Improve Neural Regulation of Negative Emotions with Mindfulness By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Meditation might help depression, stress and anxiety but it’s not a ‘positive thinking’ tool that pretends everything is fine when it isn’t. It’s a way of being able to be with things as they are, in pain or in […]
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Yet until recently little was known about how a few hours of quiet reflection each week could lead to such an intriguing range of mental and physical effects. Now, as the popularity of mindfulness grows, brain imaging techniques are revealing that this ancient practice can profoundly change […]
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D. “Mindful meditation helped me to think (and not think) about tinnitus in ways that had not occurred before, and in doing so made tinnitus much less of a burden to carry. It did not fix my tinnitus but it fixed me in a way that made tinnitus easier […]
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 […]
“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 […]
“In history, psychedelic plants were used by priests and shamans with a desire to discover the interior.” – Alejandro Jodorowsky Psychedelic substances have been used almost since the beginning of recorded history to alter consciousness and produce spiritually meaningful experiences. Psychedelics produce effects that are similar to those that are reported in spiritual awakenings. […]
“Chanting a mantra at the beginning of your meditation helps you clear the mind and takes you deep within the self. Chanting a mantra at the end of meditation helps you seal the meditation. It helps you bring the awareness of the meditation down into your daily life.” – Rama Mantras are a […]
“Our minds have the incredible capacity to both alter the strength of connections among neurons, essentially rewiring them, and create entirely new pathways. (It makes a computer, which cannot create new hardware when its system crashes, seem fixed and helpless).” ― Susannah Cahalan There has accumulated a large amount of research demonstrating that meditation has significant benefits […]
“The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.” ― Carl Sagan Mindfulness training has been shown to alter the brain in profound ways. It activates certain areas of the nervous system and if practiced for a period of time it will alter the brain structurally, increasing the size and connectivity […]