You aren’t alone: Many people who’ve sat down to meditate instead feel that their mind starts to wander within seconds. They can’t relax and instantly want to give up.
But research suggests that if you can hang in there for just a few minutes, your brain could start to shift in meaningful ways – and those changes may peak after only about seven minutes of meditation.
Alpha brain waves tend to be associated with relaxed, calm wakefulness. Alpha waves increase during meditation. Animation by Connie Chen/CNN
“We see this peak last up until 15 minutes,” said Dr. Balachundhar Subramaniam, professor of anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School, who co-led the study published earlier this year in the journal Mindfulness.
Meditation, often described as a practice of mind-body integration, involves giving your brain a break from constant noise. There are different types of meditation; the new study focused on one kind called breath-watching, a focused-attention meditation, which might mean staying in a state of calm and focusing on your breath, repeating a prayer or mantra or just sitting quietly and letting thoughts pass without chasing them.
