contemplative… practices

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contemplative, embrace silence, forgive, Forgiveness, God, life is beautiful, Love without resentment, Meditation Changes Brains, Mind-wandering, Mindfulness, mindfulness training, morning Meditation, Religion and Spirituality, Spiritual awakening, Success and Inner Peace

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Contemplative practices are counter-cultural. Broadly defined, contemplative practices, are more than the stereotype of prayer of a religious nature or meditation within an eastern tradition. Contemplative mind-body practices cultivate a focus on experiences, ideas or situations that act to remind us to connect to what we find most meaningful.

Contemplative practices are widely varied. I included an illustration below from the center for Contemplative Mind in Society that visually expands contemplative practices; for instance: various forms of meditation; focused thinking or brainstorming; time out in nature; writing; performing in the arts; contemplative movement in active, physical practices like yoga or tai chi; and silent practices like mindfulness and prayer of course.

Some people find that rituals rooted in a religious or cultural tradition sooth their soul. Not all practices are done in solitude. Groups and communities engage in practices that support reflection in a social context.

We may each benefit by a contemplative practice.

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The Tree of Contemplative Practices

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Click to enlarge: The Tree of Contemplative Practices

© the center for Contemplative Mind in Society
Concept and design by Maia Duerr
Illustration by Carrie Bergman

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From the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society…

Historically, contemplative practice has been taught by the world’s spiritual traditions. However, in the last three decades, the fields of psychology, medicine, and education have recognized that contemplative practice can contribute to well-being and maturation. As a result, health professionals and educators have been teaching contemplative practices in ‘non-religious forms’ that can be used as a resource for resilience by agnostics and atheists, as well as by people with a spiritual or religious worldview.

There are two major types of contemplative practice:

• Contemplation of behavior: When stressed out, angry, or afraid, we tend to become reactive. In such moments, we often act impulsively, in ways that harm ourselves or others. Contemplative practice teaches us to examine and change these destructive forms of behavior.
• Elevation of awareness: The stress of daily life is like a sticky spider’s web. It ensnares us. It prevents us from experiencing the beauty that surrounds us, our capacity for love and compassion, and the presence of a transcendent dimension in life. Through meditation, prayer, the arts, and observation of the natural world (and many other techniques), contemplative practice can help us restore our ability to rise above our anxieties, and to perceive life’s mystery and beauty.

The links below offer some examples of contemplative practices:

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Activist	Relational
Creative	Movement
Generative	Cyclical
Stillness	Ritual

The roots of the tree encompass and transcend differences in the
religious traditions from which many of the practices originated.

see also: The Tree of Contemplative Practices

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Additionally… here is a short program of eastern contemplative Christian practices:

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Program Description
An in depth dialogue on the teachings of early Christianity and the spirituality of eastern Orthodoxy, still little known in the West. A rare source of mystical wisdom.

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Thanks for visiting.

 Eric

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mindfulness: a state of non-distraction

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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

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

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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)

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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.

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

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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>.

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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.

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Thanks for visiting.

 Eric

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Need help or want to collaborate with me?
Just e-mail me at thehunt4truth@yahoo.com

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Mar 25, 2014 .

momentary happiness please… Ted Talk

Tags

awareness, consciousness, coping, Depression (mood), happiness, Health, Killingsworth, Matt Killingsworth, Mind-wandering

Matt Killingsworth on…

Want to be happier?
Stay in the moment! 

When are humans most happy? To gather data on this question, Matt Killingsworth let people report their feelings in real time.

Among the surprising results: We’re often happiest when we’re lost in the moment. And the flip side: The more our mind wanders, the less happy we can be.

While doing his PhD research with Dan Gilbert at Harvard, Killingsworth invented a nifty tool for investigating happiness: an iPhone app called Track Your Happiness that captured feelings in real time. Basically, it pings you at random times and asks: How are you feeling right now, and what are you doing?

Data captured from the study is noted in the landmark paper “A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind” (PDF).

So, is it possible that even if my mind is upset, by getting into the present, I stand a better chance of finding more happiness? The cause comes before the effect — unhappiness tends to occur after mind wandering — so, its possibly a cause of unhappiness.

“What we’re doing, who we’re with, what we’re thinking about, have a big influence on our happiness. Yet they’re the very factors that have been [difficult] for scientists to study.” — Matt Killingsworth

The most reliable method for investigating real-world emotion is experience sampling. Do your own mindfulness monitoring — let me know if you end up being happier please — I truly hope this video, article, and PDF report is helpful.

I published several related articles here:

• • • • • meditation changes brains
        • is the brain spirituality wired?
        • change from within
        • morning Meditation
        • mindfulness and prayerful healing
        • heart coherence?
        • listen with compassion
        • what is the happiest person in the world saying?

Thanks for visiting.
Come back often — there is lots more to learn.

 Eric

Related articles

• Want to be happier? Stay in the moment (ritholtz.com)
• Silver Lining of a mind in the clouds (mindblog.dericbownds.net)
• The power of daydreams: 4 studies on the surprising science of mind-wandering (ted.com)
• 13 TED Talks to cheer you up on a bad day (ted.com)
• How To Get Happy RIGHT NOW: 7 Quick Ways To Feel Better (businessinsider.com)
• The Power of the Mind (rosemarylambert.com)

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