“The human brain has 100 billion neurons, each neuron connected to 10 thousand other neurons. Sitting on your shoulders is the most complicated object in the known universe.” ~ Michio Kaku

When we were young, our parents made us brush our teeth. But it wasn’t until we understood cavities, fillings, and the cost associated with dental work that the toothbrush was seen as a tool rather than a burden.
Understanding provides the prologue to our actions. Mindfulness and meditation can be practiced in a mindless way. The true value of mindfulness practice is realized when we understand the mechanism as well as the method.
In this article I will attempt to provide a rudimentary explanation of the scientific basis for mindfulness practice.
I am a fourth year medical student specializing in psychiatry. The psychiatric and neurologic information I provide in this article will be oversimplified at times and overgeneralized at other times. The medical professional must forgive these indiscretions because the true complexity of the brain renders it a poor tool for self-understanding.
In reality, the brain is a highly complex and redundant circuit. There is not a one-to-one relationship between anatomical focus and function. It is more accurate to say that many anatomical locations are involved in any single function. For the sake of our discussion, a simplistic model will suffice. For those interested in reading a more complete description of the brain, I have included a reference list at the end of the post.