Monday, July 8, 2013

Don't Change Your Life - Live It With Mindfulness And See The Results

By Darwin van Panhuis


Simple but powerful mindfulness exercises bring us a wide range of benefits. You don't have to sit in lotus position or become a Buddhist. Interest in mindfulness coming out of scientific research is making it mainstream.If I were to tell you that you can learn to release yourself from stress, improve your well being, increase your emotional intelligence, make better decisions and be happier and more successful just by sitting on your butt and watching your breath for a few minutes each day, would you be persuaded? Probably not. If you think about it, that's strange because you probably do sit on your butt for much of the day and you never stop breathing. So what's the problem?
[How To Make Positive Changes In Your Life]


Go through your closets and discard clothing you have not worn in the past year - it might not even fit you now. Consider how many shoes a person really needs. Most people do not really need more than three or four pairs of shoes. Discard that which you do not need and make room for something else - you'll feel better if you do.Similarly, go through your refrigerator. When's the last time you cleaned that out? Do you really need to keep that near empty bottle of Soy sauce considering you haven't eaten Chinese food in more than a year? Toss it out! Make room in your refrigerator; make room in your life. You will feel better afterwards.

There's increasing evidence that training attention with the right kind of attitude has many benefits. Much of the scientific work has been done on depression. People who attend a course for eight weeks, going to a weekly two hour class and doing around half an hour each day over the duration of the course, works at least as well as taking antidepressants. The effects are long lasting and can be seen in changes in the brain and continuing the habit has even greater benefits.

Dr. Amen here explains how science can empirically detect and measure activities in the mind-brain connection. This book has a lot of information regarding mental health problems drawn from Brain SPECT imaging, an empirical tool that Dr. Amen uses to detect 'brain disorders', or diagnosed mental health problems that meet DSM criteria. These are Nuclear medicine studies that measure blood flow and activity levels in the brain (Amen, 5). Dr. Amen also discusses use of PET (positron emission tomography), MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), CAT (computerized axial tomography), and EEG (electroencephalograms). Seeing that many mental health problems can be empirically detected in brain function using these tools can be helpful in dispelling stigma and false guilt when there is a medical problem and brain disorder. Without some evidence of the medical issue, people may think that it is 'all in their head' and they just need to get it together, or that they are just a 'bad person'.

Stay at it and try to make it an everyday thing. Nothing worthwhile is ever achieved easily, but this does not need to feel like work. Stick to it and keep doing it. You will discover that it begins to actually feel good and you will look forward to doing it again the very next day.Exercise will help you think more clearly and you will begin to have quality sleep and feel rested when you awake each day. A healthy body will help you have a healthy mind.

Dr. Amen by no means argues that talk therapy is not effective for treating these empirically detected 'brain disorders'. His point is not that physical things can only be treated physically but to show a fascinating explanation of thought and behavior using the brain images. For example, his research shows that depression is associated with limbic system (an area of the brain) over-activity and that bonding can decrease this over-activity (Amen, 41). One example of this is that orgasm is like a mini-seizure in the limbic system and lessens deep limbic activity (Amen, 41). He found that when a patient who was depressed had a scan before and after having passionate sex with his wife his brain scan showed his limbic activity was significantly decreased (Amen, 41). He then goes on to explain how casual sex does not work and is so damaging for many females because they have a larger limbic system than males that bonds more deaply, crashing harder when a bond is broken. He also writes that healthy bonding between mothers and children, between family, friends, and even pets affects the limbic system positively.

Dr. Amen has an entire chapter on enhancing positive thought patterns. Dr. Amen's prescription to heal these limbic problems includes, "... accurate thinking, the proper management of memories, the connection between pleasant smells and moods, and building positive bonds with oneself and others (p. 55)." It is common knowledge that research shows Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (a talk therapy) to be highly effective in dealing with depression, but it is effective in dealing with a wide range of psychological problems (Corey, 288, Beck, 2). Cognitive Behavioral Therapy deals with changing distorted thinking and core beliefs about the self and the world such as that one is unlovable or helpless. Bonding also happens in talk therapy between a client and therapist and can enhance relationships and bonding with others.

The outlook and approach towards a task should be from a positive point. The thought in your head must enlighten the positive aspects instead of the negative, discouraging thoughts. Once you change your attitude from a pessimist to an optimist, you will find feel all the good vibes.All good things will surround you and give you more energy to move forward in times of depression.Nevertheless, how do you suddenly change from being a pessimist to an optimist? Well, it is not a matter of sudden change or changing your thinking process within a day. It all depends on time, your practice and willingness. You have to learn to identify your inner voice. This is the first step to make the changes.Some people perform an act suddenly without thinking for a second time. They do not think what they really want to do or not. Therefore, first you have to learn to identify your inner voice.After that, always speak in a positive manner. For instance, if you are asking yourself a question, then instead of asking,"Am I not capable of doing this work?" ask, "Am I capable of doing this work?" It reflects a positive attitude. You can find several such examples in your daily life if you put a little attention to what you do.




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