Sunday, October 23, 2022 | Special Advertising Section 1 R 6 For years off and on I tried to sit on a cushion and meditate on my breath, bringing in light and exhaling darkness for 30 minutes as I’d been taught in a class. I kept trying and failing to keep focused for more than five or 10 minutes, giving up after a few days or weeks, and then eventually trying again. It wasn’t until I was well over 50 years old that I realized there’s no right or wrong way to meditate. “There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to reaping the benefits of meditation,” says Nancy Isenberg, M.D., MPH, a neurologist at Swedish Center for Healthy Aging. “Some people find sitting meditation and breath awareness practices helpful while others are more drawn to walking or sound meditation. Like exercise, which takes time to build stamina, meditation takes practice to cultivate focused attention.” According to Isenberg, as we age it’s more effort to pay attention and we can more easily become distracted by everything from our phones to being lost in thought. Meditation helps strengthen connections in brain networks important for concentration, flexibility and emotion regulation. “Thanks to neuroplasticity,” Isenberg says, “the science demonstrates that over time these practices change activation and connectivity in key brain networks to improve attention and emotional balance to help keep older adults mentally alert and overall happier.” The potential benefits of meditation “You know you’re doing the wrong practice if it’s making you too tight and twisted,” says Tuere Sala, a guide at Seattle Insight Meditation Society. “The point of meditation is to relax the mind and allow for either simply letting go of stress and negative thoughts or investigating those thoughts instead of identifying with them.” What kind of meditation is best for you? When choosing a mediation practice, the best place to start is asking yourself why you want to meditate. For me, it was about getting off the gerbil wheel of thoughts cconstantly spinning in my mind that made it hard to focus. These !"#$%&"'()*+(,+"+-&).($-(/+0&)1)&"'(2+34&2+.( -&"0&"'()*+(2&'*)(-&)(5(1"0(67+")%($-(6218)&8+ !"#$%&%$'( By Jennifer Haupt Special to Aging Well GETTY IMAGES AgingWell !"#$%& '("%&$(
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