mindfulness: a state of non-distraction

25 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by Hunt 4 Truth in Consciousness, Culture, Happiness, Health, I can improve today, Inner peace, Inspiration, Lessons, Meditation, Mindful, News update, Science, Self-improvement, Spirituality

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attention, B4Peace, cognitive ability, Dawa Tarchin Phillips, embrace silence, forgive, Forgiveness, free mindfulness exercises, Jonathan Schooler, life is beautiful, Love without resentment, Meditation Changes Brains, Memory, Michael Mrazek, Michael S. Franklin, Mind-wandering, Mindfulness, mindfulness training, morning Meditation, reading, reading comprehension, ScienceDaily, Success and Inner Peace, task focus, working memory, working memory capacity

Mindfulness improves reading ability,
.
working memory, and task-focus

If you think your inability to concentrate is a hopeless condition, think again — and breathe, and focus. According to a new study, as little as two weeks of mindfulness training can significantly improve one’s reading comprehension, working memory capacity, and ability to focus. (source)

Findings were recently published online in the empirical psychology journal Psychological Science.

Michael Mrazek, author of the paper:

“What surprised me the most was actually the clarity of the results. Mindfulness Training Improves Working Memory Capacity and GRE Performance While Reducing Mind Wandering.” “Even with a rigorous design and effective training program, it wouldn’t be unusual to find mixed results. But we found reduced mind-wandering in every way we measured it.“

To investigate whether mindfulness training can reduce mind-wandering and thereby improve performance, the scientists randomly assigned 48 undergraduate students to either a class that taught the practice of mindfulness or a class that covered fundamental topics in nutrition. Both classes were taught by professionals with extensive teaching experience in their fields. Within a week before the classes, the students were given two tests: a modified verbal reasoning test from the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) and a working memory capacity (WMC) test. Mind-wandering during both tests was also measured.

The mindfulness classes provided a conceptual introduction along with practical instruction on how to practice mindfulness in both targeted exercises and daily life. Meanwhile, the nutrition class taught nutrition science and strategies for healthy eating, and required students to log their daily food intake.

Within a week after the classes ended, the students were tested again. Their scores indicated that the mindfulness group significantly improved on both the verbal GRE test and the working memory capacity test. They also mind-wandered less during testing. None of these changes were true of the nutrition group.

Mrazek:

“This is the most complete and rigorous demonstration that mindfulness can reduce mind-wandering, one of the clearest demonstrations that mindfulness can improve working memory and reading, and the first study to tie all this together to show that mind-wandering mediates the improvements in performance.“

He added that the research establishes with greater certainty that some cognitive abilities often seen as immutable, such as working memory capacity, can be improved through mindfulness training.

Mrazek and the rest of the research team –– which includes Michael S. Franklin, project scientist; mindfulness teacher and research specialist Dawa Tarchin Phillips; graduate student Benjamin Baird; and senior investigator Jonathan Schooler, professor of psychological and brain sciences –– are extending their work by investigating whether similar results can be achieved with younger populations, or with web-based mindfulness interventions. They are also examining whether or not the benefits of mindfulness can be compounded by a program of personal development that also targets nutrition, exercise, sleep, and personal relationships.

For more information on the mindfulness training program,
contact Dawa Tarchin Phillips
(805) 680-3988 or phillips@psych.ucsb.edu

University of California – Santa Barbara. “Mindfulness improves reading ability, working memory, and task-focus.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26 March 2013. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130326133339.htm>.

see also:

Meditation Changes Brains
Gamma brain wave production is associated with consciousness, attention, learning and memory. We want to train our brains to increase peace and serenity and this changes the brain.

Embrace Silence
Instead of rationalizing and asking your friends and family what to do without being you, just be you. Relax your mind. Open up the small spaces between your thoughts to silence.

Thanks for visiting.

Eric

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Mar 25, 2014 .

do memories unlock or lock consciousness?

27 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by Hunt 4 Truth in Consciousness, Happiness, Health, Memory, Philosophy, Science, Spirituality

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consciousness, Emotion, Energy, false memory, heal, Memory, mind, philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Physics, psychology, therapy, Thought, Time

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

remembering changes memories…

I’m working on this and on how consciousness works. Don’t miss it.

Memories are powerful — but they change… so, I set out to learn all there is to know. This will take considerable time; meantime, I’m reporting as I go. I’ve uncovered some rewarding findings including why telling another person about your anger, fear, even a phobia is part of a powerful healing technique.

____

awakening a new future

Recalled memories are reconstructions of events, situations, thoughts, ideas, and so on. Memories are not an actual record of what happened. Additionally, your own experience tells you that memories need not even be at all accurate. In some cases though, we “think” a memory is accurate and yet find out sometime later that this is not true. It proves out to be that exploring of memories is a way to heal. There is a reason of the physical laws of the universe for this is what eventually that I’ll explore.

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There may be an image copyright

In fact, taking this just a bit further, you’ll realize that reviewing a memory creates a new memory… the very act of remembering changes memories; in treatment, perhaps substantially. My friend; so, a past memory is REALLY a memory of a memory. So, what about creating memories? Well, I’ve been experimenting with something that ties in. In fact, during meditation, I sometimes review past memories; even of events and times that I’d prefer to forget. It turns out that if I concentrate on what I did and only what I was feeling during the event, I can actually take it out of the mental/emotional baggage area and by doing a positive review with the person or with a substitute if need be, I can choose to handle future situations differently and even take the sting out of my shameful self or victim memories and even for others too. Its truly amazing that I can heal of the emotional past.

Yes, it seems that the mind’s ability includes being able to heal past hurts and past mistakes. So, in effect, the future came reach back to change the past. Now, actually according to quantum physics, the Newtonian sense that cause and effect move only toward a future end point, in reality, perhaps the points in between a cause and effect sequence of events may in fact be uncertain. In fact, modern physics supports that anything can come from nothing and that time is based on units that are infinitesimally small (see planck time). Because particles can physically occupy alternate realities, there is possibly something to the experience that is similar to miraculous. I’ll get back to this in a future post and that in effect will change this experience (memory).

Back to this post… the set right-minded idea isn’t to hide the truth. That’s what we tend to do with painful situations — hide it or suffer and so, hide it generally. That is in ways the other side of mind’s strength and yet its a tremendous weakness if without the important review process. In cases where I’d like to heal, hiding memories isn’t a good thing… it preserves the fear and the inner hurts too. The hiding drains energy — matter is compressed energy and matter requires tremendous amounts of energy. Think about this:

Going over hurts and feelings is potentially a positive force for change. Again, its too much for this one post, so, I’ll return to this also in the future.

Now, what really happened is important. However, when I say really, I do mean exactly that. What did I really feel and therefore think and do? Is the truth in there? With it is my feelings, my reason and there is in where the problem lies… LIES to me. It turns out that my thoughts directed me… and it occurs upon review of a past event that there were many possible thoughts that I might have had. When I select to review past situations as purely an observer, many alternate realities become available sometimes.

As an example, most can relate to loss of control occasionally. Years ago, I yelled at my Dad and it turned out badly. I wasn’t really listening and I made assumptions. I thought I had a valid reason to yell at my Dad — turns out I was wrong to yell at him; and therefore, I needed to deal with what Dad did and the memory of my anger separately. Once I’d seen this, it was easy enough to change my thinking and see that two wrongs didn’t make either of us right. I went to my Dad and confessed that I had lost control and that it was wrong to get mad at him. He thought he was trying to help me. So, he’d been feeling that I was ungrateful and rebellious and selfish. Dad died about five years later. Meantime, I was free during all of that time to enjoy him and he to enjoy me. What if I hadn’t gone to him to discuss my outburst? Was that pre-determined or was it because of my conscience that we were saved from the bitter separation from each other?

Memories are important; but reviewing memories of failures and of loss of control is essential to making progress towards a peaceful and joyful life.

Memories are stored in a region of the brain called the hippocampus, shown in red on this illustration. (Photo Researchers, Inc.)