It’s now proven: the prac­tice of med­i­ta­tion and mind­ful­ness can rewire your brain and reduce stress in just 8 weeks.

Researchers at Har­vard Uni­ver­sity and Mass­a­chu­setts Gen­eral Hos­pi­tal have released the results of a sci­en­tific study, based on MRI imag­ing, that exam­ined the impact of med­i­ta­tion and mind­ful­ness prac­tices on brain health and plas­tic­ity.

They report that research par­tic­i­pants who spent an aver­age of 27 min­utes daily on mind­ful­ness exer­cises reduced stress fac­tors and increased the gray-mat­ter den­sity of their brains in areas asso­ci­ated with “self-aware­ness, com­pas­sion and intro­spec­tion.” Par­tic­i­pants also improved brain func­tions asso­ci­ated with mem­ory and empa­thy.

These ben­e­fits took just 8 weeks of dis­ci­plined prac­tice to be real­ized.

This research built on and rein­forced the find­ings of ear­lier stud­ies that revealed the health­ful impacts of med­i­ta­tion; how­ever, those prior stud­ies  (unlike this one) did not con­clu­sively doc­u­ment the causal rela­tion­ship between med­i­ta­tion and brain plas­tic­ity.

As the study’s senior author, Sara Lazar of Mass Gen­eral, reports:

This study demon­strates that changes in brain struc­ture may under­lie some of these reported improve­ments [refer­ring to prior research], and that peo­ple are not just feel­ing bet­ter because they are spend­ing time relax­ing.

Britta Hölzel, a research fel­low at MGH and Giessen Uni­ver­sity (Ger­many) and co-author, notes:

It is fas­ci­nat­ing to see the brain’s plas­tic­ity and that, by prac­tic­ing med­i­ta­tion, we can play an active role in chang­ing the brain and can increase our well-being and qual­ity of life.

Par­tic­i­pants in the study took part in the 8‑week Mind­ful­ness-Based Stress Reduc­tion Pro­gram at the Uni­ver­sity of Mass­a­chu­setts Cen­ter for Mind­ful­ness.

If mov­ing to cen­tral Mass­a­chu­setts to take part in a 2‑month pro­gram is not a viable option for you, there are home-based alter­na­tives.

I’m work­ing my way through sev­eral books on MBSR and mind­ful­ness writ­ten by Jon Kabat-Zinn. I’ve invested in a med­i­ta­tion cush­ion, and leave my yoga mat per­ma­nently unfurled, as a reminder to invest time every day in mind­ful­ness prac­tice. Between yoga and mind­ful­ness, I’m begin­ning to savor increased well-being — and hope these ben­e­fits will expand out­ward to friends, fam­ily, col­leagues and the larger com­mu­nity.