Meditation Reduces Pain

A study by Wake Forest University School of Medicine finds that meditation reduces pain by 40 percent and reduced pain more than pain-relieving drugs.

Of course trying to meditate while in pain can be challenging.

Study Supports the Power of Positive Thinking

While the Law of Attraction is not mentioned, it did pop into my mind. Men's Health gives a report on a study where positive thinking could protect you from a cold.

Meditation in a High-Security Prison

NPR tells the story of the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility and their Vipassana meditation program. One of the results of this program: "...a 20 percent reduction in disciplinary action."

Spiritual Bypassing

Reality Sandwich has a snippet on Spiritual Bypassing, from the book Spiritual Bypassing: When Spirituality Disconnects Us from What Really Matters. It discusses the tendency of those that follow a spiritual path to ignore or repress those difficult emotions that we view as negative.

I see this essentially as the issue of denying our shadow self. It only makes witnessing and feeling these emotions (or even thoughts) that much more important.

The Effects of Digital Music on the Brain

Men's Health has a short article on the brain's reaction to digital music, including a link to a video from Florida Atlantic University showing the differences in a brain scan between a piece of music played by a human and the same piece by a computer.

It's interesting that the brain reacts differently between the two; I would not have expected. I also enjoy the poke made at auto-tuning and vocoders, but then I think most good music died out in the 90s.

The Brain, Thermodynamics, and Entropy

Bill Harris posts about ah-ha moments, how one moment can affect people differently, thermodynamics, and entropy. It's the first part of a series that I am sure that will go more into open systems (which this post touches upon) and how it relates to the brain, meditation, and Holosync.

Wandering Minds Are Unhappy Minds

According to a study, people are thinking of being somewhere else or doing something else other than what they are doing half of the time and that this mind-wandering makes them unhappy.

Apparently an iPhone application would randomly ask people at different times what they were doing and if they were thinking about their activity or something else that was pleasant, neutral, or negative. The application is available at http://www.trackyourhappiness.org. People were found to be happiest when having sex, exercising, or having a conversation. They were least happy while using a computer, resting, or working.

It's interesting to note that those activities where people were happiest were those that require or bring about presence (or being in the present). Sex and exercise get you out of your mind and into the body. A conversation requires you to listen to someone else. Thankfully, we have a practice that helps us cultivate presence in our life - meditation.