Neuroscientist on Tavis Smiley talks about relaxation and effects on the brain

Mari · 04-14-2009, 04:29 AM

Hi,
I caught a repeat of Tavis Smiley.
This pdoc talked about good changes to the brain from relaxation:
http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/...0_waldman.html

Quote:

What we're finding is that, if you engage in contemplative spiritual practice or meditation or prayer or even focusing intently on a positive thought and a positive affirmation, you can begin to make permanent changes in both the structure and the function of your brain in ways that enhance memory, cognition, awareness, consciousness, compassion, and it simultaneously suppresses the neuromechanisms in your brain that cause anxiety, depression, fear, anger and rage.

Quote:

Now one of the exercises that I like to use, for example, is imagine that you're sitting on the side of a riverbank and leaves are floating down on the stream. So you sit there and a thought comes up in meditation and you might say, "This is silly. Why am I sitting here focusing on that?" All right. Put that thought on the leaf, let it float down the stream, let it go.

Come back for a moment to your breathing or your awareness or your relaxation. Watch the next thought or feeling that comes up. Maybe a feeling comes up and you're saying, "I'm feeling a little anxious and nervous." Put that thought on a leaf, let it float down the river, and you come back to the present moment-to-moment experience.

Thirty years of research shows that this is the most effective way to eliminate serious forms of depression and anxiety, and when you apply these types of spiritual techniques, you can take the theology out of them and use them in a secular form and, if you want to, you can take the theology from a different religion and put them back in. You still get the same neurological benefits.

And Yawning can relax the brain / body too.

My tdoc talks a little like this.
She says that we can re-grow / retrain / build parts of our brain by using the parts that we want to be used.

M.

BJ · 04-14-2009, 05:55 AM

My tdoc is stressing me to learn how to find my inner stillness. She said that I need to focus more on my inside world than the outside world. She tells me I should spend at least 5 minutes a day finding my "being quiet" groove.

I do this every morning when I get up because my brain is quieter than, no TV, no radio, no cell phone, just quiet. I just listen to my breathing and try to find the inner stillness, the peace within myself.

Mari · 04-14-2009, 08:23 PM

Dear BJ,
It sounds like you are doing well in many ways.
The very first thing in the morning is the best time for me to do this too -- nothing is on my mind yet so I don't have to work as hard clearing my mind.
M.

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