as people continue to meditate over several years, these positive changes alter the physical structure of the brain itself.7 The emotional thermostat is fundamentally reset—for the better. Given time, this means that you’re more likely to feel happy, rather than sad, increasingly likely to live with ease, rather than be angry or aggressive, and be energized, rather than tired and listless. This change in the brain’s circuitry is most pronounced in a part of the brain’s surface known as the insula, which controls many of the features that we regard as central to our humanity (see the next box,
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