Free The Mind

This is the title of a thought provoking documentary that had its North American premier in Toronto last week at the Hot Docs festival. The film features the work of Dr. Richard Davidson; professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Founder of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds.

Richie, as he prefers to be called, is widely credited as the founding father of the new research domain of “Contemplative Neuroscience” and has advanced our understanding of neuroplasticity: the remarkable ability of the brain to change in relation to the environment and our experiences. In the film, Dr. Davidson’s team is shown conducting research on the effects of mindfulness meditation, compassion training and other mind-body practices in children with and without ADHD, and in American war veterans suffering PTSD.

Remarkably, short interventions of 30 minutes 3 times weekly for the children, and 3 hours daily for 7 consecutive days in the veterans showed beneficial effects that were durable and, in many cases, equivalent or better than medications typically prescribed for these problems.

In prior research Dr. Davidson was the first to demonstrate that long-term meditators have unique brain structures and functions on MRI scans and EEGs. He has also recently shown that even short periods of meditation produce epigenetic changes, by down-regulating genes involved in the stress response and the inflammatory cascade. Others have confirmed that meditation lengthens our telomeres.

While much remains to be studied about these contemplative practices, such as the minimum “dose” and type required for benefit, the evidence is now compelling that we should all be engaging regularly in something that quiets the mind, and calms the body.