Science of the SpiritS


Bulb

Prevent disease & prolong your life with conscious breathing

Jessica
Collective Evolution
Sat, 31 Oct 2015 15:40 UTC
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Breathing is an unconscious yet ever so vital part of daily life. Very few of us take the time to consider our own breathing patterns. Even physicians in allopathic medicine, me included, pay little attention to respiratory rate unless it is affecting our pH levels or mental status.

Our respiratory rate is determined by how many breaths we take in one minute. Increasing our respiratory rates is a natural response to stress and anxiety. This increases our oxygen while decreasing carbon dioxide in preparation for an emergency escape from something like a wild animal, per se.

Comment: Learn more about the importance of breathing and meditation exercises to relieve physical, mental and emotional stress check out the Éiriú Eolas Stress Control, Healing and Rejuvenation Program website and give it a try!

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Family

Do testosterone levels predict father's parenting?


Science Beta
Fri, 30 Oct 2015 19:17 UTC
father and baby
As they age, men often get concerned about their testosterone levels dropping. And rightfully so, as it affects their sex drive and other health factors.

But the hormone decline can also provide a window into men's parenting.

A new University of Michigan study found that when men saw their infants in distress, it lowered their testosterone. That factor, as well as being empathetic and having a loving relationship with the infant's mother, predicted whether they were nurturing fathers.

Sensitive and responsive fathering has been linked to young children's social, emotional and cognitive development. Studies have shown that positive father involvement usually leads to positive child outcomes.

Comment: See also: Fathers who sleep closer to children have lower testosterone levels

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Hearts

Social connections and bonding: Everything we think we know about addiction is wrong

In A Nutshell - Kurzgesagt
You Tube
Thu, 29 Oct 2015 17:48 UTC
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What causes addiction? Easy, right? Drugs cause addiction. But maybe it is not that simple.


Comment: Listen to the SOTT editors discuss the nature and mechanics of addiction along with real solutions: The Health and Wellness Show - Addictive behaviors
See also:

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Magic Wand

Dream-enhancing with wild herbs

Nick Polizzi
Sacred Science
Tue, 15 Sep 2015 16:42 UTC
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Do you remember what you dreamt about last night? How about the night before?

For thousands of years, we humans have placed a ton of value on the content of these bedtime reveries, deriving inner wisdom and even premonitions from them. Dreaming feels like a birthright, an extra sense that allows us to process both rationally and spiritually while our body rests up.

They are one of behavioral science's biggest mysteries, with no agreed-upon theory of their origin and specific purpose. For some, dreams occur nightly, but others never experience them at all.

One thing is for sure - many who don't dream wish they did.

Comment: Study confirms dreams occur even if they aren't remembered
In general, adults recall 1 to 3 dreams per week on average. If they are awakened right after the REM stage of sleep, in which most dreaming occurs, they can remember their dreams up to 90 percent of the time. Studies suggest that some people are more likely to recall their dreams than others (including women, those who are open-minded and sensitive, and people who have the ability to become highly absorbed in an imagined or aesthetic experience). But some people go years without remembering any dreams, and a few have no recollection of ever dreaming.


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Music

Sing rather than talk to babies to keep them calm

Honor Whiteman
Medical News Today
Wed, 28 Oct 2015 13:00 UTC
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© Medical News TodayResearchers found singing to babies kept them calm twice as long as talking to them, regardless of whether they used baby talk.
When an infant shows signs of distress, a parent's first instinct may be to engage in baby talk in an attempt to calm them down. But according to a new study, singing may be a much more effective strategy.

Published in the journal Infancy, the study found that when infants listened to music, they remained calm for significantly longer than when they listened to speech - even when the speech was baby talk.

It is well established that music can have a strong impact on us physically and emotionally. When listening to a song, we often nod our head or tap along to the beat - behaviors researchers say display our "entrainment" by music.

But study co-author Prof. Isabelle Peretz, of the Center for Research on Brain, Music and Language at the University of Montreal in Canada, notes that infants do not usually demonstrate such behaviors when listening to music, "either because they lack the requisite physical or mental ability."
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Music

Ice-breaker effect: Singing can get groups of people to bond quickly


Phys.org
Tue, 27 Oct 2015 00:00 UTC
singing, social bonding
Psychologists compared the development of relationships between strangers joining singing groups to other adult education classes Getty Images
We have long known the power of a good sing-along. Now, research from the University of Oxford has shown that singing is a great ice-breaker and can get groups of people to bond together more quickly than other activities can.

The new study, published in the Royal Society Open Science journal, looked at how people attending adult education classes grew closer over seven months. The conclusion - singing groups bonded more quickly than creative writing or craft classes.

Dr Eiluned Pearce, from Oxford's Department of Experimental Psychology led the research. She said: "One of the key differences between humans and other primates is that we can exist in much larger social groups. Singing is found in all human societies and can be performed to some extent by the vast majority of people. It's been suggested that singing is one of the ways in which we build social cohesion when there isn't enough time to establish one-to-one connections between everyone in a group.

"We wanted to explore whether there was something special about singing as a bonding behaviour or whether any group activity would build bonds between members."

Comment: Studies have shown that group singing has calming benefits and that singing can also improve cognitive function.

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Family

Flashback Research finds phobias may be related to genes passed down from ancestors

Richard Gray
The Telegraph
Sun, 01 Dec 2013 19:17 UTC
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© Alamy
Memories can be passed down to later generations through genetic switches that allow offspring to inherit the experience of their ancestors, according to new research that may explain how phobias can develop.

Scientists have long assumed that memories and learned experiences built up during a lifetime must be passed on by teaching later generations or through personal experience.

However, new research has shown that it is possible for some information to be inherited biologically through chemical changes that occur in DNA.

Researchers at the Emory University School of Medicine, in Atlanta, found that mice can pass on learned information about traumatic or stressful experiences - in this case a fear of the smell of cherry blossom - to subsequent generations.

The results may help to explain why people suffer from seemingly irrational phobias - it may be based on the inherited experiences of their ancestors.

So a fear of spiders may in fact be an inherited defence mechanism laid down in a families genes by an ancestors' frightening encounter with an arachnid.
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2 + 2 = 4

How to cope when chronic pain creates anxiety—With tools to calm & soothe

Princess
Princess in the Tower
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 16:49 UTC
A toolkit of ways to calm and quell anxiety when you live in chronic pain

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When you have chronic pain it's natural to feel anxious, especially when that pain is severe, unpredictable, and as a consequence, your life so filled with uncertainty and fears. But if anxiety becomes equally chronic, whether an ongoing feeling of unease or profound panic, it can truly hamper your efforts to manage the unmanageable.

Anxiety worsens pain, your ability to cope with that pain, and can also magnify feelings of loneliness, and depression, that so frequently come with chronic illness. Although everyone experiences anxiety or sometimes feels fearful, if you feel anxious, panicky or filled with fear much of the time, talk to your doctor, and try the tools herein.

Comment: To Soothe Chronic Pain, Meditation Proves Better Than Pills
New proof that our emotions cause physical pain

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Attention

Get angry! If you want to change your life

Marcia Reynolds Psy.D.
Psychology Today
Tue, 27 Oct 2015 15:05 UTC
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This is the time of year that people declare what they want to change in their lives. Unfortunately the real-time decisions you make will likely be based on emotion and will supersede those you logically made on New Years. When the time comes to make the change, your emotions will trick you into finding a great rationalization for ignoring your stated intention.

The good news is you can counteract this process with emotional awareness. You have to recognize what you are feeling in the moment and then make a conscious shift to feel something else.

First you need to recognize if you are feeling discomfort, boredom, confusion, fear or worry when you consider making the change. Then you need to shift to a stronger emotion that will allow you to step through the pain and take the steps toward change.

In other words, you have to want the change badly enough to overcome the discomfort, boredom, confusion, embarrassment, and worry that pops up to stop you along the way.

The intensity of your desire to change, whether based on a positive or negative emotion, correlates to the likelihood you will complete the process.

Comment:

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Candle

What dreams may come: End of life dreams may be comforting


ScienceDaily
Tue, 20 Oct 2015 00:00 UTC
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© missty / FotoliaThis is the first study to interview patients about their end-of-life dreams and vision experiences in the last weeks of life.
It's not uncommon for people to have extraordinary dreams or visions in the final weeks of their lives. Accounts of pre-death visions span recorded history, but have been absent from the scientific literature. Now new research suggests that end-of-life dreams are comforting and may improve quality of life.

Accounts of pre-death visions span recorded history, but have been absent from the scientific literature. A recent study in the Journal of Palliative Medicine by Associate Professor James P. Donnelly, PhD, and colleagues found that end-of-life dreams and visions (ELDVs) are an intrinsic and comforting part of the dying process.

"These dreams and visions may improve quality of life and should be treated accordingly," says Donnelly, associate professor of counseling and human services and director of measurement & statistics for the Institute of Autism Research at Canisius College.
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