Discover The Trick Nurses Use To Get More Restful Sleep (M)
This technique helps healthcare professionals sleep soundly at night despite the stress they are under.
Category: Mindfulness
The Mind-Body Practice That Reduces Loneliness In The Elderly (M)
The practice also reduces the expression of genes which cause inflammation.
The Meditation Style That Can Make You More Creative (M)
Particular types of meditation can generate insight and new ideas, according to research.
The Mind-Bending Experiences 50% Have Had Without Taking Drugs (M)
Many of these altered states of consciousness are likely to have been unintentional, as relatively few people have ever practiced meditation.
Everyday Memory Problems Can Be Countered With This Simple Strategy
The age at which people typically start to have problems remembering details.
The age at which people typically start to have problems remembering details.
People typically begin to have difficulties remembering details — like where they left the keys — in their 40s.
The cause, though, could be less about a decline in brain function, and more about a change in the way memories are formed and retrieved.
Research shows that older adults focus more on what is relevant to them, rather than paying attention to external details.
Focusing on external details could help promote healthy cognitive aging.
Dr Natasha Rajah, one of the study’s authors, said:
“This change in memory strategy with age may have detrimental effects on day-to-day functions that place emphasis on memory for details such as where you parked your car or when you took your prescriptions.”
People aged 19 to 76-years-old were shown a series of faces and had to recall where they appeared on the screen, while their brains were scanned.
The results showed that younger people really paid attention, with their visual cortices running on overdrive, Dr Rajah said:
“They are really paying attention to the perceptual details in order to make that decision.”
Older people, though, showed lower activation in the visual cortex.
Instead, their medial prefrontal cortices were more active.
This area is related to introspection and aspects of one’s own life.
Younger people performed better on the task — but the reason may be because of what older people choose to focus on.
Dr Rajah said:
“This may not be a ‘deficit’ in brain function per se, but reflects changes in what adults deem ‘important information’ as they age.”
Older people can learn to improve their memory by focusing on external details rather than internal information, Dr Rajah said:
“That may be why some research has suggested that mindfulness meditation is related to better cognitive aging.”
Hormonal influences are currently being tested as another explanation:
“At mid-life women are going through a lot of hormonal change.
So we’re wondering how much of these results is driven by post-menopausal women.”
The study was published in the journal NeuroImage (Ankudowich et al., 2016).
How Spending Time Outdoors Can Fight Disease And Inflammation (M)
A natural way to reduce inflammation and boost your health.
Experienced Meditators Can ‘Turn Off’ Their Consciousness (M)
Alpha waves hold the key to understanding how meditators can ‘turn-off’ consciousness.
This Weight Loss Technique Instantly Reduces Food Cravings
People using this strategy find that it is easier to resist acting on their desires.
People using this strategy find that it is easier to resist acting on their desires.
Mindfulness is a proven strategy to reduce cravings for food, cigarettes and alcohol, a review concludes.
Multiple studies have found that mindfulness can instantly reduce cravings.
Mindfulness involves the acceptance of moment-by-moment experiences, such as the desire to eat, smoke or drink.
Acceptance involves seeing cravings as a normal result of stress or other problems in life.
Over time, people practising mindfulness find that it is easier to resist acting on their desires.
Mindfulness helps the mind simply acknowledge these cravings and then let them mentally flow away.
Being mindful occupies the part of the mind that generates cravings, studies suggest.
Mindfulness also emphasises the separation between thoughts and feelings and the self.
In other words, it is possible to think and feel, without acting on those thoughts and feelings.
Dr Katy Tapper, the study’s author, said:
“The research suggests that certain mindfulness-based strategies may help prevent or interrupt cravings by occupying a part of our mind that contributes to the development of cravings.
Whether mindfulness strategies are more effective than alternative strategies, such as engaging in visual imagery, has yet to be established.
However, there is also some evidence to suggest that engaging in regular mindfulness practice may reduce the extent to which people feel the need to react to their cravings, though further research is needed to confirm such an effect.”
Here are some mindfulness exercises to try.
The study was published in the journal Clinical Psychology Review (Tapper, 2018).
Why We Can’t Stop Our Attention From Wandering — Whatever The Task (M)
The surprisingly high amount of mind wandering that is perfectly normal.
Combining Exercise & Mental Practice Supercharges Well-Being (M)
How mindfulness reshapes the mind-body connection, making workouts more effective than ever before.
