Neuroscience + Ancestral Lineage was the topic of module 7 of the Magic of Meditation. Throughout the history of human development over time, research has shown how we integrate our ancestral lineage into our bodies, our minds, and into our everyday. Our ancestors used to live in a place of survival constantly: what we’d call “fight or flight”. From the dawn of human existence, we were running away from predators and fighting each day to find food and survive.

Over time, our basic needs have been covered more adequately, yet we still find ourselves triggered into our “fight or flight” response - oftentimes for things that have nothing to do with our survival. We find ourselves welling up with anxiety: “Was she looking at me funny? Did I say something wrong? I have so many emails!” Our whole outlook on life is shaped by our cultures, our bloodlines, our lineage, encoded into our DNA.

​Our sympathetic nervous system is always active because our earliest ancestors, our very lifeblood, were constantly living under threat: of the attack of animals, attack of other humans. This is part of why we have developed such strong intuition and instinct, especially in the body. At this time, the mind was not as developed as it is today, so we lived more in alignment with the messages of the body. The body was the main role in our survival. Signals from our bodies would say, this is safe and we would feel calm or this is NOT safe RUN!

During this time, we only entered fight or flight when there was an immediate threat, not a “perceived” threat.

In today’s fast-paced, consumer-focused world, we live in constant flight or flight, constantly stressed by our environment, systems, and cultures. We are sick, we are getting cancer, fires are spreading across the globe, other natural disasters are occurring nearly every week, and depression is at an all-time high, to name a few.

Let’s take a moment to think about all the things that could stress us out. Pull out your journal and feel free to write some of your stressors down. Ideas to consider: are your stressors around safety + security - be within yourself, financially? Relationships? Overall health & well-being? Is it love + belonging? Feeling seen + heard? Write down what comes alive for you.

Well, it’s a great thing we get to practice meditation - so we can continue to learn to bring the mind and body together in these stressful, triggering moments. We continue to show up for our practice — daily — so we can build up resilience, and develop consistency so that we are able to practice and access the benefits of mindfulness meditation in times when we need it most.

My hand is the brain, and my thumb is the limbic system, and the limbic system has the fear response in it which is called the brain center called the Amygdala. Covering the amygdala is the prefrontal cortex, which is where our executive functioning and decision-making develop over time. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is an important area for higher-order thinking, processing of complex, abstract information, and metacognition which is, thinking about one's thinking.

​The brain is flexible, responsive, and has the ability to change. “Neurons that fire together wire together.” With meditation, we are training ourselves to incorporate all of the different aspects of the brain vs. letting the amygdala or the PFC control everything. We drop everything. We stop living in fear response or “thinking about our thinking” and enter the present moment.

For example, when we have a stimulus, we will often flip automatically and operate from the survival brain centers like the Amygdala and react. In meditation, we learn how to strengthen connections - and forge new connections - with all the different parts of our brain so we are less likely to react and we experience the gap between the stimulus and the response.

Victor Frankel said, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

In our beautiful cradle of a skull, billions of neurons (our brain cells) are operating and firing together to shape us into who we are. Different neurons are responsible for different parts of our lived experience, whether it’s basic functioning like eating and sleeping, to higher-level thinking like learning, supporting and nurturing ourselves + others.

Every time you have an experience, the relevant neurons switch on and start firing. As this happens, neural connections get stronger and new synapses start growing + strengthening. Each time we have an experience, the corresponding neurons are activated, and each time they are activated, they become higher in our brain’s order of importance. Repeating or prolonging an experience will keep the connections between neurons strong and ensure that they stay.

Experience doesn’t just affect change by creating new connections and strengthening existing ones. The newest research into Epigenetics seems to show that our genes can change the way they function. A regular practice of mindfulness, for example, will increase the activity of genes that have the capacity to soothe your stress reactions in the moment, ultimately making you more able to deal with stress + more resilient.

That is the neuroscience of what is happening: the gift is in giving ourselves access to the space that is created through seated mindfulness meditation. We notice a thought, and then we come back to the present moment, the space. So we don’t get caught up in this rumination that perpetuates all the illnesses, the dis-ease we are experiencing right now.

So let’s do all of these things and practice…

​If you would like to continue to read and learn more here is a short list of resources and information:

https://rightasrain.uwmedicine.org/mind/well-being/science-behind-meditation

https://www.nature.com/articles/nrn3916

https://neuro.wharton.upenn.edu/community/winss_scholar_blog2/

https://news.wisc.edu/meditation-affects-brain-networks-differently-in-long-term-meditators-and-novices/