Linda Blair

Rewire your brain for calm

Can you remember the last time you stopped to take in your surroundings – without recording anything on your phone, without dismissing critically what you observe, and without talking to someone else at the same time? For most of us, it’s probably been a long time since we stopped “just to look”. This is a huge mistake, and it’s costing us dearly – in terms of peace of mind, clarity of purpose and sense of identity.

Last October, Rinske Gotink and her colleagues at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam conducted a review of studies that had used MRI brain scanning to examine neurological changes in individuals who participated in an eightweek course of mindfulness training. Mindfulness means paying full attention non-judgmentally to one’s current experience – in other words, just looking.

Gotink’s team found that a mere eight weeks of practising mindfulness created significant changes in participants’ brains. The studies reported decreased activity in the amygdala, whereas in other areas – the prefrontal cortex, the insula, the cingulate cortex and the hippocampus – there was increased activity, increased connectivity and increased brain volume.

The amygdala, the one region that showed less activity after a course of mindfulness, is associated with the perception of negative emotions such as anger, fear and sadness. If the amygdala isn’t activated, we feel calmer and safer.

 The prefrontal cortex, one of the four areas that showed an increase in activity after mindfulness practice, helps us focus.

 The insula is the seat of self-awareness, both physical and emotional. It plays a role in our ability to empathise with others.

 The cingulate gyrus helps to regulate our emotions, and because of it we learn to predict and avoid negative consequences.

 The hippocampus helps us navigate spatially and lay down new memories.

Together, these brain regions constitute the centres of emotional regulation, and they facilitate our ability to make plans and lay down longterm memories. The studies Gotink reviewed show these areas are all enhanced when we spend time observing our surroundings non-judgmentally. We’re also more aware of what’s happening all around us, something particularly important as we become older and reflect on the life we’ve lived.

Novelist Diana Athill, who celebrated her 100th birthday at the end of last year, explains this beautifully in her book,

Alive, Alive Oh! Looking at things was never time wasted, she writes, because her careful observations remain with her, making “a very old woman’s idle days pleasant instead of boring”.

Give yourself the gift of regular non-judgmental, outward looking time. Not only will it enhance your cognitive abilities and help you regulate your emotions, it will also help determine what you’re able to remember in future.

Linda Blair is a clinical psychologist. Order her book, Siblings: How to Handle Rivalry and Create Lifelong Loving

Bonds, for £10.99: 0844 871 1514; books.telegraph.co.uk Watch her give advice at telegraph.co.uk/wellbeing/ video/mind-healing