Scientific Proof: Meditation And Brain Fitness

After a half-century of meditation propaganda, it is used by less than 1% of us. The 800-pound gorilla, Transcendental Medication, the darling of Harvard Medical School and Dr. Herbert Benson, is the real-deal, but relaxation for Americans feels too much like brainwashing and loss of control.

We were sitting in an overheated lecture hall while two snot-nose kids with a blackboard were explaining the steps of how to meditate for health and peace of mind.

They could not have sold this crowd two-tens for a five, and New Yorkers extol the value of money. My significant-other lasted less than three-minutes after the two jokers said, Close your eyes and relax your limbs.

I want out of here, she said, My head is throbbing and I feel nauseous. Great time; you drag me here for relaxation and peace of mind and these dum-dums convince me never to close my eyes again. Now I am wondering if I can ever sleep again. Phoo-ey on Indian nuts.

She was not alone. About twenty five (half the audience) deserted the two soldiers of TM after five-minutes. The lecture was free but they could have gotten $25 each to permit their victims to escape their mental imprisonment.

I stayed, learned their meditation system and use it for health and relaxation for the next thirty-years.

Scientific Facts

Neuroscientists beginning with Harvard Medical School, using fMRIs (functional Magnetic Resonance Imagery), consistently indicate meditators improve the functioning of their immune system. They experience less illness and disability, and may even live up to ten years longer. Cool.

They got better blood pressure readings, calmer heartbeat and improved circulation. Better yet, they are superior learners and remember more of what they study. Are these enough benefits for closing your eyes for up to 15 minutes daily?

Polling five-hundred urban students we taught meditation, 90% expect to continue meditating for the rest of their lives. It is part of what makes their frantic lives work better. Most of our meditators devote about five-minutes twice daily.

Our experience is meditating for five-minutes produces up to four-hours of deep relaxing and improved listening, learning and memory skills. Good Cost-Benefit- Analysis, says me.

Attention

Did you know the average college graduate spends up to 30% of his/her waking moments daydreaming? Google mental distractions, attention and daydreaming research in 2007.

Dr. Richard Davidson, University of Wisconsin, Madison School of Medicine had his research on Attention and Meditation in the journal PloS Biology, May, 2007.

His team concludes: attention (awareness) is not a fixed capacity like your height and shoe size. Attention is more like playing tennis and golf, driving a car and learning a second language, you can improve your skills with practice.

He adds, attention is not physical and fixed; it is subject to mental control (your volition) skills. Once more, conscious mental training can affect your attentional abilities.

Get this: Dr. Davidson proves simple meditation reduces mental distraction (daydreaming) and improves sensory awareness (better listening, thinking and remembering).

Would you be a better student, and have greater personal productivity in your career, if you stop daydreaming (wasting) up to three-hours daily?

The doctor is asking other scientists to raise the white flag and surrender their century-old belief in a finite (limited) capacity of attention span. The new scientific principle is your attention capacities can be improved by the practice of meditation. You got a flexible skill, if you choose to exercise your willful intention to improve.

Profound Facts

Your thoughts (beliefs) are all-powerful only to you. They will change your feelings and behaviors and what you attempt in your life. For the rest of the planet, your thoughts aint squat, so do not expect the cosmos to change because you have a burning desire. The secret of personal success is self-discipline, and key is attention and intention to create. Yes, really.

If you do not feel self-worth, protected (safety net) and lovable (by someone), you are pitching without a ball.

Expectations

We read about the law of Attraction and the power of personal expectation. Dig it: your expectations do not determine (except for you) what happens in this world (dimension). For you, what you believe and expect is your context (framework), and affects what you attempt and your behaviors.

For the rest of us, we cut you no slack for expecting to win the Lotto, the Yankees winning the World Serious, and to be sexually chased by a Las Vegas heiress because of your beauty and charisma. May we suggest you expect success and have strategies to produce the correct behaviors.

How to Meditate

a) Sit down, close your eyes, hands on your lap, and tell

your muscles and body parts (one-by-one) to relax for a couple of minutes.

b) Focus your conscious thoughts on your breathing and repeat on inhaling the sound BUT and on exhaling MOM. They are really the pronunciation for the Zen mantra, Sat- Nam.

c) When thoughts, ideas and feelings float by and attempt to grab your attention by engaging you in a conversation, analysis, and to make judgments, ignore it. Take notice and continue with your inhaling and exhaling in tune with your mantra BUT MOM.

You have just received the secrets of meditation. You can ignore them or scientifically do a mental experiment.

Endwords

You cannot improve things by telling yourself or others to Stop Worrying. In order to stop something you must exercise your awareness by concentrating more on the problem. Meditation permits you to focus on the solution through relaxation and peace of mind.

There are secret words that make normal folks crazy: avoid them like Mad Cow disease. Must; Have-to; Ought-to; and the killer, Should. You have volition (choice) most of the time you are alive, and willing to take the consequences. Decide what is best for you, others around you, and the world.

Last two gems. When you meditate, experience it as watching a movie, not participating as an actor. It gives you control.

Finally, our experience is you need a competitive advantage to win the game. If you could read and remember three-books, articles and reports in the time it takes others to hardly finish one, would that help you ace school and put you in the fast-lane in your career?

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