Nick, our resident brainiac and head of research at Headspace HQ is all about pouring over the many, many scientific papers, graphs, tables and charts on the benefits of meditation to get to the most interesting facts to send your way. He has recently found some super interesting facts about the effects of meditation on the brain and we thought we'd share the first one of these with you today! Thanks Nick, you rock.
Mindfulness Changes Your Brain Part 1 – Hippocampus
Know what your hippocampus is? No it’s not a university for hippos (ba boom)………. but it is involved with learning. Your hippocampus helped you etch that speech into the back of your mind and sealed the memory of your first kiss - in short, it helps you store memories. Not only that, but it also helps you to control your fear and anxiety (its a very talented part of the brain!) Regular stress can actually damage and kill brain cells in this area though, leaving your hippocampus physically smaller. Neuroscientists from Harvard found that mindfulness on the other hand, increases the number of brain cells in the hippocampus and might help offset some of this damage.