For three years, in one of the many schools I studied as a kid, we had to do meditation every morning for 15 minutes before the classes started. Those days, I never understood the importance of meditation and we kids used that time to sleep and play silent pranks. Over the years, I had developed a psychological simplifier "meditation = boring", which slowly incapacitated me from pursing it. Of-course now that I have grown up and all, I see the dissonance in that equation and longing to meditate but in vain. I usually find solace in equating walking in woods with Max as my meditation.
Now I am seriously contemplating joining classes and practice meditation with serene perseverance (who wouldn't want a "toned" frontal cortex?). It's been three years since I started reading about the neuroscience of meditation and I will be feeding my cognitive dissonance if I postpone it further.
"During meditation not only general relaxation is experienced but also a reduction of mental activity and positive affect. During meditation the reduced mental activity is mediated by increased activation of networks of internalized attention which trigger the activity in regions that mediate positive emotions. Networks related to external attention and irrelevant processes are decreased in activity.
The networks activated for internal attention and positive mood are mainly located in the frontal and subcortical brain regions. The positive affect more specifically increases the activity in the left prefrontal and limbic region of the brain. The internal focused attention is thought to originate in an activation of frontal and thalamic region of the brain. There’s also some evidence that experienced meditators show these activations and deactivations in a greater extend compared to novices in the field of meditation.
In conclusion, there is converging evidence that fronto-parietal and fronto-limbic brain networks seem to be activated in the attention practices that lead to Meditation, presumably reflecting processes of internalised sustained attention and emotion regulation."
Neuro-scientist's have been collaborating with Dalia Lama and other Buddhist monks to understand the mysteries of meditation but in NYC and SFO, there was "church-state controversy" about yoga classes in the public schools. DUH!! This is exactly the kind of "Identity" issue sans the assimilation that causes all kinds of issues in the world.
"Countless other public and private schools from California to Massachusetts — including the Aspen school where Guber clashed with parents — are teaching yoga.
"During meditation not only general relaxation is experienced but also a reduction of mental activity and positive affect. During meditation the reduced mental activity is mediated by increased activation of networks of internalized attention which trigger the activity in regions that mediate positive emotions. Networks related to external attention and irrelevant processes are decreased in activity.
The networks activated for internal attention and positive mood are mainly located in the frontal and subcortical brain regions. The positive affect more specifically increases the activity in the left prefrontal and limbic region of the brain. The internal focused attention is thought to originate in an activation of frontal and thalamic region of the brain. There’s also some evidence that experienced meditators show these activations and deactivations in a greater extend compared to novices in the field of meditation.
In conclusion, there is converging evidence that fronto-parietal and fronto-limbic brain networks seem to be activated in the attention practices that lead to Meditation, presumably reflecting processes of internalised sustained attention and emotion regulation."
Neuro-scientist's have been collaborating with Dalia Lama and other Buddhist monks to understand the mysteries of meditation but in NYC and SFO, there was "church-state controversy" about yoga classes in the public schools. DUH!! This is exactly the kind of "Identity" issue sans the assimilation that causes all kinds of issues in the world.
"Countless other public and private schools from California to Massachusetts — including the Aspen school where Guber clashed with parents — are teaching yoga.
Helping kids focusTeachers say it helps calm students with attention-deficit disorder and may reduce childhood obesity. The federal government gives grants to gym teachers who complete a teacher training course in yoga.
"I see a lot fewer discipline problems," said Ruth Reynolds, principal of Coleman Elementary School in San Rafael. Her observation of the school's six-year-old yoga program is that it helps easily distracted children to focus.
Despite mainstream acceptance, yoga in public schools remains touchy. Critics say even stripped-down "yoga lite" goads young people into exploring other religions and mysticism.
Dave Hunt, who has traveled to India to study yoga's roots and interview gurus, called the practice "a vital part of the largest missionary program in the world" for Hinduism. The Bend, Ore., author of "Yoga and the Body of Christ: What Position Should Christians Hold?" said that, like other religions, the practice has no place in public schools.
"It's pretty simple: Yoga is a religious practice in Hinduism. It's the way to reach enlightenment. To bring it to the west and bill it as a scientific practice for fitness is dishonest," said Hunt, 80."
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