Sublime

One of the most significant findings in psychology in the last twenty years is that individuals can choose the way they think.

up. In Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain, Sharon Begley quotes Davidson conveying his report to the Dalai Lama: This was a novel and unexpected finding … There’s no physical activity; they’re [the meditating monks] sitting still. One interpretation of this is that it may reflect the generation of a disposition to act in the face of suffering. It g

Stanford psychologist Laura Carstensen, to name one such example, used an fMRI scanner to study the brain behavior of subjects presented with both positive and negative imagery. She found that for young people, their amygdala (a center of emotion) fired with activity at both types of imagery. When she instead scanned the elderly, the amygdala fired

“With neurofeedback we hope to intervene in the circuitry that promotes and sustains states of fear and traits of fearfulness, shame, and rage. It is the repetitive firing of these circuits that defines trauma.”

The great spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti once said that true liberation is freedom from our own automatic responses.

Stephen W. Porges, The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory: The Transformative Power of Feeling Safe Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel, The Telomere Effect: A Revolutionary Approach to Living Younger, Healthier, Longer

The third category of research is neuroplasticity, which is simply the brain’s ability to change in response to life circumstance and learning, or to a mindfulness practice.

Reptilian: Stress relief* Limbic: Stress relief* Neocortex: Increase self-worth