Neuroscience and Psychology of Meditation in Everyday Life PDF Download

Author: Dusana Dorjee
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315461951
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
Neuroscience and Psychology of Meditation in Everyday Life addresses essential and timely questions about the research and practice of meditation as a path to realization of human potential for health and well-being. Balancing practical content and scientific theory, the book discusses long-term effects of six meditation practices: mindfulness, compassion, visualization-based meditation techniques, dream yoga, insight-based meditation and abiding in the existential ground of experience. Each chapter provides advice on how to embed these techniques into everyday activities, together with considerations about underlying changes in the mind and brain based on latest research evidence. This book is essential reading for professionals applying meditation-based techniques in their work and researchers in the emerging field of contemplative science. The book will also be of value to practitioners of meditation seeking to further their practice and understand associated changes in the mind and brain.

Author: Yi-Yuan Tang
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319463225
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Book Description
This book presents the latest neuroscience research on mindfulness meditation and provides guidance on how to apply these findings to our work, relationships, health, education and daily lives. Presenting cutting-edge research on the neurological and cognitive changes associated with its practice Tang aims to explain how it reaps positive effects and subsequently, how best to undertake and implement mindfulness practice. Mindfulness neuroscience research integrates theory and methods from eastern contemplative traditions, western psychology and neuroscience, and is based on neuroimaging techniques, physiological measures and behavioural tests. The Neuroscience of Mindfulness Meditation begins by explaining these foundations and then moves on to themes such as the impact of personality and how mindfulness can shape behaviour change, attention and self-control. Finally, the book discusses common misconceptions about mindfulness and challenges in future research endeavours. Written by an expert in the neuroscience of mindfulness this book will be valuable for scholars, researchers and practitioners in psychotherapy and the health sciences working with mindfulness, as well as those studying and working in the fields of neuroscience and neuropsychology.

Author: Philip David Zelazo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 113946406X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
The Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness is the first of its kind in the field, and its appearance marks a unique time in the history of intellectual inquiry on the topic. After decades during which consciousness was considered beyond the scope of legitimate scientific investigation, consciousness re-emerged as a popular focus of research towards the end of the last century, and it has remained so for nearly 20 years. There are now so many different lines of investigation on consciousness that the time has come when the field may finally benefit from a book that pulls them together and, by juxtaposing them, provides a comprehensive survey of this exciting field. An authoritative desk reference, which will also be suitable as an advanced textbook.

Author: Dusana Dorjee
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134517742
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
Mind, Brain and the Path to Happiness presents a contemporary account of traditional Buddhist mind training and the pursuit of wellbeing and happiness in the context of the latest research in psychology and the neuroscience of meditation. Following the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of Dzogchen, the book guides the reader through the gradual steps in transformation of the practitioner’s mind and brain on the path to advanced states of balance, genuine happiness and wellbeing. Dusana Dorjee explains how the mind training is grounded in philosophical and experiential exploration of the notions of happiness and human potential, and how it refines attention skills and cultivates emotional balance in training of mindfulness, meta-awareness and development of healthy emotions. The book outlines how the practitioner can explore subtle aspects of conscious experience in order to recognize the nature of the mind and reality. At each of the steps on the path the book provides novel insights into similarities and differences between Buddhist accounts and current psychological and neuroscientific theories and evidence. Throughout the book the author skilfully combines Buddhist psychology and Western scientific research with examples of meditation practices, highlighting the ultimately practical nature of Buddhist mind training. Mind, Brain and the Path to Happiness is an important book for health professionals and educators who teach or apply mindfulness and meditation-based techniques in their work, as well as for researchers and students investigating these techniques both in a clinical context and in the emerging field of contemplative science.

Author: Nirbhay N. Singh
Publisher: Nova Science Publishers
ISBN: 9781634857338
Category : Meditation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Our understanding of the nature and applications of meditation, especially mindfulness meditation, has been expanding almost as rapidly as the empirical evidence from neuroscience and intervention studies that have become available in the research literature. Meditation is centuries old and prevalent in almost all ancient cultures in one form or another. Initially, people in the West were enamoured by its spiritual promise of personal transformation, but now a larger portion is attracted to mindfulness meditation (Vipassana or insight meditation) because of the promise of enhanced physical and mental well-being. Indeed, research shows that engaging in a daily practice of meditation for 20 to 30 minutes a day over 8 weeks produces new neural networks in the brain, attesting to observable calmness and clarity of perception. This book brings together a diverse group of experts who collectively provide a nuanced view of meditation from a variety of perspectives. This book offers a single-source authoritative guide to an ancient practice that is coming into its own in the Western world.

Author: Michael A. West
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191002771
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
In the past 20 years meditation has grown enormously in popularity across the world, practised both by the general public, as well as by an increasing number of psychologists within their daily clinical practice. Meditation is now used to treat a range of disorders, including, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, chronic pain, and addiction. In the past twenty years we have also learned much more about the underlying neural bases for meditation, and why it works. The Psychology of Meditation: Research and Practice explores the practice of meditation and mindfulness and presents accounts of the cognitive and emotional processes elicited during meditation practice. Written by researchers and practitioners with considerable experience in meditation practice and from different religious or philosophical perspectives, he book examines the evidence for the effects of meditation on emotional and physical well-being in therapeutic contexts and in applied settings. The areas covered include addictions, pain management, psychotherapy, physical health, neuroscience, and the application of meditation in school and workplace settings. Uniquely, the contributors also present accounts of their own personal experience of meditation practice including their history of practice, phenomenology, and the impact it has had on their lives. Drawing on evidence from both research and practice, this is a valuable synthesis of the ways in which meditation can profoundly enrich human experience.

Author: Tara Well
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
ISBN: 168403969X
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
Discover the power of mirror meditation to help you awaken self-compassion, increase self-awareness, and gain the confidence needed to thrive. Seeing ourselves clearly isn’t always easy—especially in the age of social media. Technology has eroded our capacity for authentic self-reflection. As a result, we feel more anxious and depressed, have shorter attention spans, and have become more estranged from ourselves and each other. We’ve also become more critical of our physical appearance, and this self-criticism can damage our confidence and stand in the way of our happiness. In order to heal, we must come face to face with our true selves—not the images of ourselves that we alter and post online. If you're ready for self-reflection that has nothing to do with selfies, this book will reveal the way. Based in cutting-edge neuroscience, Mirror Meditation offers mindful practices for increasing your self-awareness, managing stress and emotions, developing self-compassion, and increasing your confidence and personal presence. Using the three principles of mindfulness meditation—attention to the present moment, open awareness, and kind intention toward oneself—you’ll realize just how much your self-criticisms are affecting you. Then you’ll have a choice—and a practice—to treat yourself with more self-acceptance. Self-awareness can help you break free from both your inner critic and the external world that stokes the fears and anxieties that we are never good enough, never have enough, and are never safe enough. The simple self-mirroring technique in this unique guide isn’t grounded in technology—just a commitment to be present with yourself.

Author: Paul Verhaeghen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199395616
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Mindfulness and one of the roads to it, meditation, have become increasingly popular as a way to promote health and well-being. Meditation can create mindfulness in daily life, which becomes an ingrained habit if applied consistently-it can boost immune function; lower levels of stress, anxiety, or depression; lift affect; regulate emotion more easily; and make you happier. Presence reviews how meditation calms the body and what goes on inside the brain during meditation-how it impacts control over attention, awareness of the body, and the experience of self. It examines how meditation leaves telltale lasting traces in brain structure, and how it impacts important areas of life such as well-being, stress, and health. In addition, it examines how mindfulness can be useful as therapy, alleviating depression, anxiety, worry, and pain. A final chapter provides advice on how to meditate and practice mindfulness in a scientifically sound way, based on what we know about how meditation works. Over the last decade, research on these beneficial effects has boomed in the cognitive and behavioral psychology and neuroscience literature, and Presence provides an overview of this research that is thorough and accessible for the curious meditator, seasoned or beginner, as well as for students and practitioners of contemplative science and related fields.

Author: Rick Hanson
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1459624157
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Gandhi, and the Buddha all had brains built essentially like anyone else's, yet they were able to harness their thoughts and shape their patterns of thinking in ways that changed history. With new breakthroughs in modern neuroscience and the wisdom of thousands of years of contemplative practice, it is possible for us to shape our own thoughts in a similar way for greater happiness, love, compassion, and wisdom. Buddha's Brain joins the forces of modern neuroscience with ancient contemplative teachings to show readers how they can work toward greater emotional well-being, healthier relationships, more effective actions, and deepened religious and spiritual understanding. This book will explain how the core elements of both psychological well-being and religious or spiritual life-virtue, mindfulness, and wisdom--are based in the core functions of the brain: regulating, learning, and valuing. Readers will also learn practical ways to apply this information, as the book offers many exercises they can do to tap the unused potential of the brain and rewire it over time for greater peace and well-being.

Author: Swami Vireshananda
Publisher: Advaita Ashrama (A Publication House of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math)
ISBN:
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 394

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Book Description
Today human beings are living more in the parallel world known as the “Digital World” or the “Virtual World”. This computer-based online community environment has no doubt its incredible benefits and advantages, not even dreamt of by our preceding generations. At the same time, it has also the frightening potential to make human beings mentally sick, and isolated, and suppress all those healthy elements which make human beings human. Today, it is a fact that this digital or virtual world is something which cannot be done away with. This being so, the only option left to us is to develop the art or skill of using it intelligently, without endangering the mental and physical well-being of the individual and the society. How to handle this “digital distraction” caused by “digital slavery” is the focus of this book, the importance of which doesn’t need to be emphasised. The book endeavours to address this important issue from various angles, through articles written by experts and thinkers from various backgrounds. Published by Advaita Ashrama, a branch of Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math, India.