Practice Makes Permanent

If you follow me on social media, you may have read my recent post about my participation in a meditation study conducted by Breathe Meditation and Wellness and Texas Women's University. The purpose of the study was to measure the impact of regular guided meditation on brain activity.

I was part of a cohort who engaged in two 30-minute guided meditations per week over three months. Another group did four sessions per week, while the control group did not meditate. All of us underwent brain scans at Braincode Centers before the study and again after it ended.

My results were stunning. In this high-level visual from my report, you can see that clearly something happened:

Since I pledged to keep this newsletter short, I won’t go into excessive detail on what these waves are and all the specifics, but here’s the high-level outcome:

  • Going into the study, my brain waves indicated higher levels of brain fog, anxiety, and difficulty in being both relaxed and present.

  • Coming out of the study, I had two- and three-standard-deviation improvements in these areas.

The bottom line: the report shows I’m more mellow, while being far more focused. But more important… I can FEEL that I am calmer and more focused.

Reducing my anxiety has been a big focus for me over the past several years, and it’s gratifying to now have scientific proof that practice makes permanent.

I hope that my sharing this inspires you this weekend. What goals do you have for your mental health? What small, yet consistent, steps can you make to achieve them?

PS: I’ll be sharing the full results of the meditation study soon in a special episode of my Choice Wisdom podcast. To make sure you don’t miss out on knowing when that episode airs, be sure to sign up for my podcast email alerts.

  • "It’s hard to change your habits if you never change the underlying beliefs that led to your past behavior. You have a new goal and a new plan, but you haven’t changed who you are."

    - James Clear

FURTHER EXPLORATION

FURTHER EXPLORATION

In his best-selling book Atomic Habits, James Clear distills down the four stages of habit formation:

1. Noticing

2. Wanting

3. Doing

4. Liking

And it's the small changes that add up to big transformation. If you are looking for practical advice on practices to make permanent, this book has it!

Click here to order on Amazon

About Me

I am a business life coach who helps other entrepreneurs make more money while achieving greater peace. I do this by blending Business Made Simple's proven frameworks for predictable business success with the wisdom I've gained from an extensive exploration of mind-body-spirit principles and healing modalities.