Neuroscience research has demonstrated that, contrary to prior belief, our brains remain "neuroplastic" or changeable, throughout our lives. A growing number of randomized controlled brain imaging studies have shown that mindfulness meditation significantly alters brain structure and function, thereby improving attention, self-awareness, and rationality while simultaneously reducing anxiety, worry, and hostility (Davidson, 2003, 2008; Lazar 2010). While the changes are more pronounced in long term meditators, even short mindfulness trainings have shown to improve performance (Holzel, 2011).

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Research has also found regular meditation to slow age-related thinning of the brain such that 50-year old meditators had the same amount of gray matter as 25-year olds in a region of the prefrontal cortex associated with planning and decision making (Lazar, 2005). 

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