In
2016, I went through an experience that made me incredibly angry, creating
unbelievable amounts of stress and anxiety, which I wrote about in Defusing One’s Anger.
My
“take home point” of that experience was the realization that
approaching situations from a place of compassion for my self and others,
wishing no harm to them and vice versa, works.
As Rick Hanson, psychologist and senior fellow of the
Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, notes The
brain is the organ that learns, designed by evolution to be changed by our
experiences: what scientists call experience-dependent neuroplasticity. Neurons
that fire together, wire together. This means that each one of us has the power
to use the mind to change the brain to change the mind for the better. To
benefit oneself and other beings.... Life is often hard. To cope with hard
things, to be effective and successful, or simply to experience ordinary
well-being, we need resources inside, inner strengths like resilience, compassion, gratitude and
other positive emotions, self-worth, and insight. Just One Thing: Be Mindful of Good
Thanks
to all the advances in brain imaging, the field of neuroplasticity,
neuroscientists agree that both animals and humans have “compassionate
instincts” that have helped us to survive for thousands of years. It’s always
been important to understand if someone was having a hard time. On the
Savannah's of our ancestry, if someone was unable to function properly, it could
endanger the tribe, so it was a life or death matter to be tuned in to one
another.
Our
brains are not as evolving as quickly as our technology. While our “old brain”
can help us survive a disaster, such as running away from a tree that’s about
to fall, our new brain causes us to obsess over the fact that we could
have easily been killed. The threat is over, but the brain can’t let it go and
so we ruminate on it with the “what if” questions and scenarios. Obviously it
has advantages in keeping people from avoiding certain situations again, but
all too often, the rumination goes on too long and we get fixed into a negative
way of thinking. As Rick Hanson notes the brain
is Velcro for negative- and threat-based things but Teflon for positive ones.
In short, we quickly let go of the good things, instead focusing on the bad,
which ultimately results in anxiety, stress, depression, and a myriad of health
issues.
However, the stresses of modern life
and it’s impact on our brain and ultimately our well being, can be modulated by the use of certain “tools”
that do not require any prescriptions or money. There are many ways to develop a practice that can create a
healthy mindset and improve well being based on scientific research.
While
the Dali Lama stresses that if you want to be happy be compassionate - to
recognize the suffering of others and wanting to alleviate it, this turns out
to have a strong scientific basis. Dr. James Doty of Stanford Medicine The
Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, explains how this
work in the video:
Learn
more about compassion, your brain and how to develop a practice that works best
for you by checking out the following sites
•
The Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education: Contains lots of
videos and information, including a number of James Doty’s videos.
•
Into the Music Shop-The exercises associated with Dr. Doty’s book of the same
name.
No comments:
Post a Comment