I’m curious about the intersection of psychology, philosophy, and spirituality, and the more I read, the more closely they all appear to intertwine until they’re sometimes indistinguishable. Buddhism overlaps with…
Buddhist meditation and mindfulness are very popular now, and have become mainstream. Hospitals, churches and secular classes are now offering meditation and mindfulness training and practice. That is a good…
Yoga is now practiced by champion boxers, football players such as the Miami Dolphins, and celebrity musicians such as Sting. Yoga is now being practiced by people as…
Like acupuncture, which was pooh-pooh for decades as unscientific bunkum and hocus-pocus, but is now acknowledged by the mainstream conventional Western medical establishment to work – though our crude…
What do you do when the world has gone insane? Well, you stay calm, and keep working for justice, peace, democracy, ecological balance, and freedom. You also have to…
Last evening I presented a workshop on self-care for caregivers in my city of Ottawa, Canada. Going in, I knew that this group had huge challenges at home and that…
Achieving mindfulness through mediation can help you relax and even assist you in achieving a more fulfilling life. Recent fMRI studies have shown that this can be proven by looking…
What’s the key to happiness? Not thinking about yourself. Matthieu Ricard is a Tibetan Buddhist monk who has been deemed the world’s happiest man. Researchers scanned his brain to prove…
If it’s Saturday and you’re reading this, I am far away from you. That’s because every week, I unplug and celebrate what I call the digital sabbath.… The post The Digital Sabbath,…
Mindfulness meditation is already pretty great, and it keeps getting better! Not only can it help you go amongst your day in a more thoughtful, productive, focussed manner, it can…
Kozo Hattori, a writer and counselor, explains how compassion creates happiness, freedom from gender stereotypes, and better relationships with others. The post Compassion creates happiness, freedom and better relationships appeared…
The Meditative Brain.
Every morning before they started the hunt, Thag would sit down away from the others, close his eyes, and listen to the wind. It was more than that, but that…
“We know that the human brain is a powerful organ, but many of us aren’t aware of how much the mind is truly capable of — and much more powerful…
The hallmark of schizophrenia is perceiving things that are not there. Auditory hallucinations, including “hearing voices”, is particularly common. What if this clinically distinguishing feature of schizophrenia differs from the…
The “West” is known for its consumers. Much of the rest of the world is trying its best to head in that direction too. Reading Clay Shirky’s recent blog post,…
Stressed? Read This. Amygdala Highjacking – A Few Brief Thoughts
When under great stress, or when in great fear, our biological fight or flight response is triggered strongly, the amygdala is highjacked, which then highjacks our frontal cortex and our…