Meditating regularly may make 'silly mistakes' a thing of the past

If you are forgetful or make careless mistakes in a hurry, a new study suggests that meditation may be the right answer for you. Researchers at the Michigan State University tested how open-monitoring meditation altered brain activity that helps one to recognise common errors.

What is open-monitoring meditation?

Open monitoring meditation involves focusing entire awareness on the present moment rather than on mental distractions. Practitioners should accept their stray thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations without judgment. Eventually, with practice, their consciousness will achieve total awareness of their thoughts rather than just being lost in those thoughts.

More than 200 participants were recruited to test how open monitoring meditation helps people to detect and respond to errors. The participants, who had never meditated before, were taken through a 20-minute open monitoring meditation exercise while the researchers measured brain activity through EEG.

Also watch: Vikram Chandra in conversation with Headspace: Meditation and mindfulness during the pandemic

The EEG can measure brain activity at the millisecond level, and precise measures of neural activity after making an error were recorded. A certain neural signal occurred about half a second after an error was consciously recognised.

While the meditators didn't notice immediate improvements, the researchers' findings offer a promising window into the potential of sustained meditation.

Also watch: What sends Indians on the path to meditation? Survey offers some clues