Schools combine meditation and brain science to help combat discipline problems
Shaina Cavazos, Chalkbeat Indiana: It was the Friday morning before spring break, and Deanna Nibarger’s fifth-graders were noisily chatting and enjoying their breakfast of milk, granola bars and...
View ArticleThe surprising benefits of compassion meditation
Stacey Colino, USNews: In recent years, mindfulness meditation has garnered loads of attention for its beneficial effects on the body and mind. Now, there’s a new star on the block: compassion...
View ArticleMindfulness meditation trumps placebo in pain reduction
Press release, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center: Scientists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have found new evidence that mindfulness meditation reduces pain more effectively than placebo. This...
View ArticleTune your brain for happiness and effectiveness
A huge amount of research over the last few years has given us a better idea of what happens in the brain when we meditate, and how meditation brings us long term benefits. Meditation, for example:...
View ArticleMeditation expert tells us what the science really says
Check out The Enlightened Brain: The Neuroscience of Awakening, by Rick Hanson (7 CDs)!Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: So you fell asleep easily enough, but now it’s 3 a.m. Your mind is spinning, and rest...
View ArticleIt’s brain science: University fights binge drinking with meditation
Recovery One Breath at a Time by Kevin Griffin (2 CDs) Susan Donaldson James, NBCNews: A song by U2 blares from loudspeakers as Dr. James Hudziak tosses a brain-shaped football back and forth to...
View ArticleMindfulness meditation linked to the reduction of a key inflammation marker
Click here for a Mindfulness of Breathing MP3 Fiona MacDonald, Science Alert: Mindfulness meditation has been linked both to a whole lot of health benefits over the years, from altering cancer...
View ArticleScience and meditation: integrating a first-person experience into the...
The Enlightened Brain: The Neuroscience of Awakening, by Rick Hanson (7 CDs) Marjorie Woollacott, Huffington Post: As a long time meditator and neuroscientist, my interest in the effect of meditation...
View ArticleScience shows what meditation really does to your brain
Jon Levine, Science.Mic: Meditation, according to its spiritual gurus, is a universal panacea. Enthusiasts have long preached its benefits, which include its ability to lower anxiety, improve...
View ArticleMeditation optimizes adaptive behavior
News-Medical: Certain meditation techniques can promote behavior to vary adaptively from moment to moment depending on current goals, rather than remaining rigid and inflexible. This is the outcome of...
View ArticleHow does meditation make you smarter?
Viatcheslav Wlassoff, PhD, BrainBlogger: Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you don’t need to be told about the relaxing effects of meditation. The practitioners vouch for it; and those who don’t,...
View ArticleScience assesses benefits of mindfulness
Meditations to Change Your Brain, by Rick Hanson PhD & Richard Mendius (3CDs) Gary Robbins, U-T San Diego: Researchers have an intriguing but incomplete picture of what’s going on. Jeff Lee says he...
View ArticleThe third arrow
The first arrow: Think of a time someone said something hurtful to you, and let’s try to break down what happened. A comment was made, and you probably experienced actual physical pain, most likely in...
View ArticleThe impact of experiences
Children express what they feel and what they want through their actions, emotions, signals, and, by their second birthday, words. Then people respond, including their parents, teachers, and other...
View ArticleBeing at peace with the pain of others
Can you stay open to the pain of others? Humans are an empathic, compassionate, and loving species, so it is natural to feel sad, worried, or fiery about the troubles and pain of other people. (And...
View ArticleEmotional hijacking
In light of the machinery of survival-based, emotional reactivity, let’s look more narrowly at what Daniel Goleman has called “emotional hijacking.” The emotional circuits of your brain – which are...
View ArticleEmotion in the brain
The major brain regions that support emotional processing include the limbic system – particularly the hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus – and the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex...
View ArticleThe importance of taking in positive experiences
Today we don’t gather our own food, fight off wild animals, or live in caves. And yet we’re equipped with stone-aged brains. With practice, however, we can change our brains, and our lives, for the...
View ArticleIs the “self” real?
Is the “Self” real? What’s the nature of the sense of being that remains when parts of the psyche fall away? The answer depends on how you define “Self.” I use that word to refer to the central “I”...
View ArticleFeel Whole
When I look back on mistakes I’ve made – like dumping my anger on someone, making assumptions in haste, partying too much, losing my nerve, being afraid to speak from my heart – in all cases a part of...
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