Why meditating is so difficult?

Dozens of techniques exist but, in its simplest and most beneficial version, the how of the meditation practice can be explained in just three sentences: (1) sit down still and quiet, (2) close your eyes, and (3) maintain awareness on your breath and your body sensations. Despite this simplicity, most people consider meditating a very complicated exercise. Why meditating is so difficult?

There appear to be good reasons to support this reluctance. Focusing attention is a patience demanding task since our brain seems to be better designed for turbulence and mental noises than for stillness and silence. A 2007 study by Michael Kane at the University of North Carolina suggests that, on average, during thirty percent of our alert schedule we are thinking about things different from what we are doing. And Jonathan Schooler of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver concluded in another 2007 investigation that even while reading, a concentration demanding activity, we digress between fifteen and twenty of the time.

Since we wander for such a high fraction of our awake day, scientists have decided to put their hands on the subject and, as in all research projects of cognitive sciences, computer imaging technology has become their main ally. Schooler and other group of researchers, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), have found that two specific brain regions belonging to different neuronal networks become active during mind wandering. The first one, located mainly on the frontal cortex, is known as the executive control system; the second one, more dispersed throughout the brain, is known as the default network. Activation of these networks is not steady or continuous and depends much on the wandering “magnitude”.

By associating the timed images to the mind states of participants as reported during the scanning procedure, the research team also established two levels in the intensity of distractions. In the first one the participants are partially conscious that they are actually wandering and hold the thread of the original task; in this case the predominant neuronal activity occurs in the executive control system network. In the second level, the participants are not even aware that they are distracted—Schooler refers to this second level as “zoning out”—and the neuronal activity is greater in the default network.

The distraction levels are easily recognized when practicing a common routine of Zen meditation. During this exercise, as an example, the meditator silently counts breathing cycles, from one to ten and repeatedly back to one. The counting is just a mental device to focus attention and keep distractions away; now and then the person looses track of the count. When meditators become aware of their mistake at the very moment it happens, they are still in the first distraction level. If, on the contrary, the miscounting lasts longer (for example, it reaches up to fourteen) the meditators, already in the second level, are zoning out.

“A lot of human daily life is autopilot,” Michael Kane says and, consequently, a certain degree of distraction is not only acceptable but it may even be necessary. Some psychologists maintain that the creativity flashes—the eureka moments—arise come from the default network when we are zoning out. However, if what permanently enter our head are resentments, obsessions, panics, hatred or other negative thoughts, it means we are in the territory of harmful disorders. It is here where meditation can be of much help; the Buddha said that meditation is the path toward a peaceful, undefiled state of mind.

Being so simple and useful, why do not more people meditate? Common answers, as it could be expected, have little to do with the brain physiology we just described. Accounts include “I cannot concentrate”, “I have too many problems in my head”, “my mind is elsewhere”, “I cannot remain still for so long” and so on. These excuses, well devised to “rationally” avoid the practice, are truly the best reasons why people should sit down, with their eyes closed in a passive attitude, and simply observe the flow of their breathing and of all the sensations that run through their body. Little by little, with the continuous and disciplined practice of this simple routine, their mind will appease and their unruly, disturbing thoughts will eventually settle down.

Gustavo Estrada

Author of HACIA EL BUDA DESDE EL OCCIDENTE

Mindfulness meditation and neuronal inhibition

Neurons are the cells of our nervous system which process and transmit electrochemical signals. Neuronal connections are either excitatory, when the nerve impulse increases the firing activity of the receiving cell, or inhibitory, the opposite, when the signal reduces the firing activity of the receiving cell. Mindfulness meditation is the workout of our inhibitory connections—the ones that stop us from doing certain things—to keep such connections in good “shape” or restore their capacity if it has deteriorated. Let me explain how this happens and what it is good for.

When people start a meditating session, they go through a wide variety of sensory and perceptual experiences, which originate from the continuous activation and deactivation of their inhibitory connections. As they enter deeper levels of introspection or concentration, they isolate themselves not only from external sensory signals (that is the easy part) but also from mind wandering. At those peak moments, million inhibitory connections turn on, block distracting thoughts and make the meditator undergo very special mental experiences which, in general, are difficult to describe. Still, as any other mental event, such experiences are pure neuronal phenomena and not, by any means, mystical calls.

Neuronal circuits are ensembles of neurons that process specific kinds of information. Excitatory routines prompt events; they are the neuronal circuits that keep data or instructions that are called in when they are needed. Inhibitory routines stop events; they are the blocking circuits that are supposed to restrain further action when the job is complete. The same way as excitatory routines might fade away, this is, they might get weakened and erased—the corresponding data or ability is then forgotten—inhibitory routines might also stop doing their blocking duty and the associated activity, which was supposed to be controlled, is actually overdone.
The purposeful repetition of an “excitatory” physical or mental task reinforces the associated neuronal program; this makes it progressively easier the repetition of the task. Though in a different manner, mindfulness meditation is, from the neuronal point of view, the purposeful repetition of thousands of passivity or stopping routines, this is to say, the workout of inhibitory circuits. Where do these workouts lead to? To the end of suffering, said the Buddha, twenty five centuries ago. But now cognitive sciences are finding now that mindfulness meditation is a very valuable tool to deal with some mental disorders.

Neurologists already knew that several mental disorders, both addictive and repulsive, stem from the malfunctioning of inhibitory mechanisms. The addictive type, such as substance dependence, sexual addiction and eating disorders, are related to pleasure habituation; the repulsive kind, such as phobias, panics, obsessive compulsive disorders or post traumatic stress disorders, are related to pain avoidance.

These disorders are disarrays of natural, normal processes. After pleasurable or painful experiences, the brain builds up automatic neuronal circuits for the conditioned repetition or avoidance of such experiences; the same circuits are triggered when similar circumstances reappear. Eating food is pleasing and stops hunger, therefore seeing or smelling food invites us to eat; touching hot things is painful, therefore avoiding blazing stoves or irons becomes second nature.

But the frequent repetition of an event or the high impact of a single episode might alter inhibitory mechanisms; they fail then to block the conditioned neuronal circuits that urgently demand repetition or avoidance. For instance, if we do many times a pleasing activity or the satisfying impression of one single action is too intense, we might get burning desires to duplicate the circumstances as often as possible, which we will keep doing if the blocking circuits deteriorate and so we become addicts. Or, on the other hand, a very strong negative event might affect the fear blocking signals so badly that phobias, panics or obsessive threats will become automatic in front of imaginary or harmless incidents. As things get worse, the simple thought of the conditioning events triggers cravings for repeating pleasure and dreads for avoiding pain. Either in the addictive or repulsive direction, the whole process becomes an unbearable treadmill. Excessive suffering, the Buddha would say.

When you meditate, you exercise—you force to work— an important fraction of your inhibitory circuits. By isolating physically, a huge number of sensory signals are turned off. When trying to focus your attention onto something (your breath, for instance), your mind switches control between wandering thoughts (involuntarily) and attention focusing (willingly); as this happens, millions of inhibitory neurons turn off and on alternatively. By regularly doing this kind of workout, your day-to-day mindfulness improves and so does your control of addictions and fears.

The rediscovery of this millennial wisdom is very promising; our brain receives so many signals and so much noise today that the pace of our lives does not seem to have a slow lane any more. All kind of mental disorders are on the rise. As the neuronal nature of the uncommon perceptions meditators undergo during meditation and the neuronal workings of the whole mindfulness experience are better understood both the acceptance and the potential of the technique in dealing with mental disorders will grow substantially.



Gustavo Estrada
Author of Hacia el Buda desde el occidente
http://pragmatic-buddha.com/