Please summarize what you read. After summarizing, you can reflect on the following questions to guide the rest of your writing, but you should not just list and answer them. What did you find most interesting? Most confusing? What do you want to learn more about? Is there any information that you find dubious or that you are suspicious of? You do not need to explicitly answer these, rather, I'm interested in your summary, and ultimately your thoughts and insight on these readings.
Please list the main key words you used in your post.
This week’s readings focused on happiness, strength, equanimity, and the biological sense of feelings and where they originate. The reading suggests ways of promoting positive thoughts and recollections more so than negative. This will cause your brain to eventually think more positively and promote an overall better well-being. Strength is important not only in survival, but also in helping keep you motivated, determined, and overall confident. Finding inner strength can help individuals accomplish more goals and feel better about themselves overall. The book gives a step-by-step guide to help bring out inner strength, which I tried and made me feel stronger and more confident. Equanimity refers to an even mind. One in which things may occur but you stay relaxed and poised, taking things in as they are. This was an interesting concept as many people (including myself) tend to over-react to certain situations. By accomplishing equanimity you are still able to see and process good and bad things but react in a reasonable manner.
I found the strong intentions and cooling the fires sections very fascinating due to their biological explanations as well as helpful ways to feel strong. Both chapters discuss biological systems and structures of the brain that control emotions, physical state, and even thought processing. Two such systems mentioned are the parasympathetic system and the sympathetic system. The sympathetic system is our body’s fight or flight system which places us in survival mode. The parasympathetic system is the system that cools us down or relaxes us. In the chapter cooling the fires, it explains ways to induce the parasympathetic system which may help calm oneself. The strong intentions section provides a step-by-step process to help oneself feel stronger. After following the steps I did feel stronger and more confident. Feeling stronger is an awesome feeling and I will more than likely refer back to this chapter in the future when I am feeling down or less confident.
After reading the cooling the fires chapter I think I would like to learn more about the sympathetic nervous and how our body and mind alters to attempt to survive. I have heard some amazing stories on the news of people experiencing and inducing enormous amounts of strength to survive. I would like to research more on these survival stories and how they were able to do what seemed impossible.
Something I did not like about our readings however, was a section in the chapter cooling the fires. The chapter itself discusses how inducing the parasympathetic system helps “cool” you down and relax you. One section in particular, it mentions how touching the lips will stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system as many parasympathetic fibers are spread throughout your lips. This sounds pretty odd to me as I am in anatomy and we never mentioned these fibers being throughout the lips, however it is possible. What I didn’t like about this section was when it said touching your lips may bring up soothing associations such as eating or even breast-feeding during infancy. Remembering or even thinking about breast-feeding does not calm me down at all. I don’t want to think about that as I assume many people do not. That part was very odd to me and made me question the whole idea about touching the lips and how it supposedly helps. This idea reminded me a lot of something Freud would say.
Overall the readings this week were very intriguing and provided helpful ideas and tips on how to induce a more positive thought process. Some things I will keep in mind from these readings are to try to appreciate positive stimuli more and recall positive past events. When remembering negative events I will try to look at them as they are and not get caught up in them. I will also remember to find inner strength to help me accomplish tasks throughout the day and when I feel insecure to remember the helpful tips the book provides such as recalling loved ones’ support.
Terms: Inner strength, parasympathetic nervous system, sympathetic nervous system, fight or flight, positive thinking, cooling the fires, equanimity, stimuli, Freud
The readings talked about changing negative experiences into positive experiences, learning to relax, meditate, and activate the Parasympathetic Nervous System, as well as the biological and neurological functions of the brain and equanimity.
I was particularly interested in the section that discussed learning how to change our negative experiences into positive experiences and eventually even being able to change how our brain is circuited. Chapter four discussed implicit memory and how it includes our expectations, relationships, emotional tendencies and overall outlook on life. In a brief definition, it establishes what it feels like to be you. It was interesting to learn that even if your positive outcomes are far more prevalent than your negative ones, the section of negative experiences actually impacts you more. I thought it was interesting to learn that negative experiences can also be rewarding and educational. However, they also explained that having just one major episode of depression can reshape the circuits in your brain in a way that will make you more susceptible to depression in the future. That information seems crazy to me. We are so much more in control of our lives and our actions than I ever thought possible.
In Chapter five the authors talk about learning how to relax as a way to activate your PNS. They explain that relaxing actually engages the circuitry of our PNS and therefore strengthens it. You can relax in many different ways. One such way is to just go through every body part and intentionally relax it. This form of relaxation is called “progressive relaxation.” You can also use diaphragm breathing which just consists of you being aware of each breath and how your body moves as you breathe. Other ways to activate your PNS are by taking big exhalations, touching your lips, being mindful of your body, imagery, balancing your heartbeat, and meditation. I found the subject of meditation to be particularly interesting because it deals directly with the subject of this class. Meditation has a multitude of benefits; among those benefits is the ability to strengthen your immune system as well as helping various physical and psychological conditions.
In chapter six the authors talk about the brain and its specific functions. This is one of my favorite sections because I enjoy getting to learn more about the complexity of our brains and what they are potentially capable of. I was able to read about the role our brain stem, diencephalon, limbic system, and cortex play in helping our bodies run smoothly. Some of the information and suggestions in this chapter seem a bit strange but it is amazing how effectively they work. I enjoyed learning about my strength and what I can do to make myself utilize the strength I have appropriately. In order to help yourself feel strength more often there are two aspects: energy and determination. The text discusses different exercises that you can do in order to help intensify your strength.
The last chapter discussed Equanimity. I liked the quote that they had at the beginning of the chapter by Nyanaponika Thera, “Equanimity is a perfect, unshakable balance of mind.” The text talks about what it means to be equanimous. When you are an equanimous person you don’t look for enjoyable experiences or for disagreeable experiences. Instead, you have this cushion type attitude that allows you to experience things but not allow what you experience to bother you in any real way. To be an equanimous person, you have to really conquer having a steady mind. In other simple words, equanimity means that you don’t react to your own reactions.
Overall, I felt that these chapters were very insightful and gave a lot of detail into how you can find ways to relax your mind and body and get a step closer to being a mindful person. My favorite part of the chapter was in chapter four when it discussed how you can change negative experiences into positive experiences just by how you associate and allow yourself to take in the events. I am always surprised at how much power and potential our brains have and every day I learn a little bit more about how to harness that power and us it to lead a healthier and happier life.
Terminology: negative experiences, positive experiences, parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), meditate, relax, biological, neurological, functions, brain, equanimity, circuits, progressive relaxation, diaphragm breathing, implicit memory, brain stem, diencephalon, limbic system, cortex, strength
These readings focused on happiness, positivity, and calmness. The chapters stated that focusing on the more positive aspects of life can increase overall happiness and wellbeing. Physiologically, the sympathetic and parasympathetic play a large role in anxiety/relaxation. The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for arousing our bodies. Specifically, it activates when we are scared or nervous about something. The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for calming our bodies down. The book offered ways to utilize the parasympathetic nervous system more. The most effective way for me is to exhale for twice as long as I inhale.
For me, the overall purpose of these chapters was to focus on becoming a more purposeful in your thinking. Thoughts are often seen as uncontrollable or as background noise. A large part of meditation focuses on the ability to quiet your thoughts and relax yourself. These chapters gave ways to be more purposeful in your thinking in everyday situations, like when something unpleasant happens, rather than just during meditation and I really enjoyed that. As I felt in the last reading, these chapters seemed to have a lot of science behind them but they also had sections that felt like pop psychology to me. Terms like inner strength always strike me as buzzwords used by motivational speakers. When the chapters delve into things that can’t be scientifically measured I have a hard time accepting the explanations. I am interested in looking into things like inner strength and equanimity in a more scientific sense. I would really like to see I there is strong science behind these types of ideas.
Terms: Sympathetic nervous system, parasympathetic nervous system, purposeful thinking, inner strength
Holy crap, there is a lot to cover in this week’s book reading summary. I laughed, I cried, I lost five pounds! But no really, it was quite an adventurous read. As with any reading, I was quite skeptical with parts and couldn’t help but stop reading for a bit to do some quick background research. But overall I really loved this week’s reading. I think my main research focus would be that of happiness and optimal experience, so this week’s readings really hit home.
To start, I had a thing with the names of the chapters. I’m not sure how I feel about them, but I feel enough about them to make a comment. The first chapter is called “taking in the good”, which to me sounds like I will be changing the way I look at life. The chapter does somewhat cover this with changing the way that we take in memories, but I was hoping it would spend more time talking about the idea of perception and how it can change how we experience life. Chapter 4 did cover lots of positive emotion and building positive experiences as well as reshaping our negative memories. There were a few concepts that I was skeptical about, such as just simply thinking of loved ones and it will cure your feelings of loneliness? Didn’t seem right to me.
The next chapter was called “cooling the fire”, where the main focus was controlling the autonomic nervous system and what that can result in. The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is in charge of a lot of your unconscious actions. These actions include the change in your heart rate, respiration, sexual arousal, digestion, perspiration, and salivation. Heart rate and respiration were the main parts of ANS covered in this chapter. There was a lot of talk about controlling a part of the brain and body that you normally don’t have control of, unless you are purposely attempting to control it. The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) and ANS seem to be counteractive of each other. When the ANS increases the heart rate, the PNS is in charge of lowering it again. So the idea behind this relaxation is taking control of the ANS, lowering its activity, and increasing the presence of the PNS. Lots of these techniques can be found in yoga and meditation. One of the key ways of activating the PNS is through controlled breathing, which is a huge part of both yoga and meditation.
The third chapter we read was titled “Strong Intentions” and was probably my least favorite of the chapters to read (even though it was really short). I didn’t really understand parts of it, and with the interest in time, I didn’t get the chance to reread it for clarification. I know that it talked a lot about the evolution of the brain and many sections of the brain. There was talk about motivation and its involvement with the neuroaxis of the brain. I did recognize some information, like the synergy between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the amygdala. The ACC is associated with many autonomic functions such as our heart rate, while the amygdala is associated with our emotions. So change in emotions such as fear and anger (emotions) can change our blood pressure and heart rate (ACC). I think the idea is that if you take control of emotions, you’ll have better control of your ACC.
Finally, the last chapter covered was called “Equanimity”. If I’m going to research anything further, it’s going to be equanimity because I’ve never heard about it before. Not only have I never heard of it before, but the explanation from the book really interests me. Equanimity is tranquility, and not reacting to our reactions. It seems like a really strange concept really. I really like the idea of become mindful of our emotions and recognizing how we react to stimuli. I’m really interested in looking further into tranquility and how it can be achieved.
One problem I have with this book is that it attempts to oversimplify what is really going on. Whether we are talking about mindfulness, meditation, or just being happy, there is a lot more going on than just the act. I wish it covered the more complex situations rather than just being a tool of motivation by telling me how easy everything is.
Terms: positive experience, emotions, memories, autonomic nervous system, parasympathetic nervous system, heart rate, blood pressure, yoga, meditation, the anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, tranquility, equanimity.
These chapters talked about happiness and offered ways people can be happier. Again, they offered scientific, neurological background information, but something about these chapters felt a bit like pseudoscience to me. The first chapter talked about memories and how our brains unfortunately remember more bad experiences than good experiences. I thought it was interesting that even just one episode of depression can reshape circuits in the brain to make future episodes more likely. The ways the authors described how to turn bad memories into good memories (and many other things throughout these chapters) seemed a bit too “motivational speaker rant” for me to actually consider as scientific. They mentioned letting memories fill you up and letting those feelings sink in which is a bit abstract to me.
The next chapter talked about the sympathetic nervous system, parasympathetic nervous system, and autonomic nervous system. It said that the autonomic nervous system helps regulate all our other body systems and stimulating the PNS helps calm the ANS. Ways to stimulate the PNS include relaxation, deep breathing, imagery, balancing heartbeat, and touching your lips. I thought the last one was interesting because sometimes when I wear my hair down and it’s really soft, I run it over my lips without noticing, which sounds really creepy now. I don’t think it’s comforting because of the “soothing associations of eating or even of breastfeeding” but I was reminded of that when I read this section.
Chapter 6 talked about the brain, its four main parts, the brain stem, diencephalon, limbic system, and cortex, and the neuroaxis. The last chapter talked about equanimity. This is a bit of a complex and difficult idea for me to grasp. The book said it’s not apathy or indifference, yet it is nonreactivity which doesn’t make sense to me. It also said that an equanimous person doesn’t chase after enjoyable experiences which in my opinion kind of defeats the purpose of life. I think people are supposed to set out to find things that make them happy. I can see how it would be advantageous when it comes to things in life that can be upsetting, but I don’t think it’s good when it comes to things in life we should be enjoying to the fullest.
One thing I would like to explore further is neuroplasticity. Chapter 4 mentioned it briefly and provided the traditional blind man example but I would like to research other examples of neuroplasticity. In my sensation and perception class last semester, someone researched phantom limbs and neuroplasticity was cited as a possible cause so I think I might research neuroplasticity as it applies to phantom limbs. Also, some of my research last week mentioned phantom limbs so it will be interesting to learn more. The brain truly is incredible and the powers it has are amazing.
Terms: explicit/implicit memories, neuroplasticity, sympathetic nervous system, PNS, ANS neuroaxis, brain stem, diencephalon, limbic system, cortex, equanimity
This weeks readings had quite a bit of carry-over from the readings of last week. Last week we read about how our mind tends to focus on the negative and let go of the positive, as well as the importance of relaxation on stress and health. The readings this week expanded on these ideas and provided a biological basis or explanation for them.
One major focus of the reading was the wiring of the brain and positive association with memories. We naturally tend to focus on the negative aspects of the day, week, or month while allowing the positive to slide by. When really, we have drastically more positive experiences each day than negative experiences. In this section H & M discussed some of the circuitry of the brain and how our focus on the negative or positive will actually alter the structure of the brain. In order to begin to view daily situations in a more positive manner we must work to rewire the brain and strive to achieve positive associations with our memories. To do so they suggest taking time during the day to slow down and really observe what is happening, take in the good and lock it into your memory. To aid this H & M recommend associating some scenarios with positive memories of the past. This causes a person to recall the old positive memory and reinforce the new. By repeatedly doing this positive association the active areas of the brain will strengthen and new, positively based, neural tracts will form in the brain.
Another focal area of the readings was relaxation. Being able to relax the body allows for activation of the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS). H & M suggested many different ways to both relax and to trigger activation of the PNS. First, for relaxation they suggest progressive relaxation which involves bringing specific attention to muscle regions in order to relax them. However, this can take more time than some people can afford at that moment. Some quicker solutions involve breathing and focusing on breath. One of which is breathing using the diaphragm and placing your hand on you abdomen to feel it rise and fall with each breath. Another would be to exhale slower than you inhale, to count during each and slow your breathing. There were also suggestions like touching ones lips to activate the PNS. . . this I am a little skeptical of. I have never heard of using this method to activate the PNS, which to me sounds a bit like malarkey. However, I do not have much knowledge of the workings of the PNS so I need to do more research before I completely cast off the idea.
The topic in the reading that interested me most was the idea of equanimity. I had heard of it before but I was not sure what exactly it entailed. The idea of experiencing life but not allowing it to trigger drastic emotion is very interesting. To me, equanimity would allow someone to maintain a very level, cool head. It would also allow for a person to experience more on a daily basis. Instead of being caught up in having a bad morning or being distracted by something overly exciting it an equanimous person would continue on like normal and be open to each new event. Rather than wrapped up in an emotionally charged moment of the past.
As I progress through the book I continue to find things that I really enjoy, as well as things that irk me. H & M do an excellent job of offering the big picture and explaining how the brain and body work together. At the same time, this broad and simplistic approach can leave out important information. At times I fells as though H & M become over simplistic and do not offer enough information to clarify the big picture. They provide a panoramic view of a subject but remain far enough away that the whole image is out of focus.
Terms: memory, emotion, PNS, equanimity, relaxation, breathing, neural tract
The readings for this week are in the Happiness section of the book. Chapter 4 was all about how what we think about shapes our brain and that current thoughts (whether positive or negative) can change how we feel about past memories. This overriding is due to how our memories are stored incompletely, so that whenever we conjure up the memory it’s subject to be colored with whatever attitude we currently have. I found the author’s recommendations about pulling weeds and planting flowers really interesting. It seemed like whatever emotion we’re feeling, we should think of a memory with the opposite emotion so we can be more balanced. This way when we experience something positive we can think of a negative memory to make it less unpleasant the next time it pops up and conversely we’ll be able to get through negative difficulties in the present easier due to reflecting on past pleasant memories.
Chapter 5 focused more on the parasympathetic nervous system and had more ways of being able to calm the body down for mindfulness. Much of it seemed like review from other readings, but I enjoyed the part about finding refuge. It seems like a helpful supplementary thing to add to one’s day. At first, I was confused with the concept and thought it would be similar to participating in a flow inducing activity, but as I read on I realized it was different. While flow inducing activities may let your guard down, I feel like they don’t offer wisdom like the book suggests it should. I wish there could be a more concrete definition since based on the book’s suggestion a refuge could be a philosophy, place, person, feeling, and other things.
The next chapter was about the biological processes or motivation and intention. The biological material went a little over my head and my mind admittedly checked out while I was reading some of it. However, I did take away that based on Buddhist thought, intention and craving are different behaviors that have different consequences. Intention is wanting something, but being okay if that desire doesn’t materialize. The section also goes into how to feel strong. While the concepts and ideas seemed beneficial, it seemed to me that this section was mostly based on opinion and was lacking in the oh so satisfying research telling about its benefits or how it works.
I found the chapter on equanimity to be quite interesting to read. It reminded me of the meditation instructions to be non-judgmental with incoming thoughts. I also thought of the first day of class when Professor MacLin mentioned how her experience with meditation made her feel like time slowed and like she had more time to react to everything. To me, this seems to connect with the idea of demand characteristics and how with an equanimitatious (I hope this is a word!) mind fewer things cause you to react. When someone is disenchanted, I feel like it’s much easier to go with the flow and that by the parasympathetic nervous system being more activated, these things collectively could give one the feeling of not being rushed to react or respond to situations. I also enjoyed the reasoning behind equanimity and how chasing the carrot or avoiding the stick are short lived and that without conscious efforts, people will spend their whole lives chasing a transient experience. I feel like many adults do this with TV watching and many college students with drinking. The thought of being able to be cognizant of something, but remain calm seems like a wonderful thing to aim to. I was fascinated by the example of the Indian saint who was able to process the pain in his arm, but still remained calm and unmoved from his state of mind.
Terms: Pulling weeds, planting flowers, mindfulness, parasympathetic nervous system, chasing the carrot, motivation, intention, refuge, equanimity, demand characteristics, avoiding the stick
A lot of what I read seemed to give step but step instructions on how to bring yourself peace of mind. Chapter 4 covered memories and found this very interesting. Everybody has at least a handful of memories that aren’t positive. Memories that we would like to forget and that may cause us pain to remember. It is suggested that we have the ability to rewire these memories and make them more positive. This idea seems appealing to me. I have a tendency to Ly awake at night just thinking and I often come across a memory that I would prefer to be left out of my thoughts. Our book suggested that when there negative memories occur, the best thing we can do is over ride with positive thoughts and over time, we will be able to associate the old bad memories with new, positive one. This practice seems like something that would take quite some time to accomplish but I do believe that is possible. And though the process seems lengthy, it would be beneficial for a sound piece of mind.
I’m not going to lie, I really liked how the booked used a garden as a metaphor for the constant changing and rewiring of our mind. A garden takes work and commitment to develop and even more time to maintain its beauty. Like a garden, weeds appear in our mind as negative and upsetting thoughts. We have the ability to pull those weeds and plant the most amazing flowers. This is done by taking in the little thing in life. Take time to focus on the first flower in spring and that hug your best friend gave you after you haven’t seen her in a long time. Focusing on the good times and feeling with leave an imprint in your mind that will be easier for you to recall and will build your mind garden into something you want to be in.
Another thing that I read that I appreciated was the breakdown of how to meditate. I have been meditating going on three weeks now and I still feel awkward and like I’m not doing it correctly. Also, if we’re being honest, I haven’t been doing it as consistently as I would like to admit. The book mentioned making a resolution of not going to bed at night without meditating. This soo simple but it made making time to meditate seems easier. I know meditating right before has always been an option but reading that made it seem that much more plausible and something I plan on trying. Do not go to bed without meditating.
Something I highlighted while reading was on page 68, “…even a single episode of major depression can reshape circuits of the brain to make future episodes more likely (Maletic et al. 2007).” This is something I want to explore with more depth. My family has a history of depression and it is something I fear I will eventually have to face. After reading this, I have hopes that I will have more control over my mind so if the time ever comes, I can remember to focus on the positive.
Mind, memories, the mind as a garden, mediate, peace of mind, major depression
Taking in the Good (chapter four), was all about how we should replace those unhappy memories with happy ones. The reasoning behind this is that unhappy memories tend to produce other unhappy memories. These unhappy memories can be treated somewhat like a self-fulfilling prophecy, in that they elicit unhappy memories to create new unhappy memories. The solution to this problem is to think happy thoughts, and replace those deep seeded defeats with new victories. By doing this you will overall become a happier individual, eliciting others to be happier as well. Becoming a happier individual will also allow you to see the benefits that you would normally (in an unhappy state) pay no attention to. Yes, it is crazy cold today, but the sun is shining, and it’s warmer than it was yesterday. Small victories! Cooling the fires (chapter five) is all about relaxing, finding time in our daily lives to remind ourselves to relax. Relaxation is good for multiple reasons, and it has numerous biological benefits. This simple step should be carried out as often as you can in your daily life to not only lower stress levels, but promote a happier being as well. One problem that I had with this chapter is the instruction to touch our lips; I’ll pass on that one. In this chapter it is suggested that we be mindful of our bodies, but not worried about them. It is also suggested that we use imagery in our daily lives to help relieve anxiety, and produce relaxation. This chapter is really focused on meditation, as it is a chapter about relaxation, the author really strides to show us the benefits to daily meditation (even if you only have a few minutes), this is something that I am definitely struggling with through my meditation journey. Not only will relaxation improve stress (cortisol) levels, but it also allows us to feel safer, calming the fight or flight center of our brains. It is cautioned in this chapter that we maintain a realistic viewpoint during our meditation, and journey for relaxation. Strong intentions (chapter six) is about finding happiness from within, using our inner strengths to produce a happier self. This chapter was shrouded in some vary interesting science on the development of the human brain. This is important to the science of meditation because it shows that we can strengthen our brains through focused concentration I.E., meditation. This chapter also urges us to downplay our insecurities, and weakness; focusing on our strengths and victories. Equanimity (chapter 7) was a little more abstract in conceptualization, but textually seems to have a strong connection to meditation. Equanimity means even mind, which basically means you are observant yet unaffected. You allow yourself to notice your surroundings (mindfulness) but do not let them bog you down (relaxation, and strength). This quality seems extremely beneficial to me, as I usually characterize myself as hyper-vigilant. This has lead to multiple problems during my meditations, because every sound that occurs in my vicinity draws my attention towards it. Equanimity stresses noticing these environmental stimulations, but not allowing them to draw attention away.
“When you are equanimous, you don’t grasp after enjoyable experiences or push against disagreeable ones. Rather, you have a kind of space around experiences — a buffer between you and their feeling tones … with equanimity, the limbic system can fir however it ‘wants.’ The primary point of equanimity is not to reduce or channel that activation, but simply not to respond to it.” (Pg 64)
This will prove to be rather difficult for me, but I think it will help in my meditations. I don’t think during daily life I will try to elicit this equanimous sense, because I pride myself on being vigilant and observant. Through the equanimous sense a person can develop a steady mind, tranquility, and spacial awareness. Meditation, is appearing to have a lot of benefits with only the downside of marginal time commitment. Now if only I could turn this behavior into a elicited instead of emitted behavior, it already appears to be self reinforcing.
Relaxing, Cortisol, Equanimous, Mindfulness, Anxiety, Stress, Meditation, Fight or flight,
Chapter 4 in H & M was quite repetitive, but likewise, it did well in engraining the same notion in my mind. Chapter 4 was about weeding out the negative memories, thoughts, and feelings, and replacing them with positive, happy ones. It referred to the negative feelings as weeds and to get the entire weed to diminish, you must grab it by the roots. Many problems stem from the past and to fully deal with the situation, you must acknowledge and reflect where it came from. It is important to train the brain to focus on the positive events/feelings and override the negative ones. It’s like righting a neurological imbalance. Meditation works to provide an inner peace and in doing so, the heart is nourished. When your whole heart is full, you have more to offer others.
H & M Chapter 5 talks about way to relax the body. I enjoyed reading each one, trying them out. Just thinking about each part of the body and mentally telling it to relax actually helps it relieve tension. One of the methods that activate the PNS is touching the lips, which reminds me of Freud’s psychoanalysis theories. It is important to be mindful of fear and to be aware of refuges where one can refuel. It’s also important to be mindful of attachment styles and to do the best to improve current relationships. I didn’t know that meditation increases gray matter in brain areas that include compassion, attention, and empathy.
Chapter 6 focused on warming up happiness. I enjoy the reflection in this book. For example, it asked me to remember a time where my strength kicked in. My first thought was of when I was a child in Wal-Mart and I lost my parent. At first, it’s all panic and worry that they will leave me behind or someone will take me; but then, strength kicks in and I remember being told to walk up to the check-out and tell the worker that you are lost and need to find your parents. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the amygdala are the two motivators of the body. As the ACC is more “logical” and guides the flow of feelings, the amygdala is more “emotional” and shapes values and overall worldview. It is smart how the book put into perspective desire. Desire is not all bad and not the true cause of suffering, but it is the craving that causes one to suffer. The important thing is to have upright intentions without yearning for their results.
H & M Chapter 7 emphasizes the term equanimity, which means not reacting to your reactions, whatever they are. The book preaches to makes your wants few for then you will be freer from cravings and the sufferings that come along with them. The goal is to remain disenchanted, or free from the spells cast by pleasure and pain, so the trick is to be present in the world, but not upset by it.
Keywords: negative; positive; acknowledge; reflect; neurological imbalance; inner peace; nourish; relieve; PNS; mindful; fear; refuel; attachment styles; gray matter; strength; anterior cingulate cortex; amygdala; motivators; perspective; desire; craving; equanimity; disenchanted
All the chapters in this week’s reading were focused towards achieving happiness. I found that some of chapter four’s material was rather dry. Using the Machinery of Memory and the section entitled Lifelong Learning were a little boring. But, after getting passed the first few pages I found myself becoming more and more intrigued with this chapter. In my previous semester, I took a Biopsychology course with Dr. Linda Walsh and we had a lecture where we discussed the differences between explicit memories and implicit memories. Explicit memories are conscious recollections of specific events or other information. Implicit memories are residues of past experiences that largely remain below awareness but powerfully shape the inner landscape and atmosphere of your mind. The most interesting part about this chapter was the focus on positive feelings and negative feelings. Everyone has experienced negative feelings at one point in their lives. One of the points mentioned in the book was that negative feelings skews positive feelings in implicit memories. More specifically, the bias of the brain tilts implicit memoires in a negative direction, even when most of your experiences are actually positive. The book also speaks about how you can overcome this flaw, which is to consciously look for and take in positive experiences by following these simple steps: turn positive facts into positive experiences, to savor these experiences and to allow time to let them sink in.
Chapter five was about the autonomic nervous systems and its two sections: the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system, hints the title Cooling the Fire. The sympathetic nervous system and stress-related hormones “fire up” to help you pursue opportunities and avoid threats. When you stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, calming, soothing, healing ripples spread through your body, brain, and mind. Chapter five was a really interesting chapter because of it suggestions and insights about how the reader can effectively stimulate his or her parasympathetic nervous system. For example, the paragraph about relaxation explains how relaxing engages the circuitry of the parasympathetic nervous system and thus strengthens it. The book also mentions that in order to acquire the benefits of relaxation one must train the body “offline” to relax automatically. This can be done by using any of the following methods: big exhalations, touching the lips, mindfulness of the body, imagery, balancing your heartbeat, and meditation. Another thing that could be used to promote relaxation or meditation is to find a refuge. Potential refuges include people, activities, places, and intangible things like reason, a sense of your innermost being, or truth.
Chapter six was about “warming up” the inner strength, which can lead to the increase of happiness. The chapter opens up with information about how the brain gets motivated and how the different parts of the brains, such as brain stem, diencephalon, limbic system, cortex, the anterior cingulate cortex and amygdala, contribute to intentions. All this information was refreshing since I learned this material from previous classes. The sections about intentions and suffering was great. I learned that desire can lead to suffering. Weather a desire leads to suffering depends on two factor: Is craving, the sense that you need something, involved? An what is the desire for? In order to keep your desires free from suffering a person’s has to have wholesome intentions without being attached to their results.
What’s equanimity? I had no clue what equanimity was until I read chapter seven. According to Nyanaponika Thera, equanimity is a perfect, unshakable balance of mind. If a person wants to end their suffering then equanimity is their solution. Equanimity breaks the chain of suffering by separating the feeling tones of experience from the machinery of craving, neutralizing your reactions to those felling tones. It is mind blowing that a person can reach equanimity simply by meditating. This chapter really stood out from the rest of readings. I have yet to reach a state equanimity, hopefully after a few more mediation session I will reach this milestone. I also would like to note that mediation has significantly decreased my stress and anxiety. I have noticed that I feel less stressed nowadays.
Keywords: happiness, explicit memories, implicit memories, positive feelings, negative feelings, autonomic nervous systems, parasympathetic nervous system, sympathetic nervous system, relaxation, meditation, anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, intentions, desire, craving, equanimity
There was certainly a lot covered in these four chapters. Due to a mix-up with the book store I got my copy as an audiobook. All of the content is there, it is just a little difficult for me to differentiate between chapters when I’m recalling what I heard. Because of this, my summary will not be as neat and broken up as some of the other ones. These chapters had, in my opinion, too much about feelings and not enough about science. Things were said like “keep it like a jewel placed in the treasure chest of your heart.” These lame metaphors would be fine if I could skim past them, but the guy reading the audiobook in an otherwise monotone fashion seems to put special emphasis on them. The chapters did have a good amount of science in them that I enjoyed however.
They talked about the negativity bias again, and why negative memories are stored easier than positive ones, and why positive ones are stored better than indifferent memories. They talked about how select areas of the brain are active for positive emotions, but how pain can be processed throughout the brain. They talked about the brain systems involved in avoiding sticks and approaching carrots. The underlying ‘reptilian’ brain (brainstem, cerebellum, hypothalamus) keep us cautious and avoiding sticks, more so than we would pursue a carrot. The mammalian brain (limbic system, cingulate, early cortex) has us chasing good feelings, but is less influential, because it is better to live and not get a carrot than to die in pursuit of a carrot and get no more carrots again ever.
They mentioned neuroplasticity as a supporting reason for a way to train your brain to be happier. The oversimplified thinking behind neuroplasticity is that the more a brain is active a particular way, the more efficient the brain gets at being active that way, and the more likely it will automatically be that way in some cases. So when the book was addressing how to be happier in general, they suggested simply experiencing happiness and good feelings more, in an attempt to solidify the impact of those good feelings on the brain, strengthening the synapses involved in the neural circuits actively participating in those good feelings. So when you get a compliment on your hair or whatever, you can take a second to let those positive feelings sink in, and by doing this every time you experience something good, you will adapt your brain to experience things more positively. It’s actually an incredible concept and I’m going to try it out for myself.
They talked about the brain systems involved in experiencing positive and negative emotions and what parts are active in the PNS and the SNS. They said that the healthiest division between the SNS and PNS is to live with the PNS being most prominent with occasional dips in the SNS for stresses and decision making, with the seldom spike in SNS activity for more extreme, life or death scenarios. They talked about how the majority of pains we fill are unnecessary. The example he used was coming home to a messy house. This does not harm him or reduce his chances of getting food or sex, but he gets upset anyway. They talked about a way to reduce these negative secondary emotions, and that is to simply not react. This equanimous way of thinking is beautiful in it’s own way. You simply experience things, without reacting to them, thus eliminating the secondary sticks. I’m not sure how well it would work, but I like this sort of indifferent approach towards everything. There was a lot of interesting things discussed in these chapters, and although I definitely still like the blue book better, this one is not bad by any means. I feel I should probably do some research to check some of the stuff they are talking about, especially with this positive neuroplasticity stuff. Regardless it’s interesting, and I actually have enjoyed learning about everything so far in this course.
Negativity bias, sticks and carrots, brainstem, cerebellum, hypothalamus, limbic system, cingulate, early cortex, neuroplasticity, synapses, SNS, PNS, equanimous
Upon beginnning this chapter, I was immensely excited, as nerdy as that sounds (well, and is). This section was about happiness and other components of positive psychology, which is what I would like to get my Ph.D. in. However, I’m a bit skeptical of much of the material presented in this book. There were few citations and no research collected, but I lot of conjecture provided. That being said, I believe there is some merit to what they say (could be explained by the fact that I agree); I’m just going to be skeptical.
The first section of the chapter focuses on fostering positive thoughts, or taking in the good. One of the primary themes for the chapter was simply encouraging, dwelling even on positive thoughts. The authors discussed the prevalence and reality of the negativity bias, the tendency for the mind to focus on the things which cause us pain or discomfort in order to avoid them in the future. Hanson and Mendius acknowledged the necessity of such a tendency, but suggested turning one’s thoughts towards positive events or memories would change the brain to yearn for some more of such feelings. For example, when something positive happens to us, such as someone giving us an unexpected compliment, our mind recognizes the positivity, but moves on almost immediately. Should we take a little more time to “bask in our own glory”, if you will, our peace of mind would increase, thereby resulting in the equanimity discussed in chapter 7. Additionally, the authors recommended associating some positive memories with any traumatic events in our past, so we can learn to get over those. Should we continue this promotion and fostering of positive thought, adjusts are neural structure and after doing this a while, our brain will have trained itself to be more positive.
This also relates pretty directly to the other chapters assigned, even aside from the equanimity. For example, there are some physical exercises one can do to increase inner peace and well being. Most of these involve activating the Parasympathetic Nervous System which in turn calms the Automatic Nervous System. Such things as meditation, touching your lips and meditating can bring your blood pressure down and really make you feel more relaxed. Additionally, some physical actions such as squaring your shoulders or flexing can lend a feeling of strength. Should you use that strength to quietly persevere through difficult tasks or to develop intentions from which we can separate ourselves, life will get much easier. And it will be much easier to develop the sense of equanimity discussed in Chapter 7.
As I said earlier, I am fairly skeptical of several things claimed in these chapters. That’s not to say I don’t believe them. Anecdotally, I would agree with several of them. For example, there are several instances in my youth, though I would refrain from calling them traumatic, which really affected who I am today. For a while, many of those events were very painful to think of, yet now I’ve learned that that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Yeah, those things sucked and there are parts of me I don’t like that may have stemmed from dealing with those, but, for the most part, I enjoy who I am and recognize what I’ve learned from dealing with all those things. Specifically, my biological father ran out on my family when I was very young. Until fairly recently, I had trust issues because of this, but then I decided that he was one person and that , sure, my relationship with him was hellacious, but not all of people like that. For the past couple years, I’ve decided that relationship building will be one of my highest priorities and will guide my life. That positive spin on a fairly traumatic event makes thinking of my youth significantly less painful. My concern, however, lies in the dearth of evidence. Sure, it seems commonsensical, but the book didn’t discuss many studies that show how this works… or if it’s simply conjecture. Perhaps I’m becoming too sensitive to the accusations of being a soft science, but I’m still skeptical.
As you may guess, most of the chapter that focused on relationship building was of primary interest to me. For example, it discussed “picturing loved ones” when you miss them or are having a bad day and it will increase the strength of that relationship and make you happier. I am really interested in this, but I doubt it’s true. I could see how thinking of someone more often will increase your communication with said individual, which COUL D strengthen your relationship, but there is a jump there. I also feel like a line needs to be drawn between what is healthy thinking and what is simply creepy.
Terms: neuroaxis, ANS and PNS Systems, positive thoughts, negativity bias,
This week we read from H&M the chapters focused on happiness, strength, equanimity, and the biological sense of feelings and where they come from. The reading talks about different ways of promoting positive thoughts and recollections over negative ones, in essence positive psychology, which I’m sure made one Blake Findley ridiculously happy. Positive psych is all about thinking more positively to promote better health and well-being, which the chapter discussed.
The book talked about strength in a different way than you typically think of the concept. They discussed finding inner strength – motivation, determination, confidence – in order to accomplish your goals and to make you feel more empowered about your own life. In all honestly, it kind of sounded like a self-help seminar. The book gave a step-by-step guide to help bring out inner strength, which again, didn’t do much for me. It felt too much like a hokey life coach to be honest.
Equanimity refers to keeping an even mind. When reading about the concept, I thought of it as being realistic about the world around you, processing the realities and controlling your reactions. The idea of equanimity reminded me of a prayer my grandmother kept hanging, in her bathroom of all places, but it was called the prayer of serenity. It says “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” In a way, I think serenity and equanimity are similar terms. It is a peace with oneself and the changing environment.
The next section discussed strong intentions and cooling the fires, which I found particularly interesting due to their biological explanations, being a bio nerd. Both chapters talk about the biological systems and structures of the brain that control thoughts, emotions, and the physical state of the body. The two specific systems mentioned were the parasympathetic system and the sympathetic system. The sympathetic system is the body’s fight or flight response to stimuli. It’s a survival mechanism that I’m sure we were all born with as basic instinct. The parasympathetic system is the system that “cools our fires” or calms our reactions. The book explains ways to induce the parasympathetic system in order to keep calm, while the strong intentions section explains how to make yourself feel stronger. Again, this section of the book felt a little like bunk to me. Yes, they talked about the biological systems in the body, but it still felt like reading self-help material when it discusses how to make yourself feel stronger. It might just be a bad reaction on my behalf to step-by-step breakdowns to self-betterment.
Overall, I liked the topics that were discussed in these chapters, but I can’t say I really bought into them much. Not a lot of the claims seemed to have scientific backing like previous chapters in this book and in the Nataraja book had.
Terms: positive thinking, positive psychology, inner strength, equanimity parasympathetic nervous system, sympathetic nervous system, fight or flight, stimuli, cooling the fires
This weeks readings were covering the topic of happiness, something I along with most people would probably like to have more of in their life. I thought that the readings were interesting, although chapter 6 and the biological basis was over my head I found it to be helpful to know how the brain functions. The first two chapters were my favorite out of the ones we read. The concept of negative being stronger than positive was a key component in chapter 4 and one that had the greatest impact on me. This idea was the topic I had chosen to do more research on last week so getting to read more on this topic was fun. I found it very insightful that they did talk about how the idea was not to suppress negative experiences but to increase positive ones. Reading the three steps they came up with to help increase positive thoughts was interesting. Learning different ways to help increase positive thoughts was something that I found fun to try. Reading about how by thinking of positive experiences in your past can help to increase positive feelings in the future by reshaping how your brain fires is an interesting concept to work on in the future. The other topic that I found the most interesting was relaxation to increase PNS. Progressive relaxation was most interesting to me because I try and use this technique when I meditate to help ease away tension in my body. I always find myself clenching my jaw or hunched over not relaxed. When I meditate and do this technique it helps to relieve a lot of back pain I have which in turn helps to make me feel more positive. This is something that I hope to practice more even when I’m not meditating but just being able to notice when I clench my jaw or am not sitting in a relaxing way. Imagery was another topic that was discussed that can help with stress and feeling safe. When trying to relax and meditate I normally picture myself in the outdoors either on a beach or sometimes in the mountains by a lake or stream. The image that I create in my mind I draw from past experiences that also are positive experiences so that helps to make me feel more stress free. One of the times that I experience imagery is when listing to music, I’m not sure if this can also count as a refuge but it’s the time when I feel most at piece. Depending on the music I imagine myself in different settings. With music I can escape from my own thoughts and problems. The next two chapters I found less interesting than the previous two. The biological sides of the readings are always hard for me to understand and all the terms get jumbled up in my head so chapter 6 was the most difficult for me to understand. The last chapter was a bit more interesting to me and I did like reading about steading the mind and the eight worldly winds. Equanimity is an intriguing concept that I hope to be able to better understand with more reading and meditation. But the best part of chapter 7 was the names of the people they quoted like The Third Zen Patriarch.
Key terms: happiness, positive, negative, relaxation, imagery, refuge, equanimity, PNS, meditation,
Throughout these chapters I learned a lot about mindfulness, how to come in contact with your deepest inner emotions that may be holding you back, how to subdue the bad and replace it with good thoughts in order to help correct the sad and upsetting feelings a memory can cause an individual for years. How to activate your PNS in order to feel calm and relaxed, as well as more in touch with your body. The book explained how stopping for just a second to think about and notice the simplest of good things that happen to you each day. That it is important to just take it in and actually feel the joy it brings. That when stressed out, just stop and use imagery as a way to relax and let your body concentrate on a bigger picture to release the tension. It suggested simple things you can to do focus or not stay focused on certain things while meditating, and I especially loved the part about realizing and becoming one with your inner strength. Since this class, a lot that I have read while looking into meditation on my own time as well as within the readings is that meditation is somewhat related to yoga. There for I have began practicing yoga as well. I love them both. I start out by doing a relaxation yoga secession to release and stretch out all the tense areas of my body, and I have found that if I meditate after the yoga session my body feels a lot more relaxed, I don’t feel as heavy, and it’s easier for me to not follow the millions of thoughts that travel though my head, it’s simply easier to just acknowledge them and let the flow.
These chapters were about finding and maintaining happiness, staying calm, and finding equanimity within yourself. In these chapter they used a more scientific approach to meditation. They touch on how mental health is achieved through calming the autonomic nervous system and by doing so it stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system. Examples given to active the parasympathetic system included relaxation, imagery, touching of the lips, and can’t forget meditation. It is also better to find places where one can relax completely without disruptions. These can help you to feel safer and less likely to get anxious or paranoid. The later chapters go on to explain why happiness is important. They also explain that one should always have a clear goal in mind. Whether you are practicing meditation to find inner peace or help with a certain medical condition it is always important to know and remember what you goal is and this will help guide you to your desired outcome. They then begin to describe parts in the brain that are related to motivation. The neuroaxis is split into two. The anterior cingulate cortex which manages reasoned motivation, and the amygdala which handles passionate motivation. The following chapter covers all of equanimity with ones emotions as well as actions. Equanimity creates support for compassion, kindness, and joy for others. It also protects us from reacting badly in situations.
Terms: equanimity, parasympathetic nervous system, autonomic nervous system, meditation, relaxation, neuroaxis, anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, motivation