Peter Bromberg's List: mindfulness

"Last year, a Harvard study confirmed that there’s a clear connection between mind wandering and unhappiness. Not only did the study find that if you’re awake, your mind is wandering almost half the time, it also found that this wandering is linked to a less happy state. "
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Meditation is an interesting method for increasing one’s sense of happiness because not only has it stood the test of time, but it’s also been tested quite extensively in the lab. Part of the effect of mindfulness meditation is to quiet the mind by acknowledging non-judgmentally and then relinquishing (rather than obsessing about) unhappy or stress-inducing thoughts.
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This suggests that they may have formed a new default mode: one that is more present-centered (and less “me”-centered), no matter what they are doing.
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These findings may suggest that for people who practice meditation or prayer, the focus becomes less on the self as a distinct entity from the external world, and more on connection between the two. This reflects the idea discussed earlier where shifting attention from inside to outside is at least part of what quells unhappiness

See newer version at: http://pss.sagepub.com/content/24/5/776

"Those who had received meditation training were less fragmented in their work, switching tasks less frequently and spending more time on each one. They also showed less stress and better memory. The experiment was the latest in a growing pile of neuroscientific studies to find that meditation may improve emotional regulation and attention."

They were also taught how to address their thoughts in new ways – in particular, how to differentiate between “naturally arising thoughts” (like, “hmm, I have a paper due tomorrow) and “elaborating” trains of thoughts (like, “hmm, what if I screw up the paper, fail the class, don’t graduate, and can’t get a job?!”), which we all do from time to time. Learning how to acknowledge our thoughts nonjudgmentally and then let them go, rather than reacting to them, is a central goal of mindfulness.

"And while I've often noted that it's easier and more reliable to create an environment that supports your goals than it is to depend on willpower, sometimes, we do need to rely on plain, old-fashioned, self-control."

Incorporate in to larger piece on mind/brain/health?  Effectiveness?  Cleaning out the fuel injector?  Getting enough sleep (i.e. you wouldn't go to work on 2 hours sleep.  Why?

You take care of (do maintenance on) machines to make sure they are running well.  I restring my racket.)

"The only participants to show improvement were those who had received the mindfulness training. Not only did they report fewer negative emotions at the end of the assignment, but their ability to concentrate improved significantly. They could stay on task longer and they switched between tasks less frequently. While the overall time they devoted to the assignment didn’t differ much from that of other groups, they spent it more efficiently. "
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Not only could this increased connectivity make us better able to switch between tasks and monitor our own attention, but it is indicative of more effective overall management of our finite attentional resources.




Mindfulness training has even been shown to affect the brain’s default network — the network of connections that remains active when we are in a so-called resting state — with regular meditators exhibiting increased resting-state functional connectivity and increased connectivity generally.
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Until recently, our 20s were considered the point when our brain’s wiring was basically complete. But new evidence suggests that not only can we learn into old age, but the structure of our brains can continue to change and develop. In 2006, a team of psychologists demonstrated that the neural activation patterns of older adults (specifically, activation in the prefrontal cortex), began to resemble those of much younger subjects after just five one-hour training sessions on a task of attentional control. Their brains became more efficient at coordinating multiple tasks — and the benefit transferred to untrained activities, suggesting that it was symptomatic of general improvement.

"Even in small doses, mindfulness can effect impressive changes in how we feel and think — and it does so at a basic neural level.

In 2011, researchers from the University of Wisconsin demonstrated that daily meditation-like thought could shift frontal brain activity toward a pattern that is associated with what cognitive scientists call positive, approach-oriented emotional states — states that make us more likely to engage the world rather than to withdraw from it."

 When they were tested a second time, their neural activation patterns had undergone a striking leftward shift in frontal asymmetry — even when their practice and training averaged only 5 to 16 minutes a day.
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As little as five minutes a day of intense Holmes-like inactivity, and a happier outlook is yours for the taking
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Of course, we would like to believe that our attention is infinite, but it isn’t. Multitasking is a persistent myth. What we really do is shift our attention rapidly from task to task. Two bad things happen as a result. We don’t devote as much attention to any one thing, and we sacrifice the quality of our attention. When we are mindful, some of that attentional flightiness disappears as if of its own accord.

"Mindfulness training has a notable impact on the limbic system, or the emotional system of the brain. Specifically, mindfulness meditation has been shown to reduce activity in the amygdala, a region of the brain that determines how much stress we experience and that is central in modulating our fear responses. For example, people with very active amygdalae tend to experience more depression and anxiety.

Perhaps even more intriguing, however, is that mindfulness can actually change the size the amygdala. One study on overstressed businesspeople found that after eight weeks of mindfulness meditation training, the size of the amygdala actually shrunk compared to those who were not practicing mindfulness. This reduction was correlated with less perceived stress. In those eight weeks, subjects were actually able to change their brain and, consequently, reduce their stress."
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When we move out of the story of our lives and into the actual lived experience of it, we feel better.