Science of the SpiritS


Light Saber

Learning from failure: Why our mistakes are fundamental to future success

Mark Sisson
Mark's Daily Apple
Thu, 06 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC
learning from failure
Ask a hundred people you meet this week what instances spurred their biggest growth in life (any dimension of it) and I'll wager most of those stories will fall under the umbrella of "mistakes." And the bigger the flub, you'll find, the more learning (and benefit) they probably received in the long-term. You'd think that knowing this we'd welcome the missteps and embrace them as the natural, productive, and highly potent opportunities they are. But not so much. Instead, we live in fear of them, try to circumvent them, endeavor to hide them even when they inevitably happen. We get thrown off by a skewed perception (social media and otherwise driven) that others magically operate out of perfection. We fall prey to the idea that when we make a mistake, we have a problem instead of an opening. It's too bad really—because in doing so we cut ourselves off from perhaps our most effective catalysts for change...and success.

When we think of success, our minds naturally zero in on the desired outcome. Success is the ultimate goal, the end product, the final result we wanted all along. While successfully attaining an individual outcome is gratifying, there's the whole process from desire to result that we tend to gloss over, not to mention the bigger perspective we get on what's possible to desire (and achieve). Mistakes are an essential part of any transformation. Not only do they underscore the whole fallible humanity we're working with, but they bust open the entire process of transformation, helping us break through into deeper dimensions of commitment while redirecting us toward more constructive pathways.

Comment: Growth mindset: Your reaction to failure determines your potential for future success

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Bulb

Neurosculpting: Can we relieve stress & anxiety by sculpting the mind?

Sarah Blogg
Upliftconnect.com
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 18:52 UTC
neurosculpting
Neurosculpting is a relatively new therapy. When you first hear the term, you may conjure an earnest Michelangelo chiselling away at a block of quarried marble. And what would emerge from his concentrated efforts? The exquisite human brain, of course, with each hemisphere shimmering in perfect symmetry. Neurosculpting may not equal Michelangelo, but it does reflect certain principles that flowered during the Renaissance: balance, perspective, and grace.

So what exactly is Neurosculpting? In essence, it is the fusion of Science and Spirituality; where current research in brain function and anatomy informs the ancient practice of meditation. The main objective of Neurosculpting, is to shape our thoughts in ways that will enhance an inner sense of calm and well-being.
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Hearts

Being kind to others does make you 'slightly happier'


Science Daily
Wed, 05 Oct 2016 09:40 UTC
groceries
© highwaystarz / FotoliaAn act of kindness.
Researchers conclude that being kind to others causes a small but significant improvement in subjective well-being. The review found that the effect is lower than some pop-psychology articles have claimed, but also concluded that future research might help identify which kind acts are most effective at boosting happiness.

The claim that 'helping makes you happy' has become a staple of pop psychology and self-help manuals. Performing 'random acts of kindness' has been touted as a sure-fire way of boosting your mood -- doing good makes you feel good, as well as benefiting others. But do these claims stack up, or are they 'too good to be true'?

In order to find out, a team from the universities of Oxford and Bournemouth carried out a systematic review of the scientific literature. They analysed over 400 published papers that had investigated the relationship between kindness and happiness, and identified 21 studies that had explicitly put the claim to the test -- that being kind to others makes us happier. They then conducted a meta-analysis, which statistically combines the results of these previous studies. On this basis, they calculate that there is indeed an overall effect of kindness on happiness, but that the size of the effect is relatively modest -- equivalent to less than one point on a 0-10 happiness scale.

Comment: Related articles:

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Music

How the performing arts can set the stage for more developed brain pathways


Science Daily
Wed, 05 Oct 2016 09:16 UTC
Dance and music training have even stronger effects on the brain than previously understood -- but in markedly different ways, say researchers

piano playing
© taniho / FotoliaAll that time you spent in piano lessons and dance classes as a youngster may have seemed like a pain, but new research now confirms what your parents claimed: it's good for mind and body.
Endless hours at the barre. Long afternoons practising scales. All that time you spent in piano lessons and dance classes as a youngster may have seemed like a pain, but new research now confirms what your parents claimed: it's good for mind and body.

In fact, a recent study published in NeuroImage by a team of researchers from the the International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research, proves that dance and music training have even stronger effects on the brain than previously understood -- but in markedly different ways.

The researchers used high-tech imaging techniques to compare the effects of dance and music training on the white matter structure of experts in these two disciplines. They then examined the relationship between training-induced brain changes and dance and music abilities.

Comment: Related articles:

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Butterfly

Dying woman picks road trip over chemotherapy

Annie Flury
BBC
Wed, 05 Oct 2016 22:53 UTC
Norma Bauerschmidt
© Ramie LiddleNorma and her son Tim
When 90-year-old Norma Bauerschmidt was diagnosed with terminal cancer, her immediate instinct was to refuse treatment and instead find a more positive way to spend her final days.

So she embarked on the road trip of lifetime and unwittingly became an internet hit along the way, when the Facebook page about her travels started attracting more than 440,000 followers.
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Light Saber

The unique habits of genuinely confident people

Dr. Travis Bradberry
LinkedIn
Wed, 05 Oct 2016 00:00 UTC
confidence, self-esteem
© Getty
True confidence—as opposed to the false confidence people project to mask their insecurities—has a look all its own. One thing is certain: truly confident people always have the upper hand over the doubtful and the skittish because they inspire others and they make things happen.
Whether you think you can, or you think you can't—you're right. - Henry Ford
Ford's notion that your mentality has a powerful effect on your ability to succeed is seen in the results of a recent study at the University of Melbourne that showed that confident people earn higher wages and get promoted more quickly than anyone else.

Indeed, confident people have a profound impact on everyone they encounter. Yet, they achieve this only because they exert so much influence inside, on themselves.

We see only their outside. We see them innovate, speak their mind, and propel themselves forward toward bigger and better things.

And, yet, we're missing the best part.

We don't see the habits they develop to become so confident. It's a labor of love that they pursue behind the scenes, every single day.

Comment: Further reading:

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Camera

Wild and free: Mom documents her free-range children in photographs

Benazir Weheli
CNN
Wed, 05 Oct 2016 18:51 UTC
kids on the beach
© Niki Boon
Photographer Niki Boon and her husband, Rob, decided to home-school their four children when they moved to a rural region of New Zealand five years ago.

But sitting around the table and learning didn't go quite the way they expected.The children resisted, so Niki and Rob switched to a more relaxed approach. Instead of following a fixed and rigid curriculum, each child explores his or her curiosities on the family's 10-acre property in Blenheim, surrounded by waters and bushes and hills.This decision was quite controversial among family and friends

"We got lots of questions from people about how this is going to work, and were (my children) actually going to learn anything," Boon said. "I don't really like the term 'unschooling,' it's such a negative term. They're not really unschooling. They're not 'un-' anything. They're just learning a little differently than in a standard school."

Comment: Further reading:

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Cloud Precipitation

Many emotional disorders share similar brain disruptions

Sharon Pamet
University of Illinois
Wed, 28 Sep 2016 00:00 UTC
brain
Researchers have long known that emotional disorders have a lot in common. Many often occur together, like depression and social anxiety disorder. Treatments also tend to work across multiple disorders, suggesting shared underlying elements. But perhaps the most common shared characteristic is that almost all emotional disorders involve persistent negative thinking.

In an analysis of existing studies that used MRI images to study the brain's white matter, researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago describe common brain abnormalities found in multiple emotional disorders. Their findings are published in the journal NeuroImage: Clinical.

"This study provides important insights into mechanisms shared across multiple emotional disorders, and could provide us with biomarkers that can be used to more rapidly diagnose these disorders," says Dr. Scott Langenecker, associate professor of psychiatry and psychology in the UIC College of Medicine and senior author of the paper. Those disorders, he said, can sometimes take many years to be diagnosed accurately.

The most common difference in white matter structure that Langenecker's group found — present in every emotional disorder they looked at — was disruption in a region of the brain that connects different parts of the "default-mode network," which is responsible for passive thoughts not focused on a particular task. That area is the left superior longitudinal fasciculus. The superior longitudinal fasciculus, or SLF, also connects the default-mode network and the cognitive control network, which is important in task-based thinking and planning and tends to work in alternation with the default-mode network.

Comment: Fortunately, we now know that our brains are not hard-wired like computers but change in response to our environment. We can literally re-train the brain to self-regulate negative emotions. Dr. Joe Dispenza's book "Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself' is an excellent resource for helping you create new pathways in the brain and thus interrupt the tendency to use the default patterns.

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Brain

Does meditation keep emotional brain in check?

Michigan State University
Science Daily
Mon, 03 Oct 2016 20:37 UTC
Meditation can help tame your emotions even if you're not a mindful person, suggests a new study from Michigan State University

Prayer
© ave_mario / FotoliaMindfulness, a moment-by-moment awareness of one's thoughts, feelings and sensations, has gained worldwide popularity as a way to promote health and well-being.
Reporting in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, psychology researchers recorded the brain activity of people looking at disturbing pictures immediately after meditating for the first time. These participants were able to tame their negative emotions just as well as participants who were naturally mindful.

"Our findings not only demonstrate that meditation improves emotional health, but that people can acquire these benefits regardless of their 'natural' ability to be mindful," said Yanli Lin, an MSU graduate student and lead investigator of the study. "It just takes some practice."

Mindfulness, a moment-by-moment awareness of one's thoughts, feelings and sensations, has gained worldwide popularity as a way to promote health and well-being. But what if someone isn't naturally mindful? Can they become so simply by trying to make mindfulness a "state of mind"? Or perhaps through a more focused, deliberate effort like meditation?

The study, conducted in Jason Moser's Clinical Psychophysiology Lab, attempted to find out.

Comment: For a comprehensive and effective meditation programme to reduce stress in both the short-term and long-term, improve physical health and process emotional trauma, visit eiriu-eolas.org.

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TV

Watching sad films boosts endorphin levels in your brain, psychologists say

Nicola Davis
The Guardian
Wed, 21 Sep 2016 00:01 UTC
Traumatic films may boost pain tolerance and feelings of group bonding by increasing levels of feel-good chemicals produced by the brain, study reveals
Schindler's list scene
© Allstar/Cinetext/UNIVERSALResearchers suggest that maybe the wringing your feelings get from watching an emotional film such as Schindler’s List triggers the endorphin system.
Tyrannosaur, Breaking the Waves and Schindler's List might make you reach for the tissues, but psychologists say they have found a reason why traumatic films are so appealing.

Researchers at Oxford University say that watching traumatic films boosts feelings of group bonding, as well as increasing pain tolerance by upping levels of feel-good, pain-killing chemicals produced in the brain.

"The argument here is that actually, maybe the emotional wringing you get from tragedy triggers the endorphin system," said Robin Dunbar, a co-author of the study and professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Oxford.

Previous research has found that laughing together, dancing together andworking in a team can increase social bonding and heighten pain tolerance through an endorphin boost. "All of those things, including singing and dancing and jogging and laughter, all produce an endorphin kick for the same reason - they are putting the musculature of the body under stress," said Dunbar.
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