stress reduction

San Francisco schools transformed by the power of meditation

December 30, 2014

NBC News: Silence isn’t something people usually associate with middle school, but twice a day the halls of Visitacion Valley School in San Francisco fall quiet as the sixth, seventh and eighth grade students meditate for fifteen minutes.

And school administrators tell NBC News that the violence outside of the school, which is situated in one of San Francisco’s poorest neighborhoods, was spilling into the school and affecting the students’ demeanor.

“The kids see guns on a daily basis,” the school’s athletic director, Barry O’Driscoll said, adding, “there would be fights …

Are you mindful? The meditation practice that’s connecting the world

December 16, 2014

James Maynard, Tech Times: Mindfulness is an ancient practice which encourages people to direct their thoughts toward the present, rather than obsessing over the past or worrying about the future. This relatively simple notion is starting to become a more common practice among people concerned with worry and fear.

Scientific studies are starting to provide evidence that the ancient practice of mindfulness can create beneficial physical changes in brains.

“I don’t feel I’m very present in each moment. I feel like every moment I’m either thinking about something that’s coming down the road, or something …

Practice mindfulness to curb anxiety and depression

December 9, 2014

Panorama: According to a new study out of Lund University in Sweden, mindfulness can be just as effective as your typical therapist who practices cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which necessitates focusing on negative thoughts and having a discussion, as well as running experiments, on them, Medical Daily reports.

The study, led by Professor Jan Sundquist, was held at 16 primary health care centers in southern Sweden. The researchers trained two mindfulness instructors at each health care center during a six-day training course. Participants of the study, who suffered from depression, anxiety, or severe stress, were gathered …

Meditation: 5 ways it can change your outlook on life

December 2, 2014

Susan Cody, EmpowHer: Meditation has done wonders for both mental and physical health. Research has been confirming this for some time.

Meditation can be described as a quiet time of thinking, reflection and relaxation of the mind and body.

In days gone by, meditation was warily considered to be something from the “east”. It was a foreign concept.

The 1960s made meditation a little more mainstream and in 2014, it’s not only done by everyone from stay-at-home parents to executives to athletes, it’s also recommended by the medical community.

There are many reasons why meditation can be so …

New research proves that not only does meditation calm you down, it actually alters your brain

December 1, 2014

Caitlin White, MTV News: Mindfulness exercises are even more powerful than we previously thought.

Many people swear by meditation and mindfulness exercises as a way to increase happiness and peacefulness, but now Harvard researchers have discovered that these exercises might also increase growth of the brain’s gray matter and have measurable changes upon brain areas that are associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress.

The study will be published in next January’s issue of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, but the Harvard-affiliated research team at Massachusetts General Hospital …

Harvard unveils MRI study proving meditation literally rebuilds the brain’s gray matter in 8 weeks

November 25, 2014

FeelGuide: Test subjects taking part in an 8-week program of mindfulness meditation showed results that astonished even the most experienced neuroscientists at Harvard University. The study was led by a Harvard-affiliated team of researchers based at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the team’s MRI scans documented for the very first time in medical history how meditation produced massive changes inside the brain’s gray matter. “Although the practice of meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout the day,” says study senior author Sara Lazar …

Students relieve stress through meditation

October 13, 2014

Joseph Francis, The Fauman Online: Registered nurse and meditation guru Kurt Valle help students cope through academic pressure through meditation.

“Meditation is not just for the spiritual or religious being,” Valle said. “Meditation is about the release of the mind from the physical world and the opening of the heart. This leads to a healthier lifestyle.”

Valle suffered from a stress disorder stemming from a few traumatic incidences during grade school and college. Receiving the opportunity to travel and study abroad, Valle began to explore ways to deal with the difficult times and found a release through yoga and meditation.

“I’ve studied therapy …

Mindfulness-based techniques aim to help patients reduce stress, manage pain

September 23, 2014

AJMC: If you have taken a yoga class, there was something familiar when Steven D. Hickman, PsyD, associate clinical professor at the University of California, San Diego, invited a roomful of conference attendees to put down the notes, close their eyes, set an intention, and breathe, gaining an “awareness of the breath.”

Dr Hickman’s opening to the session, “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Patients with Chronic or Life-Threatening Illness,” highlighted the intuitive element of what he teaches: His techniques are based on 2000-year-old Eastern philosophy and can be done anywhere; it’s the hectic nature of Western culture that relegates them to classes or …

8 ways meditation can improve your life

September 22, 2014

Kristine Crane, Huffington Post: Shrimati Bhanu Narasimhan, a petite Indian woman wrapped in a bright fuchsia sari, has a soft voice but a big presence. She holds the rapt attention of some 100 people who have come to learn how to meditate at the Art of Living Center in the District of Columbia. The type of meditation she teaches is called Sahaj, Sanskrit for effortless. It’s a mantra-based meditation she advises doing twice a day for 20 minutes — before eating. “Mental hygiene,” Narasimhan calls it. Sahaj is just one type of meditation. Others are based on compassion, mindfulness, yoga and transcendentalism, among others. While their …