moments when you need it.
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