Brief Guided Meditations Improve Empathy By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Empathy is the understanding and sharing of someone else’s feelings. It’s not to be confused with compassion, which is a feeling of concern for others that we feel we need to act on. Empathy goes that step further; by putting yourself in the place […]
Improve Empathy, Compassion, and Prosocial Behaviors with Meditation By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “From the philosophical and religious traditions from which mindfulness comes, it’s been long understood that practicing meditation, and cultivating mindfulness, in particular, can conduce to virtuous action.” – Daniel Berry Humans are social animals. This is a great […]
Mindfulness is Associated with Higher Levels of Empathy By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “mindfulness is a practice of self–empathy. This kind of self-awareness allows us to develop empathic connections to others. As we experience the landscape of our inner life with more detail and richness, our ability to understand the inner lives of others […]
Increase Well-Being and Spirituality with Loving Kindness Meditation By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Loving-kindness refers to a state of unconditional kindness and compassion for all beings. . . Some studies suggest you can boost your empathy and feelings of connection and reduce your implicit bias, anger, depression and anxiety.” – Heart.org Meditation training […]
Meditation Reduces the Brain’s Empathetic Response By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “mindfulness’s most profound benefit may not be the one that’s most often touted—adapting to a stressful, competitive, even unkind 24/7 world. Instead, meditation might fundamentally alter how we treat those around us.” – David Destino Humans are social animals. This […]
Improve Major Depressive Disorder with Psilocybin and Mindfulness Meditation By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “mindfulness training enhances the positive effects of a single dose of psilocybin, and can increase empathy and permanently reduce ego-centricity. This opens up new therapeutic avenues, for example for the treatment of depression.” – Franz Vollenweider Psychedelic substances […]
Structural and Functional Changes in the Brain Produced by Meditation Training By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress start to appear in subjects who practice mindfulness meditation for only eight weeks.” – Deepak Chopra There has accumulated a large […]
Become More Sensitive to Others with Meditation By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “as we pay attention to our breath, our body, our lives, in this simple and gentle way, a natural consequence is the opening of the heart.” – Matthew Brensilver Humans are social animals. This is a great asset for […]
Improve Brain Connectivity with Meditation By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “The meditation-and-the-brain research has been rolling in steadily for a number of years now, with new studies coming out just about every week to illustrate some new benefit of meditation. Or, rather, some ancient benefit that is just now being confirmed with fMRI […]
Meditation Alters Brain Responses to Negative Stimuli By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “meditation facilitates strengthening the Assessment Center, weakening the unhelpful aspects of the Me Center (that can cause you to take things personally), strengthening the helpful parts of the Me Center (involved with empathy and understanding others) and changing the connections […]