The mind in screensaver mode

In a recent online course on Buddhism and Modern Psychology, we learned about the default mode network — a network of brain regions that’s active when our mind roams freely between the Past (remembering real or imagined events) and Future (through daydreaming and catastrophizing).

Researchers are confirming what meditators have realized through 2500 years of practice. Using brain imaging technology, neuroscientists can measure brain activity relevant to meditation. For instance, a team investigating brain activity in experienced meditators and matched meditation newbies, found that the main nodes of the default-mode network were relatively deactivated in experienced meditators across all meditation types (Brewer).

Similar research suggests “a fundamental neural dissociation between two distinct forms of self-awareness that are habitually integrated but can be dissociated through attentional training” (Farb). And here’s a bonus: “long-term practice of meditation may be associated with functional changes … even when meditation is not being practiced” (Jang).

As our practice matures, we learn to distinguish between past-future stuff from the default mode network and real-time data from being mindfulness. In making that distinction, we’re free to choose between dreaming about being alive and living it all, wholeheartedly. Mary Oliver writes:

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”

 ♥  Special thanks to Suzanne for the “screensaver” analogy.

Brewer, J. A., Worhunsky, P. D., Gray, J. R., Tang, Y. Y., Weber, J., & Kober, H. (2011). Meditation experience is associated with differences in default mode network activity and connectivity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(50), 20254-20259.
Farb, N. A., Segal, Z. V., Mayberg, H., Bean, J., McKeon, D., Fatima, Z., & Anderson, A. K. (2007). Attending to the present: mindfulness meditation reveals distinct neural modes of self-reference. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 2(4), 313-322.
Jang, J. H., Jung, W. H., Kang, D. H., Byun, M. S., Kwon, S. J., Choi, C. H., & Kwon, J. S. (2011). Increased default mode network connectivity associated with meditation. Neuroscience letters, 487(3), 358-362.
Oliver, M. (1992). “The Summer Day” in New and Selected Poems. Boston: Beacon Press.