Improve Emotion Processing with Brief Short-Term Meditation By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “brief mindfulness meditation, but not deliberate engagement in state mindfulness, produces demonstrable changes in emotional processing indicative of reduced emotional reactivity,” – Yanli Lin Mindfulness practice has been shown to improve emotions and their regulation. Practitioners demonstrate more positive and less negative […]
Meditation Alters the Perception of the Passage of Time By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Experienced meditators typically report that they experience time slowing down in meditation practice as well as in everyday life. Conceptually this phenomenon may be understood through functional states of mindfulness.” – Marc Wittmann There are times in […]
Improve Episodic Memory and Alter Brain Activity during Memory Retrieval with Mindfulness By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “A critical part of attention (and working memory capacity) is being able to ignore distraction. There has been growing evidence that meditation training (in particular mindfulness meditation) helps develop attentional control, and that this can start to […]
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 […]
Different Activity of the Brain is Associated with Meditation By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Backed by 1000’s of studies, meditation is the neuroscientific community’s most proven way to upgrade the human brain.” – EOC Institute There has accumulated a large amount of research demonstrating that mindfulness has significant benefits for psychological, physical, and […]
Alter the Brain for Improved Memory with Aging with Tai Chi By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “our brain physiology and memory can be changed with Tai Chi. . . Brain scans show neural changes in the Tai Chi group associated with better memory, especially in cognitive areas associated with spatial memory.” – […]
Improve Mental Health in Older Adults with Online Meditation Practice By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “The good news is that there are steps we can take right now to make the goal of “aging gracefully” more attainable. Mindfulness training is one of those steps; research has clearly shown that regular meditation comes […]
Improve Cognition and Reduce Age-related Cognitive Decline with Meditation By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “While we might expect our bodies and brains to follow a shared trajectory of development and degeneration over time, by actively practicing strategies such as meditation, we might actually preserve and protect our physical body and brain structure […]
Improve Cognition in Breast Cancer Patients with Meditation By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Between diagnosis, treatment, recovery and ongoing treatment, living with cancer is a stressful roller-coaster set on repeat. Meditation is a very useful and powerful tool that can help you get in touch with your thoughts and emotions, cultivate compassion and […]
Improve Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with Meditation or Yoga By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “meditation helps bring about the kind of deep self-awareness, or mindfulness, that can create a therapeutic basis for reducing the symptoms of PTSD. We can meet difficult emotions, difficult memories, and difficult experiences through meditation,” Stephanie Lopez […]