"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is---his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Romans 12:2
The business world is abuzz with mindfulness. But perhaps you haven’t
heard that the hype is backed by hard science. Recent research provides
strong evidence that practicing non-judgmental, present-moment
awareness (a.k.a. mindfulness)
changes the brain, and it
does so in ways that anyone working in today’s complex business environment, and certainly every leader, should know about.
My friend, Dr. Daniel Amen contributed to this research in 2011 with
a study
on participants who completed an eight-week mindfulness program. We
observed significant increases in the density of their gray matter. In
the years since, other neuroscience laboratories from around the world
have also investigated ways in which meditation, one key way to practice
mindfulness, changes the brain. This year, a team of scientists from
the University of British Columbia and the Chemnitz University of
Technology were able to
pool data from more than 20 studies
to determine which areas of the brain are consistently affected. They
identified at least eight different regions. Here we will focus on two
that we believe to be of particular interest to business professionals.
The first is the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), a structure located
deep inside the forehead, behind the brain’s frontal lobe. The ACC is
associated with self-regulation,
meaning the ability to purposefully direct attention and behavior,
suppress inappropriate knee-jerk responses, and switch strategies
flexibly. People with
damage to the ACC show impulsivity and unchecked aggression, and those with
impaired connections between
this and other brain regions perform poorly on tests of mental
flexibility: they hold onto ineffective problem-solving strategies
rather than adapting their behavior. Meditators, on the other hand,
demonstrate
superior performance on tests of self-regulation, resisting distractions and making correct answers more often than non-meditators.
They also show more activity in the ACC than non-meditators. In addition to self-regulation, the ACC is
associated with learning from past experience to
support optimal decision-making. Scientists point out that the ACC may
be particularly important in the face of uncertain and fast-changing
conditions.
(Source:
Tang et al.)
(Source:
Fox et al.)
The second brain region we want to highlight is the hippocampus, a
region that showed increased amounts of gray matter in the brains of our
2011 mindfulness program participants. This seahorse-shaped area is
buried inside the temple on each side of the brain and is part of the
limbic system, a set of inner structures associated with emotion and
memory. It is covered in receptors for the stress hormone cortisol, and
studies have shown that
it can be damaged by chronic stress, contributing to a harmful spiral
in the body. Indeed, people with stress-related disorders like
depresssion and
PTSD tend
to have a smaller hippocampus. All of this points to the importance of
this brain area in resilience—another key skill in the current
high-demand business world.
(Source:
Hölzel et al.)
These findings are just the beginning of the story. Neuroscientists
have also shown that practicing mindfulness affects brain areas related
to perception, body awareness, pain tolerance, emotion regulation,
introspection, complex thinking, and sense of self. While more research
is needed to document these changes over time and to understand
underlying mechanisms, the converging evidence is compelling.
Mindfulness should no longer be considered a “nice-to-have” for
executives. It’s a “must-have”: a way to keep our brains healthy, to
support self-regulation and effective decision-making capabilities, and
to protect ourselves from toxic stress. It can be integrated into one’s
religious or spiritual life, or practiced as a form of secular mental
training. When we take a seat, take a breath, and commit to being
mindful, particularly when we gather with others who are doing the same,
we have the potential to be changed.
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