Don't worry, it's for me.
Don’t Worry, Be Happy – Understanding Mindfulness Meditation
In times of stress, we’re often encouraged to pause for a moment and simply be in the ‘now.’ This kind of mindfulness, an essential part of Buddhist and Indian Yoga traditions, has entered the mainstream as people try to find ways to combat stress and improve their quality of life. And research suggests that mindfulness meditation can have benefits for health and performance, including improved immune function, reduced blood pressure, and enhanced cognitive function.
But how is it that a single practice can have such wide-ranging effects on well-being? A new article published in the latest issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, draws on the existing scientific literature to build a framework that can explain these positive effects.
The goal of this work, according to author Britta Hölzel, of Justus Liebig University and Harvard Medical School, is to “unveil the conceptual and mechanistic complexity of mindfulness, providing the ‘big picture’ by arranging many findings like the pieces of a mosaic.” By using a framework approach to understand the mechanisms of mindfulness, Hölzel and her co-authors point out that what we think of as mindfulness is not actually a single skill. Rather, it is a multi-faceted mental practice that encompasses several mechanisms.
The authors specifically identify four key components of mindfulness that may account for its effects: attention regulation, body awareness, emotion regulation, and sense of self. Together, these components help us attend to and deal with the mental and physiological effects of stress in ways that are non-judgmental.
Although these components are theoretically distinct, they are closely intertwined. Improvement in attention regulation, for example, may directly facilitate our awareness of our physiological state. Body awareness, in turn, helps us to recognize the emotions we are experiencing. Understanding the relationships between these components, and the brain mechanisms that underlie them, will allow clinicians to better tailor mindfulness interventions for their patients, says Hölzel.
On the most fundamental level, this framework underscores the point that mindfulness is not a vague cure-all. Effective mindfulness meditation requires training and practice and it has distinct measurable effects on our subjective experiences, our behavior, and our brain function. The authors hope that further research on this topic will “enable a much broader spectrum of individuals to utilize mindfulness meditation as a versatile tool to facilitate change – both in psychotherapy and in everyday life.”
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Back to the Future…
Hello operator
can you give me number nine?
can i see you later?
will you give me back my dime?
turn the oscillator
twist it with a dollar bill
mail man bring the paper
leave it on my window sill
The White Stripes – Hello Operator (Destijl) 2000
~
The next morning, I sent a little probe down into my brain.
No surge of brilliance came up to greet me.
In short... I was back.
...But something remained.
Limitless - 2011
~
What up, P6?
Happy Holidays!
( …It has been many moons since my last confession!)
It’s already Monday here, but the east coast should still be awash in the last block of holiday festivities.
Ironically, you and I were both in Herndon for about the space of about one week a few weeks back.
http://www.prometheus6.org/node/28351
Sadly, I never got a chance to even see if you may have been accessible because my laptop crashed right before we left Africa and although I had a guy working on it like a madman almost from the moment I got off the plane in Dulles, he didn’t get it back up and running until right before took off for Paris to head back here.
( ...Granted, I had my android phone active, which is how I knew you were in Herndon, but there was never enough time to try and write anything I would have considered significant without constantly running the risk of sounding illiterate or psychotic!)
Of course, realizing that still doesn’t necessarily take me out of the running concerning literacy or mental stability just because I have a functioning laptop, still wanted to pass on best wishes to “You, Your'n and Airbody Else” for the holidays!
Peace!
~
Ghost Dog: There is something to be learned from a rainstorm.
When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you still get the same soaking.
This understanding extends to everything.
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai – 1999
Sadly, I never got a chance
Try me next time you're in Herndon. I should be there like a week per month. I don't know anyone local well enough to have a social life so I should need more than a day's notice.
Hope your solstice festival was what you needed it to be.
A Tale of Two Cities...
...From a postal code standpoint, Herndon and Reston are so close, in certain points of conversation, they’re almost considered one and the same.
The town of Herndon has roots that go back to the American Revolution, but Reston, which adjoins it, is a 6,750 acre plot of land that was developed into what was considered less than 40 years ago, a high concept planned community that opened in 1964.
( …Even by today’s standards, its still considered a fairly impressive architectural marvel in some circles!)
If you ever find yourself with a little extra free time and you aren’t necessarily trying to venture too far out into places like DC proper, or the social / cultural spots in the Arlinton / Shirlington areas, the Reston Town Center has pretty decent dinning venuves along with other assorted shops and the like.
It’s also the home of Davelle , one of the most arrogant habadashers ever known to mankind!
( ...But I digress!)
No confirmed stateside date as yet, although there is a tentative game plan afoot to be back in the area sometime in the spring.
( …Should the actual date find the light of day in the none too distant future, I will cross-reference so as to compare respective calander dates!)
In the meantime, I’ll hold out hope that your sojurns through “The Commonwealth” are not an altogether too unpleasant experience!
Permission to access...
BTW: Periodically, since I’ve been abroad, I find there are times when I am unable to access your site for days at a time.
The message I normally get during those times ( ...The last 2 days in this instance) is as follows:
403 Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server.
Apache/2.0.54 Server at www.prometheus6.org Port 80Any thoughts?
( ...Or should this just be left construed as the proverbial “Luck of the Draw?”)
I found Reston Town Center.
I found Reston Town Center. In particular, The Big Bowl made me very happy, and will likely do so again next trip. There's a Tex-Mex joint about a block from there whose name I forgot but whose grilled salmon will draw me back too.
As for the 403s, I don't know what's going on. If I block an IP range, it stays blocked.