Although his irritability and restlessness still came, he could see them coming.
getting set makes a BIG difference
As we see it, the most compelling impacts of meditation are not better health or sharper business performance but, rather, a further reach toward our better nature. Kirby: I think meditation makes for better acquaintance with one’s self, moods, fears, joys.
When we began, this seemed big news for modern psychology—if it would listen.
these deep changes are external signs of strikingly different brain function.
Goleman, Daniel; Davidson, Richard J.. Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body (Kindle Locations 117-118). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
The very idea of “awakening”—the goal of the deep path—seems a quaint fairy tale to a modern sensibility. Kirby: Greater acceptance of one’s thoughts, feelings and impulses = better self knowledge. Also, lots of laughs.
There is strong similarity between Quaker practice and meditation.
Dalai Lama suggested Davidson use his lab skills to probe effects of long experience in meditation.
For both sports and meditation, the end results vary depending on what you actually do.
Did meditators get better at focusing? In those days, that was not a respectable question.
Goleman, Daniel; Davidson, Richard J.. Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body (Kindle Locations 879-880). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
fashions and fads affect thought and research, at all points in history
Some meditation traditions reserve “mindfulness” for noticing when the mind wanders. In this sense, mindfulness becomes part of a larger sequence which starts with a focus on one thing, then the mind wandering off to something else, and then the mindful moment: noticing the mind has wandered. The sequence ends with returning attention to the point of focus
It is basic to be clear on the difference between meditation and mindfulness. Meditation is a practice that can be undertaken to increase mindfulness. There may be other purposes, too.
By zooming in on details of sights, sounds, tastes, and sensations that we otherwise would habituate to, our mindfulness transformed the familiar and habitual into the fresh and intriguing. I am new all the time
A universal goal in meditation of every kind comes down to sustaining attention in a chosen way or to a given target, such as the breath. It actually comes down to noticing wavering attention and returning to the target. As Fidgety says, that is one pump of the dumbbell.
mindfulness upped their scores by more than 30 percent on the GRE, the entrance exam for grad school.
But the MBSR group did better on an unfudgeable test: participants had a significantly smaller patch of inflammation after the stress test, and their skin was more resilient, healing faster. That difference held even four months later.
Goleman, Daniel; Davidson, Richard J.. Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body (Kindle Locations 2195-2196). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Both times that first- and third-person estrangement led to misjudging where these meditators’ remarkable strengths lie and how to measure Scientists are not used to dealing with experimental subject who know more than they do.
Goleman, Daniel; Davidson, Richard J.. Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body (Kindle Locations 2854-2855). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
akin to testing a legendary golfer like Jack Nicklaus on his prowess at shooting basketball free throws.
Goleman, Daniel; Davidson, Richard J.. Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body (Kindle Locations 2855-2856). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
At his level of expertise, “meditation” becomes an ongoing feature of awareness—a trait—not a discrete act.
We do not want to reduce this quality of being to what we happen to be able to measure.
wish more people would do this
Science’s view of these yogis’ altered traits is akin to the parable of the blind men and the elephant.
Intriguing signs suggest that long-term meditators to some degree undergo state-by-trait effects that enhance the potency of their practice. Some elements of the meditative state, like gamma waves, may continue during sleep. And a daylong retreat by seasoned meditators benefited their immune response at the genetic level— a finding that startled the medical establishment.
Goleman, Daniel; Davidson, Richard J.. Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body (Kindle Locations 3253-3255). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Meditation states merge with daily activities, as altered states stabilize into altered traits and become enduring characteristics.
Already MBSR, TM, and generic forms of mindfulness are in easy-to-access forms anyone might benefit from, without having to embrace, or even know about, their Asian roots.
Goleman, Daniel; Davidson, Richard J.. Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body (Kindle Locations 3570-3571). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Findings from contemplative science can spawn innovative approaches that are soundly evidence-based, but which look nothing like meditation per se.
Mindfulness lets us observe what’s happening in the mind itself rather than simply be carried away by it. Those impulses to grab start to stand out. “You need to see it to let it go,” said Davis. While we are mindful we notice such impulses arising but regard them in the same way as other spontaneously arising thoughts.