Why Mediate?

Millions of people meditate but billions of others are still in ignorance as to its incredible neurological benefits that's why the world needs to slow down and be in the moment with it all

Dr. Conor Hogan Ph.D.
4 min readJun 23, 2021

To meditate or not, that is the question?

Meditation is something that I use in my practice with clients. It has been shown to decrease the amount of decay in the human brain and it’s something that I`ve practiced for two decades now. By starting and then deepening your meditation you`re doing yourself a big favor in life.

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Research has shown that the brain regions associated with interoception, attention, and sensory processing are thicker in those that meditate.

So what does cortical thickness have to do with anything?

Most studies have shown that people’s intellectual ability coordinates with an increased cortical thickness. For example, neuroimaging research from a study of 182 healthy typically developing females and males aged 9 to 24 years was identified.

They found that the older the person the greater the cortical thickness.

In other studies, there has been a more positive correlation showing a greater IQ that coordinates with the overall volumes of people’s cortical brain areas. These regions include the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital areas of the cerebral hemispheres, the cerebellum, and the hippocampus.

Human beings in relation to other animals have a larger brain cortex relative to their body size with a neocortext of about 22.8 billion neurons in a surface area of 2,320 cm2 on average.

Changes in Electroencephalogram patterns and resting-state was noticed in another study of people from the west of the world who lived normal western lifestyles and meditated regularly over time. Here the Broadman 9 and 10 areas of the brain and the right interior insula were thicker as was the left superior temporal gyrus. There is also an increase in the ability of the prefrontal cortex which can also provide long-lasting improvements in a person’s brain.

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The frontal areas of the brain as well as the parietal lobes act as organizers for the visualization process.

For example behind the forehead region of our heads allows us the ability to have high-level thinking. Here, critical thinking can be utilized to its maximum capacity. And memory is located over people’s ears in a place called the temporal lobes of the human brain.

Whereas the top of the human head house the parietal lobes which are the hub for human touch, pain, and pressure.

To the rear of your head is your occipital lobe which is approximately one-fifth of your brain’s capacity works with the ability to be able to visualize even if things have never happened before. For instance, when you were very young and read a book this area of your brain lit up when you started putting pictures to the words from the story. You may remember that many people would have called this how you used your imagination, but then again if you did your brain would be using something in your temporal lobe area if you started thinking in this way too!

The point is that if you visualize something in the future you are preparing yourself to be more mentally prepared for it when the opportunity for it to occur comes about.

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But to properly prepare for visualizations you need to maintain and improve your brain’s capacity to its greatest ability. To do that you must meditate. Because meditation will soften your mind and strengthen your brain.

It creates an environment and atmosphere for your brain to utilize healthier neurons that will fire to their best ability.

Not only does your brain create this place for better things to happen when another skill like visualization is employed but practicing meditation eases your brain’s perception of pressure. And let’s face it any time you perform at a high level you`re under pressure in some way over another!

When I first started meditating the thought crossed my mind that it may change my outer world including my finances, my relationships, and my opportunities.

But it didn’t.

And it won’t.

However, what it will do is change your inner world.

That’s what’s going on between your ears. And if you can developmentally change what’s going in your head today and every other day as you go through life you`ll protect yourself from outside stresses that inevitably occur. In doing so, you`ll be able to think slower and in a more controlled manner than most other people.

Meditation won’t stop there being an external problem in life like finances and relationships but it will allow you to calmly analyze things objectively and create solutions to these challenges.

That’s when you begin to see opportunities more so than issues when the outside world notices nothing but problems.

And if you can see the opportunities then you can focus on the perceived hardest way of achieving with money, in relationships, and any other previously perceived complexity in life.

So the question is not whether to meditate or not?

but more so

‘Why have I not meditated before now?’

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Dr. Conor Hogan Ph.D.

Forbes, INC. & Entrepreneur Magazines, CBS, & NBC Featured, Dr. Conor Is The No. 1 Best Selling Author of The Gym Upstairs