A new study to be published in the journal NeuroImage found that the brains of long-term meditators at age 50 were 7.5 years younger than the brains of a non-meditating control group, which suggests that meditation may be helpful for keeping our brains younger. Computer imaging and machine learning were used to make the comparisons.

The study found that after the age of 50, for every year that a non-meditator’s brain ages, a meditator’s brain only ages about 10 months and 8 days. That allows plenty of extra time each year for meditation practice.

I’ve been meditating semi-regularly for more than 25 years, including 30 minutes of mindfulness meditation this morning. It’s nice to know that my brain may be aging more slowly because of this basic habit.