By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Meditation isn’t a magic bullet for depression, as no treatment is, but it’s one of the tools that may help manage symptoms.” – Alice Walton Depression is the most common mental illness affecting over 6% of the population. It is debilitating by producing any or all of […]
Healthy Aging – Improve the Brain and Memory with Tai Chi By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Another great benefit of Tai Chi is that it’s accessible to people of all ages and fitness abilities. It’s the focus on the subtle movements that exercise the brain and boost cognitive abilities. First, it’s learning […]
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “You have the capacity to heal the emotional dysfunctionality of your own brain. When you increase your awareness with mindfulness, you can transform your brain, create new circuits or change the way neurons talk to each other.” – Bhavika There has accumulated a large amount of […]
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “MBSR is a practice that can help you “turn the volume down” on the perception of back pain by teaching you to look into the pain, and being with the experience and not resisting it so much. Looking into our emotional reactivity to it. Focusing on the present, […]
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Mindfulness and meditation are the two most effective brain trainers to support optimal prefrontal cortex functioning. The more you incorporate them into your daily experience, the more you will be training your brain to recalibrate, balance, and control.” – Michele Rosenthal The nervous system is constantly changing […]
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “A simple meditation for sleep . . . is to focus on the breath while lying in bed as you are preparing to go to sleep. Follow the breath moving into and out of the body. As you are being aware of the breath just allow yourself to sink into […]
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Regular meditators activated fewer brain regions than non-meditators in order to achieve the same performance during an attentional task. This is evidence that meditation training can increase brain efficiency in attention and impulse control.” – Elisa Kozasa One of the primary effects of meditation training is an […]
“If you’ve ever felt too depressed to solve a problem, it might be because your brain is having a hard time regulating your emotions. One solution? Mindfulness training.” – Ruth Buczynsk Meditation is known to improve the physical and mental health of practitioners. To some extent, it does so by improving emotion regulation […]
“meditation may increase our control over our limited brain resources. To anyone who knows what it’s like to feel scattered or overwhelmed, this is an appealing benefit indeed. Even though your attention is a limited resource, you can learn to do more with the mental energy you already have.” – Kelly McGonigal Meditation […]
“Researchers estimate that stress contributes to as many as 80 percent of all major illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, endocrine and metabolic disease, skin disorders, and infectious ailments of all kinds.” – Prescription for Nutritional Healing 4th edition The mind and body are intimately connected and can never be completely separated. This can be witnessed […]