MoWorld: Meditations to Change Your Brain

Monday, February 22, 2016

Meditations to Change Your Brain

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February 22, 2016
Meditations to Change Your Brain
Rick Hanson & Richard Mendius
2009

Rick Hanson is a psychologist, Richard Mendius is a neurologist, but both are also Buddhist scholars and the combination of eastern and western science is the unifying principle behind Meditations to Change Your Brain. Working toward the goal of "activating the underlying brain stems," this three-disc set is the result of their combined experience and research, focusing on the goal of making you "less stressed out, stronger, more able to concentrate, more tuned into your own body, more grounded in the world, and more at peace." Generously packed with helpful meditations and ideas for practice, this is the go-to guide for anyone who balks at the more spiritually based meditation programs. For these guys science comes first, and the empirical evidence they've accumulated is generously shared. At the same time those wary of a too clinical and medical approach will find Hanson and Mendius to be rooted deeply to a spiritual core as well.

Their contrasting styles make for engaging listening all the way through. Hanson's voice is light and nurturing while Mendius' is more authoritative and resonant. Together they delve into the science behind eastern meditation and the meditation behind western science: "Recently, MRI scans have been done on Tibetan monks in a state of what's called samatha (deep meditation or prayer)," Mendius notes. "Three key areas appear to be most affected: orbital frontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and the insular." The orbital "says what the task is at hand," the cingulate is located around the third eye and monitors performance. "When you meditate, (it) monitors how well you're staying focused." These areas of the brain also monitor the rewiring of the brain, like a city planners' meeting. When in deep meditation one can literally rewire one's thinking.

"Whatever we do in our outer world, we live in our inner world 24 hours a day," notes Mendius. "For true self-confidence it's really fantastic to know that you can actually intervene yourself, inside your own brain, to direct and change it for the better." You may already know some of this, but much of the information on this set will be new, especially in how meditation connects age-old mantras of the east with the neurochemical truths of science. And what counts is Hanson and Mendius' ability to bring you deep into a trance so that they can plant their suggestions. This they do quite well. Not only will Meditations to Change Your Brain help you straighten out your neural pathways toward a more harmonious level of functioning, but you'll have plenty of material when you get in your next argument over the validity of spiritual teachings versus western science; everyone's a winner.

	Listen to all sound clips from this CD
"Using Your Mind to Change Your Brain" "Taking Good Care of Yourself" "The Four Steps to Taking in the Good"

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