This site is my personal exploration of the science behind contemplative practices.

I’m a lay meditation practitioner with a background in science, and I started this project out of a desire to understand what actually happens in the brain during meditation. Initially, I was mostly interested in the neurological signatures of different meditative states—gamma waves, insula activation, brain network shifts—but as I read more, my curiosity broadened. I became interested in how contemplative practices shape cognition, emotion, sleep, health, and even aging.

Now, this site covers a wide range of peer-reviewed studies on meditation. My goal is to make this research accessible without dumbing it down, preserving the nuance while stripping away the jargon. If you’re someone who finds meaning in both mindfulness and empirical evidence, I hope you’ll feel at home here.

If you’re curious about who I am beyond this project, you can learn more on my personal site.

What Is Covered on This Website?

Contemplative neuroscience is a young and interdisciplinary field that asks an old question in a new way: what happens when we sit down, close our eyes, and turn inward? It draws from many areas of research to explore the effects of meditation, mindfulness, and other contemplative practices on the mind, brain, and body.

Some of the areas this site explores include:

• Psychology – How contemplative practice shapes emotion regulation, attention, and behavior.
• Cognitive Neuroscience – The neural mechanisms underlying focus, awareness, and mental flexibility.
• Clinical Applications – How meditation is used in treating anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and more.
• Physiology and Health – Changes in inflammation, immune function, and cellular aging.
• Development and Lifespan – How these practices affect people differently across stages of life.
• Cultural Context – The philosophical and traditional frameworks that inform meditative practices.

The research here ranges from studies on how mindfulness improves working memory to investigations of how meditation influences inflammatory markers or telomerase activity. Some studies are clinical trials, some are neuroimaging experiments, and some are theoretical—but all offer pieces of the same puzzle: how contemplative practices change us.