Zen. How To Get Smarter, One Breath At A Time

Ever wish you could just wakeup one day and be smarter than you were the previous day? I'm not just talking about starting fresh, like forgetting stupid things you did the prior day and making today better. I'm talking about actually being smarter - IQ points smarter! Think it can happen? Well some scientists are finding that meditation not only reduces stress, but also reshapes the brain...actually making you smarter, one breath at a time. It's been proven that yoga helps improve the body and soul, strengthening and rejuvenating it, but now there is talk that this form of meditation also increases intelligence. You may not turn into Einstein overnight, but keep inhaling and exhaling deeply and you may find yourself with the edge over your peers...or you may just end up passing out if you don't do this right. Zen - it's beautiful.

At 4:30, when most of Wall Street is winding down, Walter Zimmermann begins a high-stakes, high-wire act conducted live before a paying audience. About 200 institutional investors shell out up to $3,000 a month to catch his daily webcast on the volatile energy markets, a performance that can move hundreds of millions of dollars. As Zimmermann clicks through dozens of screens and graphics on three computers, he's the picture of focused calm. He's not stressed to the max ready to explode at the slightest snag, instead he is at ease. There is peace within the 54-year-old Zimmermann. An inner peace that developed after watching most of his peers in energy futures burn out long ago. Burnout happens to the best of us and in this fast paced world, some will argue "who has time to breathe"? Zimmerman finds/makes the time and he swears by it, claiming it not only calms him but also makes him smarter!

He attributes his brain's enduring sharpness not to an intravenous espresso drip, but to 40 minutes of meditation each morning and evening. He says the practice helps him maintain the clarity he needs for quick, insightful analysis...even approaching happy hour. Meditation is his secret weapon. One recent study found evidence that the daily practice of meditation thickened the parts of the brain's cerebral cortex responsible for decision making, attention and memory. Preliminary results show that the gray matter of 20 men and women who meditated for just 40 minutes a day was thicker than that of people who did not. Unlike in previous studies focusing on Buddhist monks, the subjects were Boston-area workers practicing a Western-style of meditation called "mindfulness or insight meditation". It's a form of meditation that involves focusing on an image or sound or on one's breathing. Though deceptively simple, the practice seems to exercise the parts of the brain that help us pay attention.

Everyone around the water cooler knows that meditation reduces stress. However, with the aid of advanced brain scanning technology, researchers are beginning to show that meditation directly affects the function and structure of the brain, changing it in ways that appear to increase attention span, sharpen focus and improve memory. Meditation slows the natural thinning of that section of the cortex that occurs with age. In addition, meditation is also linked to preventing stress-related illness and helps regulate emotions, which in turn helps people get along. Yes, Zen can exist in this fast paced world. One of the most important domains meditation acts upon is emotional intelligence - a set of skills far more consequential for life success than cognitive intelligence. So for a New Year's resolution that can pay big dividends at home and at the office, try this: just breathe.