I will put links and information on this page relating to my LIFE presentation "Five Inspiring Non-fiction Books" on Jan. 24, 2018. Bill
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The books are Incognito by Eagleman Eagleman Notes Book 1 , Altered Traits by Goleman and Davidson, The Jew in the Lotus by Kamenetz, Designed to Move by Vernikos and Conscious Breathing by Hendricks.
Here are the slides I intend to use:
Five inspiring books
•Incognito – Eagleman – inaccessible mind
•Altered Traits – Goleman, Davidson – meditation results
•The Jew in the Lotus – Kamenetz - Am Jews talk with the Dalai Lama about survival
•Designed to Move – Vernikos – Astronauts show our need to move
•Conscious Breathing – Hendricks – breath tools
Why these?
•Powerful, inspiring, invitation to grow and renew
1) Incognito - the inaccessible mind – Eagleman
author is neuroscientist and writes
What day is it today?
•Your memory and your conscious mind work it out.
•The conscious mind is the CEO
•Don’t bother the CEO most of the time
Same idea as Kahneman
•His title tells the idea: Thinking, Fast and Slow
•Reflexes are very quick
•Reflection and analysis are much slower
Sub-departments keep the CEO informed
•Not immediately
•Not in detail
•Go to the CEO when departments clash
2. Altered Traits - results of meditation - Goleman and Davidson
Authors of “Altered Traits”
Goleman wrote Emotional Intelligence and other books.
Davidson is neuroscientist at Madison. Is famous for accepting Dalai Lama’s challenge to test his monks.
UW-Madison’s “Center for Healthy Minds”
Meditation changes the self but slowly, gently
•Usually safely
•Prof. Willougby Britten, Brown University studies difficulties that arise for some meditators (“Dark nights”, fears, past traumatic experiences) - happens rarely
Meditation
•Be still but alert
•Attend to one thing: point, breath, mind contents, loving compassion
•Expect mind to wander
•When it does, return to the one thing – the return is The Golden Moment
“10% Happier”, “Meditation for Fidgety Skeptics” – Dan Harris
•Both of his books are worth knowing
•Had no interest in meditation until stress froze him on the air
3. The Jew in the Lotus - Am. Jews travel to India to advise the Dalai Lama on survival - Kamenetz
Chinese – Tibetan clashes since 1950
•Dalai Lama and staff fled to India in 1957
•Chinese have been strongly anti-Tibetan and anti-Tibetan Buddhism
•Jews have survived 2000 years of oppression
•The Dalai Lama wanted to know how they do it
4. Designed to Move - value of interrupting long sitting sessions – Vernikos
•Dr. Vernikos is a NASA scientist
•Responsible for health of astronauts
•Outer space has unhealthy weak gravity
•Sitting all the time is similarly unhealthy
Not the gym but moving
•Stand up
•Sit down
•Stand up
•Move, stretch, twist
•Move every which way
Sitting for 13 hours is 50% more likely to be disabling than sitting for 12 hours
Her other book is Sitting Kills, Moving Heals
•“But study after study suggest that reducing how many hours you sit continuously every day may represent a more relevant factor than exercise.”
5. Conscious Breathing – Breathing for calm or waking up - Hendricks
•Deliberate breathing calms effectively
•“Being breathed” is fun, comfortable
•You can feel your life inside you
•Hendricks and Andrew Weil both assert conscious breathing is their best tool
Breathing practices
•Belly breathing - don’t be shy: protrude
•Sideways breathing - Vranich TED talk
•4-7-8 Breathing - Weil on You-Tube
•Square breathing - 4,4,4,4
–Hold, In, Hold, Exhale
•Breath of Fire - YouTube, yoga
•Breath as mediation anchor
•Dr. Alan Watkins on YouTube