Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

mind

Seven evidence-based reasons to start meditating yesterday

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Yes, start­ing today is OK too.

I start­ed med­i­tat­ing soon after 9/11. I was liv­ing in Man­hat­tan, an already chaot­ic place, at an extreme­ly chaot­ic time. I real­ized I had no con­trol over my exter­nal envi­ron­ment. But the one place I did have a say over was my mind, through med­i­ta­tion. When I start­ed med­i­tat­ing, I did not real­ize it would also make me health­i­er, hap­pi­er, and more resilient.

Hav­ing wit­nessed the ben­e­fits, I devot­ed my PhD research at Stan­ford to study­ing the impact of med­i­ta­tion. I saw peo­ple from diverse back­grounds from col­lege stu­dents to com­bat vet­er­ans ben­e­fit. In the last 10 years, hun­dreds of stud­ies have been released.

Here are sev­en evi­dence-based rea­sons you might want to get on the band­wag­on as soon as you can: [Read more…] about Sev­en evi­dence-based rea­sons to start med­i­tat­ing yes­ter­day

Fun optical illusion to tease your mind

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The text above, in Japan­ese, says: “If it appears to rotate, RT” 🙂

You can quick­ly notice how the dots do not move at all … and how the effect takes place.

More fun illusions and brain teasers:

Q&A with Rick Hanson on Neurodharma, brain science, personal practice and well-being

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Psy­chol­o­gist and neu­ro­science expert Rick Han­son stud­ies the men­tal resources that pro­mote resilience, from calm and grat­i­tude to con­fi­dence and courage. Accord­ing to Han­son, the coro­n­avirus cri­sis is expos­ing some of our psy­cho­log­i­cal vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, and remind­ing us how impor­tant it is to nur­ture our social and emo­tion­al strengths.

In his new book, Neu­rod­har­ma, Han­son writes about how we can cul­ti­vate more equa­nim­i­ty, wis­dom, and moral action using med­i­ta­tion and oth­er prac­tices. As he illus­trates with neu­ro­science research, prac­tic­ing pos­i­tive states of being like these can lead to phys­i­cal changes in the brain, which in turn [Read more…] about Q&A with Rick Han­son on Neu­rod­har­ma, brain sci­ence, per­son­al prac­tice and well-being

Four ways hiking promotes cognitive and emotional health

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I’m a hiker—“born to hike,” as my hus­band likes to joke. It does my heart and soul good to strap on a pack and head out on a trail, espe­cial­ly when I’m alone and can let my mind wan­der where it will.

The expe­ri­ence of hik­ing is unique, research sug­gests, con­vey­ing ben­e­fits beyond [Read more…] about Four ways hik­ing pro­motes cog­ni­tive and emo­tion­al health

Let’s anticipate the potential misuse of neurological data to minimize the risks–and maximize the benefits

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The per­ils of open­ing the mind (Boston Globe):

“For­get the joy­stick. Today you can use your mind alone to nav­i­gate vir­tu­al envi­ron­ments or fly real-world drones. You can buy sleek head­bands that read your brain sig­nals and help you med­i­tate or stay focused. Or you can get them for your kids to make sure they’re work­ing, not day­dream­ing [Read more…] about Let’s antic­i­pate the poten­tial mis­use of neu­ro­log­i­cal data to min­i­mize the risks–and max­i­mize the ben­e­fits

Update: Humankind’s evolving quest to enhance the brain and the mind

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Time for the first Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter in the new decade, fea­tur­ing a range of inspir­ing and (most­ly) promis­ing news about humankind’s evolv­ing quest to enhance the brain and the mind, and a few fun brain teasers 🙂

New thinking:

New research:

New tools:

A few quick brain teasers to workout your prefrontal cortex:

 

Have a great Feb­ru­ary,

 

The Sharp­Brains Team