Self-Transformation Through Mindfulness | Dr. David Vago | TEDxNashville

TEDx Talks

Published on Apr 24, 2017

How is the Self represented in the brain and how is it sculpted through our everyday moment-to-moment perceptions, emotions, and thoughts? Cognitive Neuroscientist, David Vago demonstrates that a systematic form of mental training involving meditation and mindful awareness has the potential to transform our self and our mental habits in a positive way. Learn more about how every moment is an opportunity to change our brain and strongly influence our health & longevity at both conscious and non-conscious levels.

A Cognitive Neuroscientist by training, David Vago has close to 20 years of experience with mindfulness practice and teaching, and over a decade conducting translational neuroimaging, cognitive, and clinical research on the basic mechanisms and therapeutic relevance of mindfulness and associated meditation/contemplative practices. Through his research, Dr. Vago focuses on one basic question – “What are the basic neurobiological and physiological components that constitute adaptive mind-brain-body interactions and their therapeutic relevance in psychiatric settings?” In addition to being an expert in the emerging field of contemplative neuroscience, David has studied the neural mechanisms of neuropsychiatric disease and chronic pain using fMRI and is translating these findings into biologically-based diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for alleviating suffering. He is the research director at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and a research associate in the Functional Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

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Mindfulness Isn't Just Trendy, It's a Powerful Tool

For years now, meditation and mindfulness practices have been hot in the Western world. There are mindfulness exercises for work, for kids, for inmates. Really for any subset of people you can think of — there is a mindfulness practice out there. Everyone wants to know how they can use mindfulness to slow down yet stay productive.

All in all, mindfulness is pretty popular. But we have to realize that it is more than just a fad to hop aboard. Mindfulness is actually a powerful tool that can alter our fundamental brain patterns and help us deal with intense life situations.

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How Does Meditation Work?

Meditation. Perhaps you’ve been told you need to start. Maybe you’ve tried, found it dumb, and moved on. Or you have no idea where to begin. You download an app, then another, switching from voice to ambient music to binaural beats in hopes of finding something that works, which all raises the question: How does meditation work?

Anxiety and depression among UK workers ‘up nearly a third in four years’

News / Exclusive: Tuesday 10 October 2017:  The Independent

The UK Council for Psychotherapy called the numbers ‘extremely worrying’

(Getty) May Bulman: (Social Affairs Correspondent)

Anxiety and depression among workers in the UK has hit a record high, rising by nearly a third in the last four years, new figures reveal. Research by the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), seen exclusively by The Independent, shows that rates of moderate to extreme anxiety and depression among employees has soared by 30.5 per cent since records began in 2013. Part-time workers appear to be bearing the brunt, with the figure among this group having risen by more than a third (33.6 per cent) in the same period.

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The Independent Monday 08th May 2017

Findings say less than a fifth of Britons experience high levels of positive mental health

(PeopleImages/iStock)

May Bulman

Two-thirds of British adults have experienced a mental health problem such as anxiety or depression, with less than a fifth experiencing high levels of positive mental health, research has found.

A new study by the Mental Health Foundation on the nation’s mental wellbeing revealed that the majority of Britons (65 per cent) have experienced a mental health problem.

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Mindfulness really is one of the best ways to tackle stress

By Victoria Allen - Science Correspondent - 25^th January 2017

It’s the form of meditation beloved by Hollywood starts. Now a study has found that Mindfulness really is one of the best ways to tackle anxiety.

Researchers found that the Buddhist philosophy was far more effective than other techniques for stress-management.

Mindfulness, championed by actresses Emma Watson and Angelina Jolie, holds that the worries of everyday life can be eased by paying greater attention to what is happening in the present.

A study found it can cut levels of stress hormones which can lead to high blood pressure. Researchers asked 89 participants with anxiety to give a demanding presentation in front of an audience in white lab coats with clipboards.

Those who had practised mindfulness coped much better than those using conventional stress-busting tactics, which include time management, eating better and exercising more. The study’s lead authero, Dr Elizabeth Hoge, of Massachusetts General Hospital, said: “This is not just a fad, it has been around for thousands of years in Buddhist countries, and we have found it helps  people in a very practical sense.

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bbc.co.uk/iwonder  © Copyright 2014

Why do Buddhists meditate?

Video transcript for: What is Buddhist meditation? Narrated by Bettany Hughes

In this frantic, hurly burly world, there is a quiet, steady revolution going on. An ancient, sacred practice is enjoying a period of unprecedented popularity amongst both religious and non-religious people alike.

Meditation is making its way back on to the agenda of the 21st Century. From corporate executives who swear it helps them become more effective leaders, and school children in classrooms, to ordinary folk who find meditating gives them the tools to better deal with the stresses of modern life.

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World Mental Health Day marked in Hertfordshire

“We need to end health stigma”

World Mental Health Day: Helping raise awareness

By Hertfordshire Mercury  |  Posted: October 12, 2016

By Sam Meadows (sam.meadows@hertsessexnews.co.uk)

World mental health day was marked around the county with a series of events.

The event, which takes place annually on October 10, aims to raise awareness of the issues faced by people with mental health problems and lift the stigma sufferers can face.

In East Herts, the day was marked with a Mental Health Fair at Hertford Theatre which took place on Sunday.

Councillor Patricia Moore, who organised the day, said the intention was to bring together people from all walks of life and promote the support that is available to residents.

Be Mindful of the ways to address problems

GOOD mental health should be celebrated according to the founder of the Health and Wellbeing Centre.

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The Anatomy of Rest: Does the brain rest? 

Broadcasts BBC Radio 4  Tue 20 Sep 2016 09:00

The Quest for Rest: The Anatomy of Rest

Broadcast: BBC Radio 4  Tue 13 Sep 2016 09:00

Rest sounds like a straightforward topic. We think we know what it is. Until you start to look closely and then it's not so simple. Over the last two years Claudia Hammond has been working at the Wellcome Collection in London as part of a team called Hubbub - a group including psychologists, artists, poets, neuroscientists, musicians, historians and sociologists - all coming together to examine the topic of rest.

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The Brain's Dark Energy

Brain regions active when our minds wander may hold a key to understanding neurological disorders and even consciousness itself

Imagine you are almost dozing in a lounge chair outside, with a magazine on your lap. Suddenly, a fly lands on your arm. You grab the magazine and swat at the insect. What was going on in your brain after the fly landed? And what was going on just before? Many neuroscientists have long assumed that much of the neural activity inside your head when at rest matches your subdued, somnolent mood. In this view, the activity in the resting brain represents nothing more than random noise, akin to the snowy pattern on the television screen when a station is not broadcasting. Then, when the fly alights on your forearm, the brain focuses on the conscious task of squashing the bug. But recent analysis produced by neuroimaging technologies has revealed something quite remarkable: a great deal of meaningful activity is occurring in the brain when a person is sitting back and doing nothing at all.

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Meditation can knock 7 years off age of your brian

• Intense relaxation and concentration could trigger growth of brain cells
• Average 50-year-old who meditated had brain of 43-year-old scans found
• Brain shrinkage linked to Alzheimer's and other memory-robbing diseases
  

Meditation doesn’t just free the mind, it could also keep it young.

Regular meditation knocks seven and a half years off the middle-aged brain, a study found.

The researchers said that the combination of intense concentration and relaxation may trigger the growth of new brain cells. Although they didn’t look at whether the meditators were also smarter, brain shrinkage is linked to Alzheimer’s and other memory-robbing brain diseases.

The scientists scanned the brains of 50 American men and women who regularly meditated and 50 non-meditators.

http://www.buddhistacademy.com/ContactUs.aspx?pid=ContactUs&tab=6

Can mindfulness meditation improve later life?

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/health-wellbeing/keeping-your-body-healthy/can-mindfulness-meditation-improve-later-life/

Mindfulness meditation is becoming increasingly popular with more and more people using it to relax or cope with stress, but what actually is it and can it really help improve your quality of life?

Mindfulness is a popular type of meditation. It is a way to increase your awareness of the present moment, using techniques like breathing and yoga. It can help us be more aware of our thoughts so that we are better able to manage them and not become overwhelmed.

The Mental Health Foundation supports mindfulness as a tool to help you live your life, improve general wellbeing and treat depression. Evidence shows that it can help with a number of problems, such as recurrent depression, anxiety disorders, addictive behaviour, chronic pain and many more mental and physical problems.

NICE, the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, has recommended that Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy is an option offered to prevent relapse for people who are currently well but who have experienced recurrent depression. Your GP would need to decide if the therapy is suitable for your situation before offering access to the treatment.

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Britain’s robust cross-party parliamentary report on the benefits of mindfulness is a model to legislators across the developed world: this ‘way of being’ is no quick fix 

Mindfulness is rapidly becoming a global phenomenon, supported by increasingly rigorous scientific research, and driven in part by a longing for new practices that might help us to better apprehend and solve the challenges that threaten our health.

This week a landmark British report will lay out recommendations for the provision of mindfulness across many public policy areas. Mindful Nation UK, based on evidence presented to an all-party group of the UK parliament, carries enormous promise for health policy in Britain and the wider world.

The World Health Organisation has warned that mental ill-health will be the biggest burden of disease in developed countries by 2030. We urgently need new approaches to tackling this epidemic, and crucially more research to determine the efficacy of mindfulness as a prevention strategy.

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Mindfulness: Panacea or Fad? BBC Radio 4

In little more than a few decades mindfulness has gone from being a specialist element of Buddhist teaching to the front cover of Time magazine. It's the must have app for the stars, courses in it are advertised in the back of all the glossies, businesses use it to reduce staff stress and boost productivity. It's even prescribed on the NHS for anxiety and depression. This is the story of "mindfulness" - from its roots in the Buddhist practice of meditation to today's multi-billion dollar, worldwide industry. Devoted followers hail it as a cure-all for the ills of modern life. Or is this just another health fad, destined for disparagement, like homeopathy? And what do Buddhists feel about their heritage being westernised, secularised and commercialised?

Presenter: Emma Barnett. Producer: Phil Pegum.

CLICK HERE: Listen to 30 Minutes Programmes on BBC Radio 4

Mindfulness 'as good as drugs for preventing depression relapse'

© NHS Choices  http://www.nhs.uk/news/2015/04April/Pages/Mindfulness-as-good-as-drugs-for-preventing-depression-relapse.aspx

People with depression often fall into patterns of repetitive thinking

Mindfulness is about focusing on the here and now

"Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy may be as good as pills at stopping people relapsing after recovering from major bouts of depression," The Guardian reports.

Researchers wanted to see if a type of therapy known as mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) could be an effective alternative treatment to antidepressants for people with major depression at high risk of relapse. READ MORE

Mindfulness for mental wellbeing

NHS CHOICES

Mindfulness: does it really live up to the hype?

Happier, healthier and better rested: that's what 20 minutes a day of meditation has done for one writer. And as a resolute sceptic, she couldn't be more surprised

Mindfulness therapy comes at a high price for some, say experts

Much-hyped therapy can reduce relapses into depression – but it can have troubling side effects

Robert Booth

The Guardian, Monday 25 August 2014 16.13 BST