So, I want to recall the most important contribution that I think I found about the truth. Meditation promotes well-being by reducing stress, depression, anxiety, blood pressure, addiction, by boosting immune systems and by improving our memory.
Forty years ago,Matthieu Ricard, a French genetic scientist left an intellectual life, moved to India and took up a study of Buddhism. He is now a western scholar of religion and he was recently claimed by brain research scientists to be the happiest man on the planet.
His daily routine of meditation made possible amazing brain scans demonstrate that if he is meditating on compassion, Ricard’s brain produces a level of gamma waves never before reported within neuroscience literature.
While his is the pinnacle of measures, you to may change your brain. You have the capacity to heal including all of your emotional confusions. If you set out to accomplish this, you can gradually increase your awareness and your inner peace by mindfulness. You can transform your brain, create new neural circuits and change the way your brain neurons more efficiently will communicate with each other.
Jon Kabat-Zinn: “Mindfulness is paying attention in the present moment in a non-judgmental way.”
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When we engage in mental training,
we change the function and structure of our brain.
In this respect, the mind is no different than the body…
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Becoming Conscious: The Science of Mindfulness
The final event of the 2013 “The Emerging Science of Consciousness Series” presented by the Nour Foundation, Wisconsin Public Radio’s nationally-syndicated program features Neuroscientists Richard Davidson and Amishi Jha joined clinical mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn to explore the role of consciousness in mental and physical health.
These experts report that we can train the mind to become more flexible and adaptable.
The entire session is included (below) in the comments section of this post.
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Now, news on studies that focus on mindfulness and our youth:
Mar. 13, 2014 — Mindfulness-based meditation could lessen some symptoms associated with cancer in teens, according to the results of a clinical trial intervention. Mindfulness-based meditation focuses on the present moment and the connection between the mind and body. Adolescents living with cancer face not only the physical symptoms of their condition, but also the anxiety and uncertainty related to the progression of the disease, the anticipation of physical and emotional pain related to illness and treatment, the significant changes implied in living with cancer, as well as the fear of recurrence after remission… full story
Mar. 15, 2013 — Secondary school students who follow an in-class mindfulness program report reduced indications of depression, anxiety and stress up to six months later. Moreover, these students were less likely to develop pronounced depression-like symptoms … full story
Sep. 1, 2010 — “Mindfulness,” the process of learning to become more aware of our ongoing experiences, increases well-being in adolescent boys, a new study reports …full story
Teaching mindfulness-based practices to parents has the potential to improve parent emotion regulation and parents’ ability to cope with the stress and emotional complexity of raising a young teenager. Levels of child negative affect rise during adolescence and there is evidence that adolescents transmit their negative affect to their parents.
[See: Collins, W. A. (1990). Parent-child relationships in the transition to adolescence: Continuity and change in interaction, affect, and cognition. In R. Montemayor, G. R. Adams, & T. P. Gullotta (Eds.), From childhood to adolescence: A transitional period (pp. 85–106). London: Sage.; AND Larson, R. W., & Richards, M. H. (1994). Family emotions: Do young adolescents and their parents experience the same states? Journal of Research on Adolescence, 4(4), 567–583.]
Bloggers, readers, meditation and mindful practice is AMAZING! Astounding!
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According to Ricard …
“In the Western world, meditation means sitting under a mango tree in a blissed out state. The prevailing idea is that you have to sit down and empty your mind. It’s not that at all. You have to clean up a bit. We have so many wandering and intrusive thoughts. So you have to be in control of your own mind. Meditation means inner freedom. Inner freedom doesn’t mean following every chain of thought. It’s like a sailor who takes the helm and decides where to sail instead of drifting with the current. If you want to generate particular state of mind, you do what it takes.”
“There was a lot of activity in his left prefrontal cortex which indicates a huge capacity for happiness; this man is very unlikely to be making negative choices about his experiences,” says Neuroscientist Richard Davidson
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“Meditation is not just blissing out under a mango tree but it completely changes your brain.”
The French genetic scientist left an intellectual life 40 years ago and moved to India to study Buddhism. He is now a western scholar of religion.
His daily routine of meditation made possible amazing brain scans that demonstrate that if he is meditating on compassion, Ricard’s brain produces a level of gamma waves never before reported within neuroscience literature.
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NOW, here begins the really amazing part 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 — It’s like we come into unifying Loving Light… after time… the brain changes (maintenance required).
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FINDINGSHis skull was wired up with 256 sensors at the University of Wisconsin and its all been recorded — he’s got a happy and joyous mind — no doubt. Scans found excess activity in his brain’s left prefrontal cortex compared to its right counterpart, giving Ricard an abnormally large capacity for happiness.
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FINDINGSA larger volume of a specific brain structure generally increases the abilities to carry out specific functions associated with that structure. This is widely accepted based on the assumption that greater numbers of neurons will produce larger outputs and therefore may be more influential than smaller numbers of neurons.
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FINDINGS Researchers in neuroscience demonstrate that the prefrontal cortex plays a responsible role in forming of expectations based on actions and social control, predicting of outcomes, future consequences of activities, working toward goals, development of abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, abilities to determine same and different and better and best. Abilities to suppress urges that may lead to socially unacceptable outcomes are developed by this area of the brain. Meditation boosts learning ability, improves brain functioning, and reduces stress!
Even people meditating for the first time will register a decrease in beta waves, a sign that the cortex is not processing information as actively as usual. After 20 minutes there is a huge decrease in beta activity — these brains are learning to be highly focused.
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Matthieu Ricard: “Compassion is not just some high-minded flaky concept that Buddhist monks and New Age hippies bandy about, it’s a very practical way to operate in a world that is incredibly stressful for just about everyone.”
FINDINGSMindfulness meditation, one type of meditation technique, has been shown to enhance emotional awareness and psychological flexibility as well as induce well-being and emotional balance. Scientists have also begun to examine how meditation may influence brain functions. This talk will examine the effect of mindfulness meditation practice on the brain systems in which psychological functions such as attention, emotional re-activity, emotion regulation, and self-view are instantiated. We will also discuss how different forms of meditation practices are being studied using neuroscientific technologies and are being integrated into clinical practice to address symptoms of anxiety, depression, and stress..
Share this one around… its time to change this world, one brain at a time… each to their own.
Let’s rid the world of social anxiety:
NOTE: Social anxiety is linked to anxiety, panic attacks, depression, psychosis (not otherwise specified), drug use, alcohol use, spontaneous violence, outbursts, character flaws, behavior problems, anger and rage; to name just a few dis-eases.
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Let’s work on it together… mindfulness is a tool for awakening mental health.
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FINDINGS Related to anxiety… this is empirical evidence… about Meditation benefits. These are FACTS: .
Personally, I am sure that practicing mindfulness meditation with some expert therapeutic guidance can speed healing of PTSD and possibly DID; maybe even NPD, BPD, and possibly even schizophrenia.
Meditation can speed recovery from grief.
It will probably heal some Anxiety NOS and episodic Depression.
Mindfulness can greatly decrease panic episodes… maybe cure it.
It can reduce Bipolar and Uni-polar disorder symptoms.
Research Demonstrating Mindfulness Stimulates Beneficial Molecular Changes …………………………………………………………
Some people level criticisms at the practice of reciting affirmations (for hours on end), saying this doesn’t [always] bring about the results that speakers and the self-improvement books may promise. It turns out that there is good reason that positive affirmation may be inadequate for making significant (manifesting) changes.
This study indicates that significant positive effects are predictably going to be found by meditators that are following mindfulness practices. In fact, the study results indicate that attaining mindfulness is key to positive beneficial results.
People that suffer from inflammatory conditions (rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and asthma) probably may benefit from mindfulness meditation techniques, according to the study.
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper that shows rapid alterations in gene expression within subjects associated with mindfulness meditation practice,” says Davidson.
This and related investigations strongly indicate that a mind will adjust the body’s biology to fit with beliefs. In short, these studies confirm the adage that you are what you think. Since people are typically conflicted, this may seem sometimes untrue. However, I’ll post additional studies in the future — it’s no longer a cliché.
The emphasis and focus of Davidson’s current work is on interactions betweenprefrontal cortexand theamygdala and on regulation of emotion in both normal subjects and patients with affective and anxiety disorders. He’s been working extensively with meditation and particularly with developing easy to use mindfulness meditation technique.
His previously successful research studies focused on cortical and subcortical substrates of emotion andaffective disorders, including depression and anxiety. His works raised clamor occasionally for two reasons. First, his tenant that happiness is a skill that just about anyone can learn causes occasional stirring amongst patient groups for those that suffer from prolonged sadness. Second, he is a friend of the 14th Dalai Lama and this set off some a protest about the validity of his research. Looking into this, I am pleased to find that his work is impeccable and that outcome results are impressive.
How may this new research evidence be useful? First, certainly, developing a practice that includes mindfulness is a positive activity. The studies demonstrate that mindfulness is linked to improved health and is useful for managing pain. Further study is warranted and its expected that continuing research may help to define how mindfulness meditation may improve outcomes for those that suffer mentally and emotionally. Additionally, new brain imaging and chemical monitoring may lead to additional findings and methods for regulating emotion and may even be useful to diminish mental health problems such as anxiety, bipolar disorder, or major depression.
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Program Description
From Life to Lab: Early Adversity, Brain Circuitry, and the Emergence of Well-Being (by Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison) with my favorite happiness guru, Matthieu Ricard in some of the discussion on emotion and on meditation; factors that generally may increase or decrease well-being, happiness, authenticity, compassion, peace, and joy. The program includes a presentation (forward to 14:00 minutes) to the 14th Dalai Lama that covers how stress and conditions of adversity or abuse effect brains and how self-regulation and brain growth may develop depending on conditions during youth. Davidson speaks briefly about a Madison, WI public school initiative that teaches mindfulness meditation to school children and the positive outcomes there.
Study reveals gene expression changes with meditation
With evidence growing that meditation can have beneficial health effects, scientists have sought to understand how these practices physically affect the body.
Study shows mindfulness training can help reduce teacher stress and burnout
Teachers who practice “mindfulness” are better able to reduce their own levels of stress and prevent burnout, according to a new study conducted by the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds (CIHM) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Waisman Center.
Brain can be trained in compassion, study shows
Until now, little was scientifically known about the human potential to cultivate compassion – the emotional state of caring for people who are suffering in a way that motivates altruistic behavior.
Documentary film portrays UW–Madison mindfulness research
MADISON – Groundbreaking research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is the focus of the new documentary film, “Free the Mind,” which debuts in Madison tomorrow, May 15.
Dalai Lama to lead ‘Change your Mind Change the World 2013’
Event organizers today announced that the Dalai Lama will visit Madison on May 15, 2013, to lead “Change your Mind Change the World 2013,” a series of panel discussions with thought leaders from a variety of fields, including neuroscience, economics and sustainability, moderated by Arianna Huffington and Daniel Goleman.
Authors: Develop digital games to improve brain function and well-being
Neuroscientists should help to develop compelling digital games that boost brain function and improve well-being, say two professors specializing in the field in a commentary article published in the science journal Nature.
Mindfulness meditation may relieve chronic inflammation
People suffering from chronic inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and asthma — in which psychological stress plays a major role — may benefit from mindfulness meditation techniques, according to a study by University of Wisconsin-Madison neuroscientists with the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center.
Educational games to train middle schoolers’ attention, empathy
Two years ago, at a meeting on science and education, Richard Davidson challenged video game manufacturers to develop games that emphasize kindness and compassion instead of violence and aggression.
In new book, leading neuroscientist describes your brain on emotion
Building on more than 30 years of cutting-edge brain research, a new book by UW–Madison psychology and psychiatry professor Richard J. Davidson offers an inside look into how emotions are coded in our brains and our power to control them.
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Pondering…
Do I live a life of faith that shows that
I know that God has a plan for me and us?
– change from within –
“This is my wonderful journey of self discovery. Love envelopes me and the gentle waves of peaceful waters and the light shine from my mind into the world around me.”
In the Western world, meditation means sitting under a mango tree in a blissed out state. The prevailing idea is that you have to sit down and empty you mind. It’s not that at all. You have to clean up a bit. We have so many wandering and intrusive thoughts. So you have to be in control of your own mind. Inner freedom doesn’t mean following every chain of thought. It’s like a sailor who takes the helm and decides where to sail instead of drifting with the current. If you want to generate particular state of mind, you do what it takes.
“Meditation is not just blissing out under a mango tree but it completely changes your brain.” The French genetic scientist left an intellectual life 40 years ago and moved to India to study Buddhism. His daily routine of meditation made possible amazing brain scans that demonstrate that if he’s meditating on compassion, Ricard’s brain produces a level of gamma waves never before ever reported within neuroscience literature. NOTE: gamma brain wave production is associated with consciousness, attention, learning and memory.
His skull was wired up with 256 sensors at the University of Wisconsin and its all been recorded — he’s got a happy and joyous mind — no doubt. Scans found excess activity in his brain’s left prefrontal cortex compared to its right counterpart, giving Ricard an abnormally large capacity for happiness.
.
.
A larger volume of a specific brain structure generally increases the abilities to carry out specific functions associated with that structure. This is widely accepted based on the assumption that greater numbers of neurons will produce larger outputs and therefore may be more influential than smaller numbers of neurons.
Researchers in neuroscience demonstrate that the prefrontal cortex plays a responsible role in forming of expectations based on actions and social control, predicting of outcomes, future consequences of activities, working toward goals, development of abilities to differentiate among conflicting thoughts, abilities to determine same and different and better and best. Abilities to suppress urges that may lead to socially unacceptable outcomes are developed by this area of the brain.
Eric
the Hunt for Truth 