THE DEFAULT NETWORK AND MEDITATION
The “resting” brain, they found, is not really at rest. Brain scientists found that there is a brain network that is active pretty much all the time, even when we are not doing anything. Since it is activated by default, they call this “The Default Mode network” or default network. The default network is a background of thoughts about yourself and others. This default network is the source of all these thoughts that seem to flood your mind. If you look closely at these thoughts you will notice that they are all self‐referential in some way – they are all really about you.
I said before that the default network is active ALMOST all the time. One time it quiets down is when you meditate. When you focus on body sensation like the feel of your breath coming in and going out, the default network stops and another network that they call “the direct experience network” takes over. It may be that a reason meditation is calming is that the default network shuts down, and it is kind of like you are on vacation, vacation from all the noise of your mind.
Mindfulness, specifically watching your breath and the feel of your breath, shuts down your default mind, so you can rest from it for a while. And start to see what is behind all the noise made by what Buddhist call “the monkey mind.”
Now onto our meditations …
10 MINUTE GUIDED BODY SCAN MEDITATION FROM THE MEDITATION COACH