Attention and rhythm in Mindfulness

4 min readFeb 24, 2021

Welcome back to our StudyStream blog where we discuss topics in the field of mental health, mindfulness and wellbeing. In the past few blogs, we have discussed the background and the how-to of meditation, as well as some of the common experiences people have when meditating. Today, we start our new series of blogs in a “Mechanisms of Mindfulness” mini-series, where we will discuss the evidence for ‘why’ mindfulness may produce some of the effects that it does.

The blog series will cover evidence for both physical effects on the brain and body as well as psychological effects. We will try to cover the main bodies of knowledge in this area in a general sense but then link to scientific resources if you would like to read further. Also, like in any scientific area, mindfulness research is open to critique and criticism, so we will also try to cover some of this critique and areas for future improvement.

To begin this blog, we will start with the evidence for improving attention and its potential flow on effects for different ‘rhythms’ in our body. Let’s begin!

Attention and Rhythm

To begin, practicing meditation has been shown to improve attention — which is not surprising given that that is one of the primary methods of instruction. In fact, attention can be thought about in lots of different ways — like the stability of attention, the ability to control attention, and the efficacy (effectiveness) of attention. Mindfulness practice has been found to improve all three qualities of attention in various psychological experiments.

Developing a stability of attention

This improved stability of attention is one mechanism that researchers believe could be the conduit for some of the improvements people notice in their lives. One key inspiration for researchers is the Dunedin study from New Zealand, which showed that one of the best predictors for lifetime outcomes in children and young people was their degree of self control, which included their degree of attention control. In this way, researchers hope that mindfulness can be a powerful way to self regulate and develop a stability of attention which can then influence other areas of people’s life accordingly.

What can we do with this?

Could it be this stability of attention which is also the primary influence for the other effects in the body? Perhaps training the attention in this way can even produce effects in the flow and exchange of information through the brain.

When the brainwave hits…

You might not know that the brain transmits waves of electricity (called brainwaves!) as part of its functioning, that can be measured by scientists. Different types of brainwaves are associated with different types of brain functions, and similarly different brainwaves are located (or created) in different parts of the brain. Meditation has been shown to increase and change different types of brainwaves — for example, one type of brainwave, called ‘alpha’ waves, has been shown to increase. Alpha waves are associated or involved in attention and memory — so it’s not surprising, again, that with the findings of improved attention above, there are also findings in the corresponding brainwaves. Other brainwaves that have been shown to change are those involved with ‘positive’ emotions and motivation. Mindfulness can also produce more ‘gamma’ brain waves, which are the types of brain waves produced during intense focus, concentration and absorption.

The cycles developed in sync with time itself

Our body operates on a highly intricate and complex system of rhythms and cycles. Different hormones, chemicals and neurotransmitters have natural cycles in their release during the day and night. The different levels and interaction of these substances help to produce the natural functions of our body, like our sleep and wake cycle. Incredibly, the way our bodies develop these timings goes way back to when we were infants in our mother’s womb — the timing of our mother’s heart beat, temperature and sleep wake cycle helps set our own in built timing mechanism.

Syncing up with our body’s natural rhythms

Could meditation, through stabilising and refining our attention, help to better adjust and fine tune our body’s natural rhythms, which in turn can help influence and adjust the flow and cycle of other chemicals, hormones and transmitters all throughout our body? It’s not unusual for meditators to report a sense of deep inner calm, peace and ‘flow’. Maybe this is our phenomenological experience of the changes to the brain waves and other rhythms which are occurring.

So?

Perhaps the natural rhythm of our own breathing, when we pay attention to it over and over again, can influence and begin to regulate our own internal physical processes, bringing them back to a more ‘normal’, natural resting state and rhythm.

Or maybe we could create new states altogether.

That’s all for this week’s blog — tune in next week when we will cover more about the mechanisms of mindfulness. And don’t forget to join us in the StudyStream library every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 19:30BST for live and free mindfulness sessions with expert teachers.

You can check out links to some of the articles mentioned below:

Attention and rhythm in Mindfulness

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