Meditating is a practice that enables people to go to a deeper state of relaxation and awareness. It has been practices for the longest times by monks, and is now fast becoming a way of life for people practicing the peaceful state.

For some, they look at people meditating and ask what's going through their heads? But for a team of researchers from Yale University and Judson A. Brewer, assistant professor of psychiatry and lead author, they wondered what's going on in the brains of those who are meditating.

To know what's happening with the brain, the Yale team conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging scans on both experienced and novice meditators as they practiced different meditation techniques.

By scanning the meditators' brains during the process itself, the researchers found that the experienced ones had decreased activity in areas of the brain known as the default mode network, which is linked with lapses of attention and disorders like anxiety, attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder, and Alzheimer's disease. Even with different kinds of meditation techniques, the experienced meditators somehow switched off some areas of the brain.

In addition to turning off the default mode network, scans suggest that brain regions linked with self-monitoring and cognitive control were both activated for those who were experienced, but that was not the case for the novices. This means that the experienced meditators were constantly monitoring and suppressing thoughts about themselves or preventing their minds from wandering.

Similar scans pervaded even when the participants were asked to just rest and not do anything particular. The researchers said that this may indicate that meditators have developed a new default mode, wherein there is more present-centered awareness and less of the self-centered state.

With these findings, Brewer noted that meditation has been shown to help in variety of health problems. But what are the other benefits of meditation? According to INeedMotivation.com, being in that state of awareness and relaxation has a lot of advantages, such as:

- Lowers oxygen consumption

- Decreases respiratory rate

- Increases blood flow

- Decreases muscle tension

- Enhances the immune system

- Enhances the body's strength and energy

- Helps with weight loss

- Slows down aging process

- Cures headaches and migraines

According to experts, meditating is basically sitting down with the right posture, choosing a mantra that you will repeat to yourself to help in focusing, and just doing it regularly for at least 20 minutes a day. And with various benefits that come with meditating, it becomes obvious why it is fast becoming a part of people's lives.