slow down and live in the now

it's all about being in the present moment
feeling and thinking, and being aware of feelings, thoughts, sensations
and just not attaching judgment to any of it
just letting it happen.
accepting it.

i have been trying very hard to be mindful in my daily activities
especially driving, cleaning, and getting ready
and i find that i enjoy these things a lot more.
i feel calm. time moves slower, and i am less anxious.
i do things with more care.

we just miss out on so many of the little things in life
which may not seem like they would matter much
but they do
if you just stop and pay attention to what you are doing

instead of worrying about the future or dwelling on the past
just do what you are doing.

also, i've been making an effort to do everything slower, and multitask less.
i tend to rush through things, and try to get as much done at one time as possible,
to be efficient.
but i realize i am always tense and anxious.
when i slow down
and just do one thing at a time
and devote all my attention to that one thing
i feel significantly more relaxed.

it may seem like you would get less done.
but really, it's about prioritizing.
do the important things, and really DO them. like, with care.
and that's more productive than half-assing a bunch of things that aren't so important.

i feel like i am so easily distracted when i am trying to work on something
because i stress about the other things that i am thinking about,
so i feel the need to get everything done at one time.

but now i devote myself to one task at a time.
so when i start stressing about something else, i remind myself that i can get to it later when i have more time and attention to devote to that thing, but the present moment is for the current task.
and it really reduces the tension.


life is so lovely when you slow down and just take notice of the little things.

first post in quite a while...

i have been neglecting this thing for quite a while.

if it wasn't obvious, i created this blog for a class. but now that class is over, and i want to get back to writing in this thing for real. as a tool for cultivating greater mindfulness in myself. and maybe one day i will have a bigger following and may be able to help someone else out too.

Killa App

What if you could turn any webpage into a search engine?

Now you can! Thanks to Ambiently, a startup company that is headquartered in Houston, Texas. Its purpose is to create web discovery engine applications. Ambiently is the first ever "discovery engine." It differs from search engines like Google and Yahoo in that it is not a website that you visit and type in a search term. Rather, it is a bookmarklet that exists on your browser, which you can click while you are visiting any website and yield a list of relevant sites.

Envisioning the broad usage and benefits of creating a page-centric "ambient web" for every page on the web, Ambiently aims to create a new, richer web browsing and search experience for all web users.

Ambiently works with search engines to create a richer web browsing experience. The Ambiently blog refers to information-seeking on the web as a journey. Google provides a good starting point for finding one or two great sources of information, but Ambiently carries the web user along the rest of the journey.

To better understand the importance of a discovery engine, we can look at information-seeking using the famous berry-picking analogy by Marcia Bates (1989). She proposed that browsing the internet is a lot like picking berries in a field:

Envisioning the broad usage and benefits of creating a page-centric "ambient web" for every page on the web, Ambiently aims to create a new, richer web browsing and search experience for all web users.

When you have found find a big ripe berry on a vine, you know you have found a good patch and you stay there to find more ripe berries. A discovery engine works in the same way. It pulls up other websites within the same neighborhood as the one you have found.

To use this tool, you must first go to the Ambiently home page and drag the Ambient Page toggle button up to your toolbar (it works for pretty much every web browser). The button will be there every time you open your browser. Then, click the Ambient Page button from any website and Ambiently will create a search based on keywords within that site to provide the most relevant results.

Since Ambiently is so new, it is hard to say who's using it and how successful it is. So far the reviews are mostly positive. People like the fact that it is different from a normal search engine and find that it is a useful tool to use in addition to Google. Some use Ambiently for specific kinds of searches, like Samuel Dean who uses it for

finding good alternative content on esoteric topics and seeing how my content is being used by others.

Other users agree that Ambiently is more useful than a search engine for specific and unique topics. Scientist Seth Greenblatt finds it useful for research:

It is not always clear what search term would provide me with the most fruitful direction to go. Instead of trying a large number of search terms looking for the best one, I just have to go to a page that looks interesting, and let Ambiently do a more general search, and I can see a number of results, hopefully finding one or two that look worthwhile.

And Mr. Byrne appreciates its contribution to education:

Do you remember the old days of doing academic research? You know, back when to find content related to what you were reading you looked in the book’s bibliography. Ambiently takes that concept and applies it to web research.

While Ambiently can never replace a search engine, its usefulness for specific types of searches and in the fields of research and academics indicate a good chance that it will stick around for a long time to come. As long as Google does not develop its own discovery engine, which is possible considering all the things you can do on Google these days, Ambiently and Google shouldn't be in competition. Ambiently is different from Google, and both are useful for browsing in different ways. Google is great for finding initial sources, and Ambiently helps you find related sources. It is especially helpful for specific topics when you are having a hard time coming up with the right search query in Google.

____________________________________________________________________

Now that I have filled you in on everything you wanted to know about Ambiently, it is time to show you why you need Ambiently in your life.

Research is a fact of life for psychologists and students of psychology.  We consult past and current research to stay up to date, and researchers use it to inform their own studies.  When browsing the internet for research studies or other sources of information, we either start out with a very specific topic, or we refine our initial broad query using search engine results.

For example, when I was choosing a topic for my Writing paper, I began by searching for research showing that meditation produces promotes psychological wellbeing, therefore helping people with emotional problems and psychological disorders.  My Google searches led me to some studies that described mindfulness and tested its efficacy for treating depression.  I was intrigued, for here was an example of meditation being used in clinical psychology.

Once I had narrowed my topic down to mindfulness-based interventions, I returned to Google to search for information on mindfulness and empirical studies.  If I had known about Ambiently back then, I would have continued searching using it instead.  With Ambiently, I could have turned the first article I found on mindfulness into its own search engine to find relevant websites.  Since that article was very useful and pertained to my specific topic, then a search based on the key terms within that article would provide optimal results, which I could have obtained through Google only if I had devised the perfect query.

Search engines are great for getting started, especially if you don't yet have a clear idea of what you want to research.  But Ambiently can help us Psychologist folk out by creating our searches for us once we have found a specific topic and a pertinent website.  And to my readers who aren't psychologists but just want to research meditation from different perspectives, this tool is for you too!  As long as you find a site specific to your interest, Ambiently will provide additional relevant sources.

Let's return to the example of my research paper on mindfulness training in therapy.  Pretend I had known about Ambiently, and I happened upon an intriguing source, such as Mindfulness and Acceptance (a book by Hayes et al which I actually used in my paper).  Instead of putting myself through the trouble of coming up with search terms in Google to find similar sources, I simply click the Ambiently Page button on my toolbar and, voila!, I yield a list of websites based on the subject matter of the book, including links to books on Amazon about using mindfulness to treat anxiety and behavioral problems in children, as well as books on specific mindfulness-based intervention such as ACT and Behavioral therapies and Psychotherapy and MBSR,  a self help guide that teaches mindfulness, various sources on mindfulness and acceptance, and lots of other sources that are related yet provide some unique insight or perspective.

Now, I don't want to oversell this tool.  When using it, I do find some good resources, but I inevitably go back to Google, either to find a new article to ambiently (If 'google' can be used as a verb, then so can 'ambiently'), or to modify the types of sources I yield.  With Ambiently, there is no "advanced search" tool (although, I suppose, it is in itself a kind of advanced search engine, since it produces the optimal search for you) and no Ambiently Scholar or Ambiently Blogs like there are on Google.  When I used Ambiently in the example above, I started from an online book, and the large majority of my results were also books, so I basically only got the same kinds of sources (books) and did not have the option to search for other kinds (articles, blogs, etc.).  It is my prediction that Ambiently, which is brand new and its in its Beta form (meaning that it is changing), will allow for more personalized searches.  Instead of just having a toggle button on the toolbar, there will be an Ambiently button with a drop-down menu (like Diigo), where you can view and edit the search terms which Ambiently has chosen and specify which kinds of sources you want to search within (peer-reviewed articles, blogs, newspapers, books, etc.).  If Ambiently does not make these changes, then Google will just make its own bookmarklet that includes these functions.

Despite its limitations, Ambiently really is a wonderful tool. It's very easy to use - just drag, drop, and click! As a 'web discovery engine,' it supplements regular search engines, formulating a specialized search for you when you're unable to come up with the right search terms yourself, which can be a major challenge in research.  It's great for fields that involve lots of research, like Psychology, and for anyone searching unique and specific topics.  I'm sure in the days (or months or years) to come, filters and advanced options will be added to and enhance the bookmarklet, lest Google develop its own superior discovery engine to supersede it.

____________________________________________________________________

This post is intended to provide context for my PowerPoint presentation on Ambiently:

Ambiently Powerpoint

View more presentations from kmnorris.

Ambiently is a startup company developing web discovery applications, headquartered in Houston, Texas.  The Ambiently tool, developed this year, is a web discovery engine which means that it provides you with relevant web links directly from the site you are viewing.

As you can see in the PowerPoint, all you have to do is drag the toggle button from the homepage into your toolbar. Just click this button from any site to find relevant websites.

This is different from search engines because you do not have to come up with a query.  Ambiently creates a search for you.  It can be compared to Stumble Upon, which directs you to websites based on your interests.  But the websites that Stumble Upon directs you to are based on recommendations by like-minded people (people who rated favorably the same sites as you), whereas Ambiently's results are based on one specific site that you select.  Stumble Upon is helpful for finding various websites of general interest, but is not as useful as Ambiently for doing research, nor does it provide results as specific as those you get from Ambiently.

My presentation includes an example of Ambiently in action, using my blog as a starting point to find other sources that discuss the same topic.  Clicking on Ambiently Page takes me to a new page.  The top of the page names the site I started from, and underneath it is a list of links to relevant websites, each with a blurb describing its subject matter.  As you can see in my screen shots, I get a lot of very specific results on the same topic as my blog.  "The Mind-Body Connection" caught my attention, so I clicked on it and was taken straight to an article that I found very interesting.

Now, when I do a Google search using the key terms from my blog (mind body physical effects meditation), I get varied results, as you can see in my presentation.  But I to do a search that is more geared toward my specific topic.  So I find one website in the Google results that fits my area of interest, "Meditation as Medicine," and press the Ambiently Page button from there to get really good and really specific results.

So far, Ambiently users have given positive reviews, but there are some drawbacks to this tool.  There are no filters, so you cannot specify the types of sources you want to search for (scholarly articles, books, etc.), and it isn't possible to edit the search terms.  Since the search uses lots of keywords from the site you are viewing, it ends up providing a lot of links to the same article posted on other websites.  This tool is only useful if you know exactly what you are searching for and need specific results.  For general searches or beginning of research, a search engine is much more useful.  Ambiently is a useful tool despite these limitations, and if Google becomes aware of this tool, it may create its own superior discovery engine to supersede it.

On a search engine, you need to think of a good query and type it into a search box. With Ambiently, all you need to do is to click a button, which leads to a list of web links related to the current webpage. In other words, every webpage now is an automated "search engine" for a special topic.  This is especially useful for research on specific topics and can benefit people in research-oriented fields, such as Psychology.

The future of meditation in the medical domain

This blog has emphasized the psychological benefits of meditation.  Diaphragmatic breathing, letting go of thoughts and focusing on one's body is very calming.  It helps people with anxiety disorders relax and replaces rumination on and avoidance of negative thoughts in people with depression, consequently minimizing the impact of distressing thoughts and preventing depressive episodes.

My research on mindfulness-based interventions shows that meditation can be incorporated in a clinical setting.  It really does help people who have psychiatric disorders deal with their problems.

Mindfulness-based interventions have been around for only the past two-ish decades, and already the literature on the topic is huge.  I would not be surprised if, within my lifetime, every therapist utilized mindfulness training.  I'm sure mindfulness training will soon become part of the curriculuum for all degree programs in clinical psychology.  Already, many therapists teach their patients breathing techniques to use when they become distressed or anxious.  The next step is to add the other aspects of meditation to this training.  I feel that therapists will embrace mindfulness because of its lasting usefulness.  Cognitive therapy or behavior therapy may work immediately, but relapses are common, especially for depression.  If therapists simply incorporate mindfulness training to the usual intervention, then they are imparting a skill onto their patients that the patient can use throughout their life to prevent relapse, so that they will never have to go back to therapy.  This is much safer and cheaper than medication, and it gives engenders an invaluable sense of strength and confidence by empowering the person to effect his or her own wellbeing instead of relying on a professional or chemicals.  This is extremely important especially for people who suffer from depression, who often feel helpless and out of control.

The positive psychological effects of meditation indirectly produces physical benefits.  The mind is connected to the immune system.  Being stressed or sad is associated with weakened immunity and poor health, while optimism and psychological wellbeing is associated with physical wellbeing and longer life.  As meditation has begun to permeate the psychological field, it may also become more prominent in general medicine.  Meditation can be used as preventitive medicine because of its positive effects on the immune system, and because it lowers blood pressure, thus obviating the risk of coronary heart disease and other related disorders.  It can also help people with HIV and other immune deficiency disorders to prevent infection, and for people with chronic pain and terminal illness to boost their mood, prolong lifespan, and reduce pain.  The increased use meditation for these conditions will lead to further research on the usefulness of meditation in the medical domain, which may show it to be applicable for the treatment or prevention of other disorders.

Meditation has recieved a lot of attention recently in the psychological and medical fields.  I think it will have a large positive impact on these fields in the future.  Soon, meditation will no longer be viewed as alternative medicine, but as a normal component of healthcare.

Comment on an interview with Dr. Goldstein

 Dr. Elisha Goldstein is a clinical psychologist who practices mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) in West LA.  He's also a professional mental health blogger writer for mentalhealth.net and psychcentral.com and author of audio CDs.

Therese J. Borchard interviewed Dr. Goldstein and put it in her blog in a post called Mindfulness and Psychotherapy: An Interview with Dr. Elisha Goldstein.

The interview answered some questions that I didn't think to ask in my research on mindfulness.

First, she asks if there are times when mindfulness is not the right approach to use and whether it can actually make things worse.  I had thought about this in regards to depression.  People with depression often maintain and increase the depression by ruminating.  They analyze the events that make them sad, thinking about causes and consequences and so on.  Mindfulness is a more adaptive approach than rumination, but it seems that sitting in silence and allowing thoughts to happen may lead to rumination.  In this case, it would seem like a better idea to do something enjoyable and distract yourself from your thoughts.

Dr. Goldstein's answer is that mindfulness is a very effective technique to keep yourself in the present and to recognize when we are judging ourselves so we can learn to accept our thoughts. However, when a person is feeling extremely depressed, it is very difficult to be mindful. In this case,

distraction is a good way to go, just be intentional about it. The truth is, if you’re being intentional with the distraction, in a way, you are present.

 Mindfulness is more effective to prevent future episodes of depression.

The whole interview is really interesting. You should definitely read it if you want to learn about accepting yourself, dealing with depression, or mindfulness.

Yoga postures

I am going to share with you guys some of my favorite yoga postures and the special benefits of each. I got the info from Santosha, where you can find other postures as well if you're interested.

First is Akarna dhanur-asana (shooting bow posture).



1. Sit on the floor, legs together straight in front of you. Place hands on top of the thighs. Inhale deeply.

2. Exhale. Grab right foot with right hand and left foot with the left hand.

3. Inhale. Pull the right foot back, next to right ear. Hold for duration of inhale.

4. Exhale. Return to first position. Repeat on other side.

While you do hold the shooting bow pose, you are supposed to focus your gaze on a "target," as if you are an archer, and hold steady. This technique helps you develop focused attention.

Another favorite is Anjanaya-asana (salutation posture)


1. Kneel

2. Extend your left foot forward, knee bent

3. Palms together in front of your chest

4. With palms together, raise the arms above your head and look up.

5. Bend backward stretching the arms backward and straightening out the right leg. Hold for as long as comfortable.

6. Return to first position and repeat on other side.

This posture benefits the hips, back, chest, arms, and legs. It also improves concentration and balance.

Now, my very favorite: Chakra-asana (Wheel pose)


1. Lie flat on your back.

2. Exhale and bend the knees so that your feet are as close to the butt as possible but still flat on the floor.

3. Bend your arms and place palms of the hands flat on the floor beneath the shoulders

4. Inhale and raise head, back, and butt, arching the back.

5. Hold for duration of inhale. Exhale. Lie back down and return to initial pose.

This challenging posture has lots of physical benefits. It strengthens the spine, shoulders, arms and legs. It makes the spine more flexible. It also stimulates the cardiovascular system. The more you practice and perfect the posture, the more benefits you will gain from it.

I also started looking into Savasana.

This is not merely lying down and letting your mind wander. It involves focused attention on the body. This simple pose provides rejuvenation and relief from stress. It is effective for insomnia and anxiety. It is a great way to regain inspiration or just take a break after a stressful day or strenuous activity.

So there you go! Some fun postures that are good for the body and mind!

Ambiently reviews

Ambiently is a VERY new tool. Like, it just came out this year. So there really aren't a whole lot of reviews and such out there.  And I have not been able to find anything that indicates how many people are using the site.  But I did find a lot of articles and blogs on Google that at least mention the tool, which is impressive for such a new tool.  So that at least shows that people are aware of it and are talking about it, which probably means a considerable number of people are currently using it already.

On web worker daily, Samuel Dean posts his thoughts on ambiently, which he recently started using.  As a web worker, he explores search engines besides Google to get different kinds of results. He has found ambiently to be useful, especially for topics intended for a small or specific audience:

I find it most useful for quickly showing me alternatives to pages on fairly esoteric topics, and particularly useful for quickly looking at how anything I’ve written on the web is being picked up by others.

He gives, as an example, a link to an article that he had written about a Firefox extension called Pencil that he thought was useful.  When he goes to that page and clicks on the Ambiently tab, he finds web pages that mention his article and other sites that discuss Pencil.

He prefers Ambiently to Google for these kinds of searches because

Ambiently appears to look at a whole lot of keywords on any web page you’re on and then seeks to find matches for groups of them.

He concludes by saying

I’ll give Ambiently a nod for indeed being different from a search engine — definitely more of a “discovery engine” — but it’s primarily best at finding non-obvious relationships related to offbeat topics.

Killer Startups, which reviews internet startups, has this to say about Ambiently: 

The main advantage that this site has over search engines is that it is much simpler – you don’t have to dream up a query to fire up the search, you simply click on the Ambiently button to come across related links. As it is correctly pointed out online, each and every page becomes something akin to a search engine in itself, and a specializes search engine at that.

The review predicts that this new kind of search engine may be a predictor of services to come, and leaves the reader wondering how Ambiently will continue to evolve.

Read Write Web claims that Ambiently works best for specific topics and is not as useful if you are looking for suggestions for similar things to the site you are viewing.  For example, clicking on ambiently from that specific blog post doesn't lead to other blogs on the same topic, but it does lead to other blogs and sites that referred to it.  The article says that Ambiently could be useful, especially if you are

researching unique topics which you're having trouble locating through traditional search engine queries. But before we can say that this search tool will actually become a part of our daily routine, we'll have to live with it for a bit longer.

Actually, I used Ambiently to search for reviews on amiently.  And I did find that many sites that popped up weren't really original sites on the same topics, but were blogs and articles writing about the specific article I had started out on.  Nevertheless, it was still useful for finding unique sites about the topic.

 

More on ambiently

When I do a Google search for "meditation psychology," I get 5,270,000 results that cover a very broad range of subjects.  Once I've found an article that actually matches what I am looking for, I'd much rather have a tool that finds for me other articles like it, instead of going back to google and looking through the remaining 5, 269,999 articles and sites and blogs and reports and studies...

Ambiently is great because it picks out the articles that match exactly what you are searching for, without you having to come up with the right search terms.

This is really helpful if you are looking for articles related to the psychological and physical effects of meditation.  If you just do a google search on this topic, you are bound to get a lot of articles that only deal with meditation or only psychology... or that have both words somewhere in the site but don't really provide the insight you are looking for.  Once you have found a website that integrates the topics of meditation and physical/psychological well-being in the way you intended, then you can use ambiently to find related sites.  This way, you can find other sites that also talk about the benefits of meditation for the body and mind.

For example, if you are interested in learning more about how yoga increases immune functioning, and you have found a great article via Google or Yahoo, then you can use this article to find other relevant articles and gain even more information on the topic. Just go to the site, click on the Ambient Page tab on your tool bar, and voila! You've got a list of websites that are all related to the subject of interest. It's simple as that.

Hopefully I have convinced you that this tool is really really useful, especially if you are interested in learning everything there is to know about meditation and its many benefits.

ambiently: like a search engine, but cooler.

It's finally here: the first discovery engine.  Unlike a normal search engine that just directs you to websites based on search terms that you type in, ambiently provides a list of websites related to the site you are currently viewing.

Ambiently is a "startup company developing web discovery engine applications" with headquarters in Houston, Texas.

This application is really easy to use. You don't need to sign up or install anything.  Just go to the site's homepage and drag the toggle button that says "ambiently" to your toolbar. That's it. Then you should have a tab every time you open your browser that says "Ambient Page."

This is a great tool for research, whether you are doing it for school/job or just personal interest.  Say you find a website that has some insightful information on the topic of interest, but you want to see what additional insight you can get from other sites.  Instead of going back to your Google search results, just click on the "ambient page" tab on your toolbar.  On the top of the page, you'll see a small summary of the page you were viewing.  Next to it is a "tweet this" link, for those of you who twitter.  Underneath is a list of "ambient links," or links to related sites, along with a little blurb that gives you an idea of what is on the site (much like Google search results).  I tried out this process myself, starting from yogictrance and clicking on the ambiently tab.   It brought up a a list of sites and blogs dedicated to yoga, including a website about Savasana (a type of yoga), an article about using yoga to reduce stress and improve health, and a blog on yoga and meditation articles.

Ambiently is a new kind of search engine. In some ways, it is better than the old kind of search engine.  Obviously, you can't use ambiently until you have a starting point.  So in most cases it will be necessary to use Google or Yahoo or whatever you prefer to find one website on whatever topic you wish to learn more about.  Once you have found this site, it is much simpler to use ambiently to find similar sites than to go back to the search engine and devise a query or search term.  Sometimes, it is really hard to think of the right search words that will yield the best results:

One of the biggest problems with today’s search is that we often know roughly what we want, but cannot easily get the right query. Sometimes, our need is broader than a simple query can describe. With Ambiently, there is no such need. You get relevant web information by one click.

This is useful for any discipline.  I found it particularly useful  for researching topics related to meditation and yoga.  If you come across an article that relates to whatever you are studying, then a search engine that brings up sites relevant to that article would be the most effective way to keep researching that topic.

Ambiently is a great research tool. It's a search engine, but better ... maybe not in every way, but it's still pretty useful. I'm definitely going to use it.

Mindfulness: the current literature

There's so many informative sources, especially in the academic and scientific realms on this wonderful topic of mindfulness. And it is so interesting to think about how much it has changed therapies and even the entire field of psychology.

The literature that I have looked at thus far mainly consists of scientific studies. So many of them confirm the effectiveness of mindfulness training in treating various emotional and mental disorders (especially depression and anxiety) in different clinical settings (cognitive behavioral therapy, exposure therapy, psychotherapy, etc). But they all raise further intriguing questions and set the stage for more research.

Mindfulness means being detached from your thoughts instead of overengaging and becoming distressed by them. It means accepting them, no matter how negative or severe. It means being aware and focused on the present. It is a technique that has been used for 2500 years by Buddhists to quiet the mind. It has also been used in western cultures to successfully reduce anxiety, anger, depression, and other such maladaptive states.

Only recently (as in, within the last 20 years), has it become a topic of scientific scrutiny in the United States and been applied to therapeutic interventions.

For such a relatively young field, the literature is abundant. Individuals who undergo mindfulness-based interventions improve significantly. Their ratings of mindfulness increase (this is measured by many scales that determine how attached to one's thoughts an individual is, how much distressing thoughts negatively affect them emotionally, self-acceptance, and awareness). They experience a reduction in depressive symptoms. The difference between their ideal self model (the person they want to be) and their real self is smaller, so they are more content with their real selves and percieve a smaller gap between who they are and who they wish to become. Mindfulness-based therapies also reduce rumination and avoidance, which are maladaptive coping strategies, since mindfulness is an adaptive technique for dealing with distressing cognitions. Rumination means thinking a lot about these thoughts, how they are self-relevant, their causes and possible consequences, and so on. These thoughts only lead to more distress and depression. Avoidance means distracting oneself from these thoughts. But actively trying to push thoughts out of your mind can have a drastic rebound effect, leading to rumination.

Significantly, the effects of mindfulness-based interventions are enduring. Mindfulness is an important addition to existing therapies because it is a skill that, if practiced consistently, can last a lifetime. Therapies such as cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) are highly effective in treating depression, but most people who are treated for depression experience at least one more episode afterward. Teaching recovered patients mindfulness is a way to maintain the effects of therapy in order to prevent relapse. This is even effective for formerly-depressed patients who had exhibited suicidal behavior, attempts, or ideation. It is far less expensive than long-term therapy and much safer than antidepressants or other drugs that only suppress the symptoms without getting at the underlying problems.

So we have all this evidence strongly suggesting that there really is something to this mindfulness thing. But it's time to go deeper. No one has really proven... yet... that it is the MINDFULNESS aspect of therapy producing all of these wonderful results. We also don't know how exactly mindfulness works.

Although it hasn't been conclusively proven yet, mindfulness seems a very beneficial and effective addition to therapy.  The study of mindfulness is still very young, but the results are promising. We know that mindfulness-based therapies work.  Now it is time to research further into exactly WHY and HOW it works, and what specific contribitions mindfulness training makes.

The implications of mindfulness-based therapy

Hello Fellow bloggers!

It turns out my previous thesis was not so good. So here's my working thesis as of now: the addition of mindfulness training to therapeutic interventions is an improvement to therapies because it prolongs the effects of the therapy.

Mindfulness is a skill. It lasts for as long as you continue to practice it.  If you go to therapy to treat anxiety or depression, for example, and you learn the mindfulness technique, then you can keep using this technique after therapy to make sure that the depression or anxiety doesn't come back later, which it usually does when you only do therapy alone.

So what are the implications?

If mindfulness-based therapies really are effective in the long term (which research to date suggests is true, but a lot more will need to be done to confirm this), then the therapies should be more brief and patients should not have to return to therapy after the first intervention because of recurring symptoms.  Therefore, it is much more cost efficient than long-term psychotherapies or therapies that only treat the immediate symptoms but do not protect against relapse.  This might mean that more people will be willing to seek therapy, especially people suffering from depression.  Depression is the most common mental disorder and the most untreated.  Depressed people do not seek professional help for various reasons.  One important reason is that they do not have the energy to go to a therapist and stick to a treatment plan.  They also may feel pessimistic about the effectiveness of therapy, especially considering the fact that most people who are treated for depression experience at least one more episode after therapy.  But if they can undergo a therapy that lasts only around 8 weeks and whose benefits can be maintained for a long time, possibly even for life, then depressed individuals may feel more motivated to try it.  This therapy would also appeal to those who are hesitant to seek professional help for financial reasons, since it is a short therapy with lasting effects.

This may also replace antidepressants and other medications for some people.  Pharmacotherapy only suppresses the symptoms, and it only works while you are taking the pills.  Mindfulness teaches lifelong skills to deal with emotional problems and external stressors. It is also much more cost-efficient and far less dangerous.  Not everyone can take medications because of side effects or conditions that the person may have.  But mindfulness is safe and equally effective.

I don't know about you guys, but I feel like this intervention has a lot of potential.  The research on the topic is growing rapidly, but there is still much to be explored.  As an aspiring psychologist and meditation-enthusiast, I am excited about where this is going.  But I think the psychological community needs to raise awareness in the general public about this new intervention, especially now, when we have all these advertisements omvincing us that all our problems are due to chemical imbalances in the brain and becoming a pill popper will make us all balanced, like it worked for the sad little zoloft bubble.  People need to be informed on their options before they go running to their physicians for a prescription for something they saw on TV.  No matter how convincing the super-simplified animation of neurochemicals floating around the brain was.

Mind and Body... and Immunity

I want to take this opportunity to talk about an exciting young and flourishing field: neuroimmunology.

Neuroimmunology is a biochemical science that studies the interaction between the brain and immune functioning. I won't go into the scientific mumbo jumbo, but basically our thoughts influence our biochemistry, and vice versa, which also interacts with the immune system. So our thoughts actually do affect our health.

I learned about neuroimmunology while researching for my paper. I decided to write about how the field of psychology is opening up to non-western perspectives and is changing significantly by incorporating buddhist techniques into therapies. Mindfulness, which has been practiced by Buddhists for over 2,000 years, has been added to many different therapeutic interventions. It describes the ability to detach oneself from his thoughts and to observe and accept them without becoming distressed. Mindfulness changes the neurochemistry of the brain in a way that enhances immune functioning.

Mindfulness training has proven effective for treating physical and psychological illnesses. It can improve the immune functioning of cancer patients and people with HIV while also improving their mental wellbeing.

Mind Body Intelligence is a holistic approach to treating mental and physical conditions that combines mindfulness meditation, yoga, and psychotherapy. The mindfulness meditation component teaches the patient breathing techniques, detachment from and acceptance of thoughts, and Buddhist principles. MBI treats the whole person, so it is appropriate for various disorders, including mood disorders, personality disorders, substance dependence, and eating disorders. In the medical realm, it is used to alleviate the suffering of patients with chronic pain those who have a terminal illness, as well as improving their immune functioning. It also treats cardiac and pulmonary diseases and diabetes. People who undergo MBI acquire lifelong skills to deal with stress effectively, reduce anxiety, and manage pain.

As I said, this is part of my research for a paper I am writing. Here is a portion of what I have written so far that incorporates this source and also discusses mindfulness training in more detail:

Recently, literature supporting the effectiveness of mindfulness training in various settings has proliferated, evidencing the ascendance of eastern ideals in western psychology. Mindfulness training teaches the patient to observe his thoughts and accept them, no matter how unpleasant or severe (Kumar, Feldman, Hayes). Continued practice empowers the individual to detach himself from his thoughts and become less emotionally reactive to distressing thoughts or events. The mindfulness technique is effective in clinical and nonclinical settings. Within the clinical realm, it has been used to treat various disorders, including Major Depressive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, eating disorders, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, and substance abuse. Mindfulness has been incorporated into various types of therapies. One example is Exposure-based therapy for depression. The first phase of mindfulness training teaches the patient to focus his attention on present thoughts and respond to distress adaptively, which means observing and accepting thoughts instead of avoiding them or ruminating. In the next phase, the uses the skills learned in the first phase to respond to material that previously induced depression without becoming distressed. This is followed by exposure-based cognitive therapy. An open trial of the therapy resulted in significant increases in mindfulness, along with a reduction in avoidance and rumination behavior and absorption in distressing thoughts. It also effectively treated depression. Another intervention that incorporates mindfulness is Mind Body Intelligence Program (MBI) (Adelman). MBI is based on the assumption that the mind and body interact, so mental health is brought about by treating the entire person. It integrates aspects of Family and Systems Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapy, and CBT, along with Buddhist practices. Patients learn mindfulness meditation, which teaches breathing techniques, the ability to settle rambling thoughts and be aware of one’s body and movements, and Buddhist principles of fulfillment, compassion, and tolerance. It has been shown to improve quality of life and self-esteem, reduce pain, and enhance sleep quality.

Fascinating stuff, huh?
Stay tuned to learn more about that amazingness that is mindfulness.

Topoi

So when I was figuring out what topic to research for my writing class, I was looking for information on meditation that is somehow related to psychology. That is how I came across mindfulness-based therapies. I had never heard of this before, but I was immediately intrigued. I worried that there might not be enough on this topic to write an entire paper that would actually be worth reading, but applying the topoi method to my topic opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities that I had not considered.

Contrast
How does mindfulness therapy differ from psychoanalytic therapy? What are the pros and cons of these differences? Do mindfulness-based cognitive and behavior therapies differ significantly from traditional cognitive and behavior therapies? Does adding the mindfulness component introduce new ideas about mental illnesses and treatment?

Causes and Effects
Why has meditation become more widespread in Western culture, and what initiated its incorporation into science? There is a lot of empirical research on meditation and its benefits to mental health. Does this research precede the application of mindfulness in therapeutic approaches? Mindfulness-based therapies are short (eight sessions, each two hours) and are effective in the long-term. Does this increase the likelihood that people who do not want to commit lots of time or money to therapy will seek help? Considering it is equally effective as pharmacological interventions, will it have the effect of reducing our over-reliance on meds?

Changes
The addition of mindfulness to behavioral and cognitive therapy has caused some changes to the theories behind these interventions. Behavior theory no longer requires that symptoms, causes, and treatment be described in purely behavioral terms. It now allows for some psychological explanation and intervention. Both behavior and cognitive therapies have changed their focus from the form of negative thoughts to their function, which means they deal with thoughts that produce maladaptive effects, not negative thoughts in general. The goal of mindfulness is not to suppress maladaptive cognitions, but to learn to prevent the negative effects they have on our mood in specific situations.

A possible change associated with mindfulness-based therapy may be a greater acceptance of alternative approaches in medicine. Maybe people will be more open to using meditation instead of medicine for other illnesses as well, both mental and physical.



Well, that's as far as I've gotten with the topoi. Now I just have to figure out a thesis...

My pagey-flake

As you should have figured, based on the random bibliographies I've been posting, I am writing a research paper on some aspect of meditation and its usefulness in therapy. I created a page on pageflakes to cumulate all kinds of research in one place. If you click the link and check out my page, brilliantly entitled Paper 2, the first thing you might notice is the lovely blue sky-and-clouds theme, which is intended to create a light, happy, relaxing atmosphere. Seems appropriate for the topic, right? Now that I've put you in a good mood, hopefully you'll enjoy the actual content of the page.

My page is organized into two columns. The first flake in the first column is called BIBLIOGRAPHY FLAKE, which contains my complete bibliography plus annotations. I chose books and scholarly articles about the use of the mindfulness approach in therapies. Mindfulness means being aware of and detached from your thoughts, so you can pay attention to them but not allow them to control your feelings. It is a type of meditation that some therapists incorporate into their interventions to treat clients with mood disorders. I included sources that provide information on different aspects and applications of mindfulness-integrated therapies. Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for Depression confirms the effectiveness of mindfulness training in preventing recurring episodes of depression. Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and Self-Discrepancy in Recovered Depressed Patients with a History of Depression and Suicidality assesses its ability to help people with depression or who exhibit suicidal ideation and behaviors based on the self-discrepancy theory of depression, while Letting Go: Mindfulness and Negative Automatic Thinking bases its assessment on the theory that depression is caused and maintained by negative automatic thoughts. All of these sources describe mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), but Mindfulness and Acceptance considers behavior therapy as well. All of my sources have something unique to offer.

The next flake in the column is the rss feed to emmarlyb's delicious bookmarks, which I wrote about in my bookmarking soulmate post, followed by my own bookmarks on diigo. The next two are universal web search and universal blog search. The universal web search is already loaded with the results for "meditation psychology brain." I tried out a lot of different search terms to get the best possible results. "Meditation" by itself was definitely too general, so I tried "meditation psychology," which came up with some good things, but most were irrelevant. "meditation brain" yielded a lot of articles about the brain's activity during meditation, but not enough explained the benefits of these processes. "meditation therapy" provided some interesting articles about therapies and meditation, but very few of them actually had anything to do with the use of meditation in therapies to treat mental disorders. It turns out that searching for "meditation psychology brain" comes up with the largest number of relevant sources, which describe clinical applications of meditation and how meditation brings about positive health effects. I tried using the same search terms in the Universal Blog Search, but the results were completely useless. After trying out some different terms and combinations of terms, I ended with "mindfulness therapy."

All of the flakes in the second column are rss feeds. They come from websites where I found useful information on my topic, and they are updated regularly with new stories, articles, and so on. Some of the websites might seem irrelevant. f you are looking at it now you might be wondering, how can drug-resistant gonorrhea possibly have anything to do with meditation? And the answer is, it doesn't (at least as far as I know). But it comes from the Life section of New Scientist, which actually has some informative stories about meditation and its benefits. It's hard to find sites that emphasize the clinical use of meditation, but there are some sites on spirituality in general that are useful. My favorite is Yogic Trance, which I made a flake for, and about which I've written a profile post. Other sites that I've made flakes for are about physiology, science, or the brain. They are useful because they consider meditation from a biological perspective.

Anyway, I am hoping that organizing all these feeds and internet sources on one page will simplify my research. I have added a wide variety of sources on physiology, the brain, spirituality, etc. to get lots of different perspectives on my specific topic: mindfulness-based therapies. Hope you find that my flakes feed your interests as well!

Some more random bibliography stuff

Hello.

These are just some more sources I've found on mindfulness based therapy:

Hayes, Steven C., Victoria M. Follette, and Marsha Linehan. Mindfulness and Acceptance. 2004.
 This book discusses the addition of the mindfulness approach to therapy. But instead of focusing solely on mindfulness-based cognitive therapy like most other books and articles, it emphasizes behavior therapy. Behavior therapy has changed over time, and the most radical change is the recent addition of mindfulness training, which is unique because it focuses on the function of negative thoughts instead of on their form.

Segal, Zindel V., J. Mark G. Williams, and John D. Teasdale. Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for Depression. 2002.
 This book discusses treatment of depression. This book is different from other sources on the topic because it focuses primarily on preventing relapse instead of on treating a single episode. The authors, who are psychologists, argue that individuals are more likely to have recurrent episodes of depression if they hold on to negative beliefs about themselves and the world. Mindfulness training teaches people to be aware of theirr thoughts. This source will contribute information about the mindfuflness approach and the effects of combining it with cognitive therapy.

Crane, Catherine et al. “Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy and Self-Discrepancy in Recovered Depressed Patients with a History of Depression and Suicidality.” Cognitive Therapy and Research 32.6 (2008): 775-787.

Kumar, Sameet, Greg Feldman, and Adele Hayes. “Changes in Mindfulness and Emotion Regulation in an Exposure-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression.” Cognitive Therapy and Research 32.6 (2008): 734-744.

A brief bibliography

I’ve decided to write a research paper on mindfulness-based therapies. Basically, they are therapies that teach you to separate yourself from your thoughts. This technique is used with people who suffer from depression, to teach them to let go of their negative thoughts. Here are a couple sources that I found:

Frewen, Paul et al. “Letting Go: Mindfulness and Negative Automatic Thinking.” Cognitive Therapy and Research 32.6 (2008): 758-774.

This article includes two studies that investigate whether mindfulness affects automatic negative thoughts. The results indicate that mindfulness reduces the occurrence of negative thoughts and increases control over these thoughts. This is a unique source because it explores the relationship between mindfulness and the ability to let go of negative thoughts. The article is useful because it discusses the clinical implications of the results.

Nieburg, Nicola. “mind OVER malady.” Prevention 61.1 (2009): 43.

This article argues that mental health influences immune functioning. It is different because it discusses psychoneuroimmunology, a field that combines psychiatry, neurology, and immunology. This source provides evidence for the beneficial effects of mindfulness on health, and this may suggest that mindfulness-based therapy can improve physical health.

Cover-up

As I look through blogs and bookmarks, I have come across different models that explain meditation's effect on the mind. Some are a little ridiculous, but I have found some that I actually think are pretty intriguing and that I would like to do further research on. One in particular is Henk Barendregt's Cover-Up Model, which I found in the blog Spirituality, Science and Technology. Barendregt's notoriety comes from his work on Type Theory and Lambda Calculus, not so much in the same field as meditation. This is what drew me to his model. What does this math and computer science whiz have to say about meditation?

Here's the Cover Up Model in a nutshell:

The Mind has three important characteristics, which Buddhism says are the three characteristics of all things:

1. it is constantly fluctuating
2. it is unbearable
3. it is not under our control

Barendregt likens #2 to nausea. He says that we try to cover it up by distracting ourselves, thinking positively, seeking pleasure, and so on. Cover-up is an indirect and temporary way to cope with nausea. Whenever it starts to creep up, you have to find another way to distract yourself. To deal with nausea directly, you must take the path of purification through mindfulness, whose efficacy can be explained by yet another model - the Abhidhamma model of ancient Buddhism. The blog post doesn't say much about this model, just that

the stream of consciousness is discrete, basically serial but with parallel sub-branches.

I'll look into this model in more detail as part of my research... and hopefully I will actually be able to make sense of it. But it's definitely an important model for my research since Barendregt mentions it when explaining Cover-up.

My research may include different models on the Mind. My goal is to relate them to meditation of course, but also to the body. Maybe they will provide insight into why meditation causes physical and psychological benefits.

Stay tuned for more information on this and other models!

My soulmate

I have found my soulmate, and her name is emmarlyb. We met online... Actually, she doesn't know who I am. I came across her bookmarks when I was searching for tags like meditation and psychology. After scanning her other tags, I am convinced that we are compatible. True, she does have over 2,000 tags, the majority of which have absolutely no relevance to my interests. But she also has 150 bookmarks under meditation, 224 under psychology, 40 under Buddhism, 82 combined for neuroscience and neuropsychology, 121 under spirituality, 28 under mindfulness and 33 consciousness, along with many other tags that take me exactly where I want to go. In fact, when I searched for bookmarks tagged meditation and psychology, I found 36 related tags. I would have appreciated some more organization, but we can't get everything we want out of a soulmate. It would be easier to navigate through her 14,000 bookmarked pages if she bundled them into broader categories. But, alas, there are only five tags within two bundles, the remaining 2,067 are free-floating.

"Thinking about Not-thinking": Neural Correlates of Conceptual Processing during Zen Meditation is a great resource that comes from PLoS One, a website that publishes peer-reviewed research articles. Certain parts of the brain are active when we are awake but resting, but inactive when we are doing things that require a lot of attention. This is called the "default network" The study showed that

Zen practitioners displayed a reduced duration of the neural response linked to conceptual processing in regions of the default network, suggesting that meditative training may foster the ability to control the automatic cascade of semantic associations triggered by a stimulus.

I had to re-read that a few times, and I'm still confused. But basically, meditation trains us to control our automatic thoughts, and this study demonstrates the physiological mechanism. Even if this is a little difficult to understand, it is an awesome source. It is a research study, so the methods, data, and results are outlined, along with a discussion of the results. So instead of accepting the information in blind faith, you can see for yourself how the information was obtained. It is also peer-edited, so you know it's reliable. You can also look to the reference list at the end of the article for further reading, if you felt so inclined.

Another great, and much more comprensible, resource is Which Cognitive Enhancers Really Work: Brain Training, Drugs, Vitamins, Meditation, or Exercise?, which you can find on PsyBlog. I like this article a lot because it isn't as intellectual and wordy as a research article, yet its claims are based on current science. And if you want to check out the studies that are mentioned, just click on the hyperlinked text. The article discusses five methods that are believed to slow down the aging process of the brain and their relative effectiveness. Here is its vedict on meditation:

Meditation still has to be considered unproven as a cognitive enhancer but it probably won't do you any harm, plus it's free.

I don't think the authors looked hard enough, or even at all, considering all the research I've found just in the past few weeks that connects meditation to enhanced brain functioning. But at least they admitted that there may be something common among the different types of meditation that improves the brain. Come to think of it, this probably isn't the greatest resource. But I think it's at least valuable because it reminds us that we cannot be overly convinced by what we read, especially if we only seek out information that confirms our beliefs. There may be just as much contrary evidence. Also, the authors concluded that exercise is the best way to keep your brain sharp. The research in the article about this might also help explain why yoga has so many benefits, although I really don't think you can attribute ALL the benefits to exercise alone.

People may say that there is not enough proof that meditation enhances our cognitive ability, but the scientists who have actually done the research, like neuroscientist Andrew Newberg, would disagree. His interview with Sharp Brains is discussed in Meditation and the Neuroscience of Inner Peace, which I found in emmarlyb's bookmarks. If you are interested in the current research on how meditation improves cognitive functioning or the direction that this research is going, then definitely check out the blog post. It's brief, but it's a nice simple overview of what's going on in the field, and it has links to some informative articles. Currently, scientists are researching how breathing techniques and meditation improve cognitive function (memory, attention, reduced levels of depression). Newberg wants to expand this research to include people who have alzheimer's and dementia. His lab is

conducting a study where 15 older adults with memory problems are practicing Kirtan Kriya meditation during 8 weeks, and we have found very promising preliminary outcomes in terms of the impact on brain function.

In a previous post I talked a bit about the research that suggested that meditation increases grey matter in the brain, slowing down the aging of the brain. This seems promising for people who want to prevent age-related cognitive problems (alzheimer's and dementia) from developing, but there may also be some hope that this is the cure scientists have been looking for. I'll definitely be keeping up with Newberg's research to see where it leads.

G'day!

BLOGORAMA! (revised)

Hello friends!

If you have come across this blog intentionally, then you probably share my desire to learn about the wonders of meditation. I have always been very science-oriented, so I am not what you would call a spiritual person. But recently I have taken an interest in the benefits of meditation. Specifically, how does separating yourself from the material world and connecting with the nonphysical world, affect your psychological wellbeing? From what I have heard, people who meditate gain the ability to relax, greater awareness, and increased concentration. But that’s not all. They also reap various physical benefits. Is this a direct consequence of meditation? Or is it that our minds and immune systems are connected, and so by becoming psychologically healthy we indirectly promote the health of our bodies? Or maybe meditation is not the cause. Could it be that people who are inclined to meditate are also more likely to live healthier lives generally? These are just a few questions I hope to answer in this blog.

I am studying Psychology at the University of Southern California. After taking five Upper Level courses in Psych I am very knowledgeable about the link between someone's cognitions (thoughts) and how well-adjusted they are. One of the most effective therapies for depression (Cognitive Behavior Therapy, or CBT) teaches clients to challenge and refute their automatic thoughts that cause and sustain the depressive state. Meditation trains us to let go of our thoughts so they do not control us. When I learned in one of my Psych classes (actually in two, but it wasn't quite as impressive the second time) that meditation can be as effective as CBT in treating mental disorders like depression, my interest grew. Considering how expensive therapy can be, and how unwilling people are to seek professional help, meditation seems like a great alternative that might actually attract more people who otherwise would suffer on their own.

Meditation also works as well as chemical intervention for certain disorders, without the side effects. Generally, I don’t think people should turn to prescription drugs except as a last resort. They are a quick fix, and they only work as long as you are taking them. If the cause of the disorder has to do with the way you think, then drugs are only a superficial cure. On the other hand, therapy and meditation equip you with long-term skills to turn your thoughts into more adaptive ones.

I hope this blog will reach an audience that would like to learn about the benefits of meditation and possibly can contribute some of their own insights. This is also for people who want to know about nonconventional treatments for physical and psychological conditions, such as diet and lifestyle changes, herbal remedies, non-mainstream drugs and vitamins, massage therapy, music, and so many others.  Yoga and meditation, along with the approaches I just listed, are considered alternative medicine, but do they really belong in the same category?  I wonder if there might be enough scientific support for their healing capabilities to classify them within mainstream medicine.  After all, alternative medicine is so named because it is not empirically supported, so placing meditation in this category delegitimizes it and enforces the notion that it is just New Age mumbo jumbo.  I will look to scientific research in my posts to determine whether the 'alternative medicine' label is appropriate, or whether meditation actually has a place in clinical settings. This blog will focus on the effects of meditation from psychological and physiological perspectives, so I hope to attract readers from the natural and social sciences fields. But I will gear my writing toward an audience without a scientific background.

I hope that, whether you are reading out of pure curiosity or to learn more about getting healthy in a natural way, you will enjoy and benefit from my posts.

___________________________________________________________________

YOGIC TRANCE

Are you anxious? Stressed? Depressed? Do you wish you could quit smoking? Do you yearn for a better night's sleep? Do you have trouble concentrating? Wish you had more energy? Or maybe you would just like to quiet your mind and relax? No matter the ailment, there is a good chance that practicing yoga can provide some relief, if not as a cure, then as a way to create inner peace and reduce the pain or anxiety associated with the problem.

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, and if you do yoga or would like to start, then Yogic Trance is the place for you. You can learn postures and breathing techniques, read true accounts about how meditation has improved individuals’ qualities of life, explore disorders that yoga can treat and the specific meditations used, discover the ideology behind yoga… and the list goes on. The blog is updated frequently; some days have multiple posts. And the archive dates back to May 2008. It is a popular blog, which is understandable since the content of the posts is intriguing and informative. The most viewed post, Bed time blues: When you can’t sleep!, has been viewed 61 times (what else is there to do when you can't fall asleep?). The title is simple, descriptive, and informal, letting the reader know the subject of the post and implying that it isn't full of scientific jargon. Finally, the title hooks the reader and reels him into the post. I mean, don't you want to read the post now? Maybe not, but at least just read the first paragraph:

It’s 3 a.m. You’re scheduled to give a big presentation at eleven, only eight hours away. You desperately need to sleep so you will be rested and alert when your big moment comes, but here you are staring wide eyed at the bedroom ceiling. Your mind is agitated and your body won’t relax. The harder you work at getting to sleep, the wider awake you are. You’ve already tried counting sheep, watching the late show, and making yourself a snack-all to no avail. In desperation you reach for a sleeping pill.

The blogger (who cleverly goes by the pseudonym Admin) writes very interesting posts that draw the reader in from the beginning. Some posts provide information about the biological mechanisms and all that science-ey stuff, but it is presented in a way that any semi-educated person can understand. His (or her?) audience is anyone who wants to know about yoga and its benefits. As we will see, the blog does include academic sources and research studies, so it is sophisticated enough for people in the field of Psychology to enjoy it and learn from as well.

One post that I found interesting is Meditation and Yoga for Depression and Bipolar, which is an account of the blogger’s experience with depression and how meditation helped him sort out his life. I was really amused by the way he describes losing control of his mind:

My mind, for one, is like a Circuit City showroom, with TVs and VCRs and home sound systems blaring all at once from all sides, and K-mart blue light specials and beepers and police radios going off against a truckload of gongs clattering down marble steps.

...This is probably more amusing for me than for the person actually going through it. But of course that's what he intended - he uses humor and metaphor to explain his problem in a way that is easy to understand, light-hearted, and compelling. It’s amazing that yoga could help him calm this racket inside his head (Read the post if you want to find out his routine!).  He supplements his anecdote with insight from a yoga instructor, Amy Weintraub, who pulled herself out of chronic depression by practicing yoga, then wrote Yoga for Depression: A Compassionate Guide to Relieve Suffering Through Yoga after researching depression.  Then he cites a UCLA study that supports the effectiveness of yoga as treatment for depression:

28 mildly-depressed young adults attended two one-hour yoga classes twice a week for five weeks. Midway into the course, subjects "demonstrated significant decreases in self-reported symptoms of depression and trait anxiety," which they maintained to the end. Subjects also reported decreased negative mood and fatigue following class.

I would not call this a scholarly or academic blog, seeing as the posts are informal and address a wide audience, but it is definitely credible. The blogger uses stories from his experience and those of other people (not very scientific sources), as well as professional wisdom and scientific research to explain what's going on and support the claims made in the post.

Another interesting post, Yoga Cure for Smoking, explains how yoga helps people overcome psychological and emotional problems, which in turn gives them the strength to quit smoking (Check out the post to see a breathing technique that fights cravings). So far I have cited depression, bipolar disorder, and substance dependence as mental illnesses for which yoga can provide relief, but the blog includes plenty more examples. Real life story of how Kundalini Yoga helped OCD describes a female patient's struggle with obsessive compulsive and body dysmorphic disorders. After undergoing Kundalini Yoga therapy she says,

Yoga put me in a state of balance, and gave me peace of mind immediately. I was able to quit cigarettes. I also started to have a normal appetite again…The most beneficial aspect of the experience, however, was the immediate release from anxiety, depression, and OCD… The continuation of the practice led to a greater state of peace and general strength that has continued up to this day.

This is an example of someone who achieved considerable gains from yoga and whose life was truly improved as a result. She quit smoking, regained a normal appetite and recovered from psychiatric problems in all the short term, and she obtained enduring inner peace and strength. This is experiential proof that yoga can have a significant positive impact on a person's quality of life and that it can help people become physically and mentally healthier.

No matter the topic, all the posts (at least the ones I got around to reading) were rich and detailed. I like this blog a lot because the content of its posts go beyond the obvious and expected benefits of yoga. I was actually surprised by some of the illnesses that meditation can help people deal with (addictions, ADHD, insomnia, etc.). Just looking through the titles made me want to read what was inside the posts because I wanted to know how meditation produces these effects, especially from a Psychological point of view. And, to my delight, I found such explanations in the posts.

My blog, like this one, will look at yoga and its health benefits. Specifically, how yoga affects the brain to improve psychological and physical health. Yogic Trance will contribute insight on this particular topic, but my blog will differ because it will consider various practices that involve meditation, not just yoga. My focus will be meditation in general, its effect on the brain, and how this produces the oh-so-many health benefits associated with meditating.

So check out that blog guys! Seriously.

___________________________________________________________________

Blogger's Voice: Quint(ess)en(ce)

It's not always what you say that's important, but how you say it.

I want to learn about the connection between the mind and the body and about meditation's role in improving the health of both. I want to explore what other people are saying about this topic right now. But I'm not going to be interested in what someone has to say if the message is too dry or difficult to understand. A writer's voice describes how he tells a story, and I am interested in authors who write in a way that is compelling, easy to follow, and enjoyable to read.

Quint(ess)en(ce) presents information on meditation, yoga, and hypnosis in an effective way. It has over 38,000 hits, so I'd say it's got a decent fan base, and it contains lots of blog posts, covering quite a range of topics. But generally the posts address superphysical states, like hypnosis and meditation, and discuss recent scientific research related to health.

The blogger's voice is pretty consistent throughout the posts. He is generally straightforward and informal, and his posts are simple and fluid: it is easy for us non-intellectuals to read, and the sentences flow together nicely. He is personal and conversational, sharing anecdotes, experiences, and reflections and addressing the audience as "you." This way, the reader gets a sense about the person who is writing and feels like he or she is being talked to. It also grabs the readers' attention instead of boring them with overly-academic babble. Some of the titles are kind of dry and straightforward, like Kinesiology tutorials, Learn to solve your sleeping problems and more, and Physiology of Meditation: Sensitization of the nervous system, but others describe the subject in a way that is more enticing, like Niche marketing on crack and Otherness: The experience of vastness of Being.

Now, why don't we look at the blogger's use of voice in some of these posts...

The experience of Vastness of Being opens with:

When I was around this age of seventeen I was interested in Psychology, Yoga, Otherness. In short I was interested in the Power of the Mind [or lack of it] with the goal to experience those insights people have that is beyond the world of the Physical.

Psychology, Yoga, Otherness. This is not grammatical; there should be an "and." but he left it out for a reason. These aren't the only three things he was interested in. There is so much that goes along with these topics. If he had said "Psychology, Yoga and Otherness," it would seem that this is the extent of his interest. Nothing more. He also capitalizes each of these words, as well as Power, Mind, and Physical, for emphasis. These words connote something that extends beyond the physical world and is much greater than us. Yet, when speaking about these things, he doesn’t attempt to act as a guru, blessing us with information from on High. He remains very informal, writing with brackets and speaking as he would in conversation.

His conversational speech means that he does not pay attention to grammatical rules, but instead structures his sentences to mimic how he would actually speak, isolating certain words for emphasis or pausing to let the reader think about what was said and wonder what is next. He says that he has become a dreamer and that he creates idealistic expectations about this life.
After listing some books (and links to those books) that contributed to his idealism, he says:

The latter was the icing of the cake, so to speak. Because soon after that I left this path of thinking. Satified. Or not?! At least until today. Today I have the urge to write about my Vision of Otherness based on those people who have sculped me.

Let's ignore the typos and focus on what he meant to say. His sentences are mostly short. He puts a period between speak and Because to create a pause. He uses lots of periods (and other punctuation) to separate his thoughts. He gives satisfied its own sentence to create a sense of uncertainty about whether he really is satisfied. He questions it (very dramatically- he apparently really wanted to emphasize this doubt). And the next sentence is kind of a hook, drawing his audience to continue reading in order to find out what he means by questioning his satisfaction and what happened today to affect it. He uses the same technique in his post Physiology of Meditation: Sensitization of the nervous system:

It is stated that Atman is the Soul (animation). Because … where there is no Soul there is no Atman. You get it: no breath, no life. It is that simple.

In this case, he uses it to state a seemingly complicated topic in a very simple way. The pauses give the reader a chance to understand what they just read. It also emphasizes how simple the concept actually is so that the reader doesn’t over-think it.

This particular blog contains many words that are unfamiliar to most people who do not have a background in science or yoga. The main words are defined in the post in block format, while the other words include links to their Wikipedia definitions.

After defining sensitization and providing a short personal story about public speaking, the post says:

Because this is the link where I want to prove to you that Meditation, Relaxation, Centering your mind are all techniques to train your nervous system to become sensitive. Even running can do bring you in a Alpha state because of the rythm of your running and the physiological changes that take place.

Why running you might ask? Well, everybody knows about the releasing of those endorphins while running.

This is followed by a definition of the word endorphin. Here is another example of a sentence beginning with Because and employing capitalization to represent significant words. Bold font is used to emphasize a very important point.  Clearly, it is the writer's intention to convince us of his argument by explaining it as thoroughly and clearly as possible, and by focusing our attention on the major terms and phrases.  That he cares more about his audience than about impressing us with his expertise and eloquence says a lot about his character.  His writing voice portrays him as a friendly, approachable guy, and as someone who doesn't put on airs, but who is genuine.  Whether or not he is actually capable of speaking formally and intellectually, it is clear that he is smart and able to express his argument effectively.

The entire post up to this point has been about sensitization and its importance to health. The above quote links sensitization to yoga and creates a transition to the next, more crucial, part of the post, which discusses this link in depth.  Running is used as a metaphor to explain how these techniques make you more sensitive and thus healthier.

The blogger is clearly enthusiastic about meditation and all things relevant (why else would he devote a blog to it?). He enjoys telling others about all the fascinating things he has learned. And he wants to make sure that his audience understands what he is saying. He does this by forgoing grammar in favor of simplicity. His sentences are short, which gives the reader time to pause and take in what has been read. It also makes the post easy to read. He uses metaphors occasionally and bold font throughout his posts so that the reader pays attention to those phrases that are most important for understanding his point. He capitalizes words that are significant and defines words that are not part of the common person's vocab. His personal stories give us some information about him and his interests. He passes on his knowledge to us as a friend, not as a teacher or a guru. And he is very happy to be able to share this with us.

The del.icio.us way to learn about meditation

A search for bookmarks under the tag meditation on the social bookmarking website Delicious yields lots of results, 34770 to be exact. This shouldn't be too surprising, considering this is such a broad category. You can find articles on pretty much anything you wanted to know related to meditation, including how to meditate, how meditation works, and different kinds of practices that involve meditation. You can narrow your search by including other tags. You'll come up with 3747 bookmarked pages if you search for bookmarks under the tags meditation and health. By browsing titles, I found that the majority of these results are directly relevant to my blog.


When I searched meditation, I found an article from newscientist.com called Meditation Builds up the Brain, which was also tagged under health, brain, science and psychology. It explains how meditating increases the size of the cortex, which

results from wider blood vessels, more supporting structures such as glia and
astrocytes, and increased branching and connections.

It also improves performance, although how this happens isn't certain. Somehow, meditating boosts energy and immediately leads to better performance, especially when people are sleep deprived, even with people who are inexperienced at meditating. And it works better than taking a nap!

My search also brought me to The Benefits of Meditation, which is also tagged under health, mind, concentration, and stress. It explains various benefits, such reduced stress (obvious and repetitive, I know, but it's important!) and other less obvious effects, some of which go along with reduced stress levels. Meditators have a lower risk of heart disease, for instance. I liked this article because it doesn't overwhelm you with details. It says enough to get the point across while providing links for deeper reading on certain topics. For example, it simply states:

Meditation has also been shown to relieve the
pain associated with certain illnesses.

If you click relieve the pain, you are directed to a relevant article from Medical News Today. This would be really cool if only most of the links led to a page that wasn't expired.

Mind over matter, which is tagged under meditation, health, mind, book, and life, is about neuroscientist Shanida Nataraja's book, The Blissful Brain. She has some new and interesting ideas about meditation (although they are related to stress reduction). Her most intriguing comment was that meditation works because it integrates both sides of the brain:

Generally speaking, the left hemisphere is associated with analytical, rational
and logical processing, whereas the right hemisphere is associated with abstract
thought, non-verbal awareness, visual-spatial perception and the expression and
modulation of emotions. In the western world, most individuals navigate through
their everyday life in a fashion dominated by left-brained thinking.

Meditation teaches people to think less, feel more, and stop being overwhelmed by our ceaseless thoughts. Nataraja used skin response meters and electroencephalograms (fancy ways of measuring emotional changes and brain activity, respectively) on participants in her research and found that meditating activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which basically means more right-brain activity and less stress.

The final article that I will talk about, which was tagged under meditation, health and benefit is Drug Conditions that are Benefited by Meditation. Go to this site and you'll find a list of various health conditions (drug addiction, pain management, cancer, heart diseas, infertility, psoriasis, and fibromyalgia, to name a few) followed by a blurb with an explanation or evidence on how meditation brings about treatment or relief. For example, under infertility it says

Couples dealing with infertility may become depressed, anxious and angry. To
help them cope, Alice D. Domar, Ph.D., a psychologist at the Mind/Body Medical
Institute, taught the relaxation response to one group of infertile couples.
Compared with a similar group of infertile couples who did not learn deep
relaxation, the meditators experienced less distress-and were more likely to get
pregnant.

Delicious is a great resource if you want to learn more about the health effects of meditation, or pretty much anything else about meditation for that matter. The search results page gives information about each article's title, source, and tags. You can click on a tag to find more articles under that tag. There's also a list called "related tags." This is very helpful if you are trying to narrow your search and filter out the irrelevant junk. When I first typed in meditation, I was overwhelmed by all the results I got. But when I saw health under related tags, I used that to come up with a shorter list of articles that were specific to my area of interest.