I at first believed that a still mind is absolutely silent and devoid of everything and anything. I eventually came to accept that a silent mind is alert to surroundings. A silent mind is devoid of judging, clinging, rejecting, comparing. The silent mind is free from hatred, anger, jealousy, confusion and conflict. I began to understand in time that stillness of mind refers to inner peace and serenity and that there may be thoughts of love and kindness or other positive thoughts that do not at all detract from the stillness of connectivity. What I want in fact is connectivity. Being devoid of everything and anything is not the point of stillness at all. The point is connection to everything that is loving.
Mindfulness training improves attention in children .
British Psychological Society (BPS)
Science-Daily
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A short training course in mindfulness improves children’s ability to ignore distractions and concentrate better.
These are the findings of a study carried out by Dominic Crehan and Dr Michelle Ellefson at the University of Cambridge being presented today, 6 September 2013, at the British Psychological Society’s Cognitive Developmental Psychology Annual Conference at the University of Reading.
Dominic explained: “Mindfulness involves paying attention in a particular way — on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally. It has been shown to reduce levels of stress and depression, and to improve feelings of well-being, but to date researchers have not established a link between mindfulness and attention skills in children.”
The researchers recruited thirty children (girls and boys aged 10 to 11 years old) to take part in a mindfulness course as part of their school curriculum. The children took part in the mindfulness course in two groups at different times, and so the researchers were able to compare the groups and see the effects of the course. To do this, they measured the children’s levels of mindfulness using a questionnaire. They also measured their attention skills, using a computer game designed specifically for this purpose. They made these measurements on three occasions, at three month intervals, so that they could measure changes in attention skills over time as a result of the mindfulness course.
The results indicated that an improvement in the children’s ability to focus and deal with distractions was associated with the mindfulness course.
Dominic said: “The ability to pay attention in class is crucial for success at school. Mindfulness appears to have an effect after only a short training course, which the children thoroughly enjoyed! Through their training, the children actually learn to watch their minds working and learn to control their attention. These findings could be particularly important for helping children with attention difficulties such as ADHD. Further research on the effects of mindfulness on children’s attention is very much needed.”
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.
Science News A short training course in mindfulness improves children’s ability to ignore distractions and concentrate better.
These are the findings of a study carried out by Dominic Crehan and Dr Michelle Ellefson at the University of Cambridge being presented today, 6 September 2013, at the British Psychological Society’s Cognitive Developmental Psychology Annual Conference at the University of Reading.
Dominic explained: “Mindfulness involves paying attention in a particular way — on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally. It has been shown to reduce levels of stress and depression, and to improve feelings of well-being, but to date researchers have not established a link between mindfulness and attention skills in children.”
The researchers recruited thirty children (girls and boys aged 10 to 11 years old) to take part in a mindfulness course as part of their school curriculum. The children took part in the mindfulness course in two groups at different times, and so the researchers were able to compare the groups and see the effects of the course. To do this, they measured the children’s levels of mindfulness using a questionnaire. They also measured their attention skills, using a computer game designed specifically for this purpose. They made these measurements on three occasions, at three month intervals, so that they could measure changes in attention skills over time as a result of the mindfulness course.
The results indicated that an improvement in the children’s ability to focus and deal with distractions was associated with the mindfulness course.
Dominic said: “The ability to pay attention in class is crucial for success at school. Mindfulness appears to have an effect after only a short training course, which the children thoroughly enjoyed! Through their training, the children actually learn to watch their minds working and learn to control their attention. These findings could be particularly important for helping children with attention difficulties such as ADHD. Further research on the effects of mindfulness on children’s attention is very much needed.”
“Get out of your head and into the moment.”
~ Eckhart Tolle
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This post is from work
by Eckhart Tolle
“The past has no power over the present moment.”
What does this mean?
Observe Your Mind Do you complain about yourself, for example, how useless you are? When you hear in your mind repetitive thoughts, you may realize, “I’ve been thinking these same thoughts again and again (almost every day lately) without really knowing it.” Allowing futile regrets, hurts and resentments, bitterness and frustrations to dominate the present moment closes us off from living enjoyably. The repetition of negative thoughts destroy joy, happiness, peace of mind — serenity. We need to stop harming ourselves.
Distinguish Between the Voice of Ego and the Actual Situation Becoming free of destructive ego thoughts comes by way of a dawning of new awareness, first of the happening of this and next by taking action that is freeing. It is in these moments that you realize that your thoughts — and the negative emotions they produce — are dysfunctional. They are unnecessary. You were irritated by what your ego-mind began telling you about a situation. Perhaps instead, you could actually be enjoying that moment. This is the dawning of a new awareness.
Let Go of Limiting Stories We devise and cling on to fairy tales of supposed happiness. We hold on also to futile regrets. Its time to let go and to focus instead on what is actually happening; without judgment.
Bring In Your Awareness When you see the difference between your voice and the reality of the situation, that’s the moment of awakening. Recognizing that the torturous thinking is unnecessary is freeing of itself.
Lay Down Your Defenses Your challenge will be to become more aligned internally with the present moment and of making choices of neutrality in the present moment. Fighting with your ego by self-will just makes the ego stronger. Surrender to being present. Coming into enjoyment will follow from this with practice. Take time in the morning and at night before retiring to enjoy some freedom from the ego mind.
The following are helpful recordings and lessons by Eckhart Tolle.
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Eckhart Tolle – Silence and Stillness from ‘Stillness Speaks’ by Eckhart Tolle Stillness is your essential nature. What is stillness? The inner space or awareness in which the words on this page are being perceived and become thoughts. Without that awareness, there would be no perception, no thoughts, no world. You are that awareness, disguised as a person. When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world. Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am that is deeper than name and form.
The equivalent of external noise is the inner noise of thinking. The equivalent of external silence is inner stillness. Whenever there is some silence around you — listen to it. That means just notice it. Pay attention to it. Listening to silence awakens the dimension of stillness within yourself, because it is only through stillness that you can be aware of silence. See that in the moment of noticing the silence around you, you are not thinking. You are aware, but not thinking.
When you become aware of silence, immediately there is that state of inner still alertness. You are present. You have stepped out of thousands of years of collective human conditioning.
Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.
When you look at a tree and perceive its stillness, you become still yourself. You connect with it at a very deep level. You feel a oneness with whatever you perceive in and through stillness. Feeling the oneness of yourself with all things is true love.
Silence is helpful, but you don’t need it in order to find stillness. Even when there is noise, you can be aware of the stillness underneath the noise, of the space in which the noise arises. That is the inner space of pure awareness, consciousness itself.
You can become aware of awareness as the background to all your sense perceptions, all your thinking. Becoming aware of awareness is the arising of inner stillness.
Any disturbing noise can be as helpful as silence. How? By dropping your inner resistance to the noise, by allowing it to be as it is, this acceptance also takes you into that realm of inner peace that is stillness.
Whenever you deeply accept this moment as it is — no matter what form it takes — you are still, you are at peace.
Pay attention to the gap — the gap between two thoughts, the brief, silent space between words in a conversation, between the notes of a piano or flute, or the gap between the in-breath and out-breath.
When you pay attention to those gaps, awareness of “something” becomes — just awareness. The formless dimension of pure consciousness arises from within you and replaces identification with form.
True intelligence operates silently. Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found.
Is stillness just the absence of noise and content? No, it is intelligence itself — the underlying consciousness out of which every form is born. And how could that be separate from who you are? The form that you think you are came out of that and is being sustained by it.
It is the essence of all galaxies and blades of grass; of all flowers, trees, birds, and all other forms.
Stillness is the only thing in this world that has no form. But then, it is not really a thing, and it is not of this world.
When you look at a tree or a human being in stillness, who is looking? Something deeper than the person. Consciousness is looking at its creation.
In the Bible, it says that God created the world and saw that it was good. That is what you are to see when you look from stillness without thought.
Do you need more knowledge? Is more information going to save the world, or faster computers, more scientific or intellectual analysis? Is it not wisdom that humanity needs most at this time?
But what is wisdom and where is it to be found? Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. The truth will come to you as needed. No more effort is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let this stillness direct your words and actions. You will grow in this wisdom in time. It will be with you and you will be enjoyment.
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Eric
These are the findings of a study carried out by Dominic Crehan and Dr Michelle Ellefson at the University of Cambridge being presented today, 6 September 2013, at the British Psychological Society’s Cognitive Developmental Psychology Annual Conference at the University of Reading.
the Hunt for Truth 