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Meditation is the practice of focused concentration,  by using a set of techniques that are intended to encourage a heightened state of awareness and focused attention 

 Mindfulness and meditation have long been known as an antidote for anxiety. However, the brain mechanisms involved in meditation-related anxiety relief were unknown. To isolate the brain mechanisms behind mindfulness training the researchers at Wake Forest Baptist employed pulsed arterial spin labeling MRI to compare the effects of distraction in the form of “Attending to the Breath” (ATB) before meditation training and to mindfulness meditation (after meditation training) on the state of anxiety in test subjects.

For the study, the researchers recruited fifteen healthy volunteers with normal levels of everyday anxiety. These individuals had no previous meditation experience or known anxiety disorders. All subjects participated in four 20-minute classes to learn a technique known as mindfulness meditation. In this form of meditation, people are taught to focus on breath and body sensations and to non-judgmentally evaluate distracting thoughts and emotions.

Anxiety was significantly reduced in every session that subjects meditated. Brain imaging found that meditation-related anxiety relief was associated with activation of the anterior cingulate cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and anterior insula. These areas of the brain are involved with executive function and the control of worrying. Meditation-related activation of these three regions was directly linked to anxiety relief.

Activation of the anterior cingulate cortex—the area that governs thinking and emotion—is the primary region believed to influence a decrease in anxiety. These findings provide evidence that mindfulness meditation attenuates anxiety through mechanisms involved in the regulation of self-referential thought processes. Subjects who exhibited a greater default-related activity (i.e. posterior cingulate cortex) reported greater anxiety, possibly reflecting an inability to control self-referential thoughts.

Interestingly, previous studies on altruism have found that the anterior insular cortex, is the activity center of human empathy

 A key aspect of meditation is to learn to settle your mindful awareness on one single thing. This might be your breath, the flame of a candle, a repeated word (chant or mantra), physical sensations, or other focal points. The breath is the most common and widely practiced object of meditation. The biggest misconception is that you have to make your mind blank, you do NOT need to make your mind blank. It is all about being aware of  your thoughts, acknowledging them and re-focusing on your breath!

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