Meditation also reduces the amygdala, the part of the brain associated with stress and anxiety.
There is an inverse relationship between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. The bigger the amygdala becomes the smaller the prefrontal cortex becomes.
People who cause a person stress and anxiety whether its a person who is engaged in repeated harassment or a person one is in a bad relationship with or whatever are working to increase the size of the amygdala. And due to this those sorts of people are working to reduce the size of the prefrontal cortex.
So the prefrontal cortex is also related to judgement and decision-making. Anything from choosing friend to choosing food to choosing what to do with ones life… etc…. any sort of choice.
So basically people who are a repeated source of stress for oneself are actually sabotaging ones ability to make good decisions by causing the amygdala to grow and the prefrontal cortex to shrink.
And so if you look at people who are in a relationship whether its with family members or people at school or with a romantic partner or some extra curricular activity or even if its police harassment… if someone is in a situation where they are being verbally abused or harassed by anyone their ability to make proper judgements is being under attack.
This is why if you look at the people who have become drug addicts many of them have a history of being verbally abused over an extended period of time.
Verbal abuse could even be said to cause brain damage. This is why bullying is a serious issue. People who speak words of anger at another person on a regular basis are basically attacking their brain and people have died as a result of activities set in motion by poor judgement that was caused by verbal abuse.
Words can kill.