Dallas gym focuses on your brain with meditation

Sonia Azad, WFAA 8:48 AM. CDT May 12, 2017

Meditation class at Mastermind

By 42, life caught up to Sha Roehm.

"I had to start going to a cardiologist because I thought there was something internal going on. I hit a wall," said the wife and mom who struggled with anxiety.

She's not alone.

According to the American Psychological Association, 75 percent of adults report experiencing moderate to high levels of stress in the past month.

"If your mind is unhealthy, your physical body is going to be unhealthy," said Chelsey Charbeneau of Mastermind in Dallas.

Mastermind is a relatively new concept in boutique fitness: a studio that exclusively offers guided meditation. There are no treadmills or pilates reformers. This is a gym for your brain, designed to quiet your relentless mental chatter.

Meditation classes are guided by trained instructors. You can choose to sit or recline -- whatever is more comfortable for you. There are no phones allowed in the meditation room. No shoes allowed. No talk about religion or politics. All that's required is breathing.

"Even if they know they can do this at home, on an app or with a video, they may not have the peace and quiet that they need or the environment set up to make them feel comfortable," said Charbeneau, 34, who moved from Los Angeles to Dallas to help get the Mastermind concept off the ground in Texas.

"It kind of clears the space a little bit," said Hal Penchan, 32, after his second meditation class.

The busy husband and father of two young children works in real estate and comes to Mastermind with colleagues from work.

"Whether its the middle of the day or morning or middle of the week its a good reset, refresh."

The effects of meditation on the brain are undisputed.

"It actually stimulates or increases thevagal nerve tone, and it naturally will lower heart rate, it will naturally lower your blood pressure, and it will naturally lower those cortisone levels and bring things back into a normal state," said Dr. Melita Williams, who is on staff at Texas Health Plano.

Roehm has it figured out. She's made meditation a daily habit. Her health has improved and so have her relationships.

"My husband has seen changes in me, my daughter -- Im not yelling or screaming or anything like that now," said Roehm, who is finding time to do everything she wants by setting aside a little time -- first-- for herself.

For more information on meditation classes at Mastermind go here.

2017 WFAA-TV

Continued here:

Meditation helps exercise your brain, de-stress from life - WFAA

A quarter of a century before the apparently imminent Oriental Renaissance was mentioned in France, German thinkers in Heidelberg, Ina, Bonn and Berlin were already projecting a romantic ideal of sorts through their interpretations of certain Indian philosophical texts. The aspect of starting afresh, without losing common Aryan origins and antiquity, was appealing indeed.

Herder was undoubtedly one of the first to share this peculiar perspective, and he declared the Indian texts to be representative of a sublime moral. His student, Frederic Schlegel, propagated this romantic idealism in a more direct and radical fashion. Declaring that India was the source of all languages, thoughts and history of the human spirit, Schlegel constructed an idea of India that was like an all-comprehensive, all-inclusive mother.

So how did, one may enquire at this point, this immense popularity of Indian philosophical tradition subside so briskly and end up in complete oblivion?

The answer to this question is multifaceted. Many academic, intellectual and political developments led to the premature demise of the renaissance of Indian philosophy.

First, European interest towards Indian philosophy in the nineteenth century was more of a romantic obsession than a scholarly discovery. A multitude of prevalent ideas about Indian philosophy in that epoch had originated from bits and pieces of roughly translated extracts from the Vedas and the Upanishads. Some of these romanticised myths about Indian philosophy were gradually debunked by scholars like Colebrooke, who, in 1824, discovered the material aspects of Samkhya and thus started on a long process of disillusionment with the purely pious, spiritual and most primitive status of Indian texts.

Secondly and similarly, the translation of the Vedas by Rosen in 1830 revealed the polytheism of Indian religious and philosophical systems, thus destroying the wrongly construed beliefs of an original, primary monotheism which could correspond and be linked to the theory of emanation.

Third, the notion of Sanskrit being the mother of all languages was dispelled by Bopp who, through his linguistic research, destroyed the myth of Sanskrit as the mother of all European languages, and managed to show that although they are certainly related, the tag of the universal mother language was erroneous.

Fourth, other terms related to primitivity and pureness of Indian traditions and the Aryan tribes began to acquire new and not always positive significations. Aryan, signifying noble in Sanskrit, was a term employed many a time in Arthur de Gobineaus racist 1853 text An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races. And we are all aware of how the term would be eventually employed in Nazi propaganda.

But the loss of a sense of primitivity or the distinction to be the first text could not be the only reasons for this disenchantment with Indian philosophy. At the time when Schlegel and his brethren had been delighting over the universality and primitivity of Indian thought, a very few Indian texts had actually been translated from Sanskrit to European languages. Hence, (and here is the fifth reason) placing Indian thought on such a high pedestal of perfect totality, perfect divinity, perfect spirituality did more harm than good to the reputation of Indian philosophy in Europe.

Sixth, one must not forget the role played by the rise of the Buddhist school of thought in the Western cultural sphere. A brief study of the Indian history of ideas would clearly reveal the important dialectics that runs through it. The Hindu and the Buddhist traditions, if to be understood in a philosophical context, must be viewed as the constituting entities of this dialectics and not as contrasting religious and social categories of orthodox and reformation (as was the case with the Catholic and Protestant doctrines).

It can be argued that Europe, accustomed to understanding foreign cultures only by appropriation, failed to comprehend this crucial Hindu-Buddhist dichotomy and accepted Buddhism as a reformed Hindu tradition (purged of social evils like the caste system), while failing to acknowledge the clearly distinctive philosophical stand-points of the two very different schools of thought and, in the process, terminated its engagement with Indian philosophy.

It is hardly surprising that the Orientalist tradition of Europe failed Indian philosophy. What is of greater importance and deserving of our attention is the fact that this oblivion of Indian philosophy has become a norm in India itself. This is where the debate acquires a predominantly social, political and ideological colour. It is an almost established fact that the Left has won the culture war in India. From the advent of Nehruvian socialism to the romanticising of the Naxalbari movement, and the more recent azadi campaign, leftist intellectuals of India have established a strong footing in premier academic institutions and the cultural sphere. This has resulted in a prolonged, unopposed demonisation of the Indian philosophical tradition.

Unfortunately, the arguments proposed by the left-liberal intelligentsia for the advancement of their political ideologies have been heavily anachronistic. A very common and simplistic example would be the burning of the ancient Hindu text of Manusmriti. The burning of this particular text by political and student organisations has become almost ritualistic in many educational institutes. While the intellectual discourse opposing the ideas of Manusmriti, namely the Ambedkarite canon, is widely taught, distributed and celebrated as the flag-bearer of progressive and intellectual discourse, the original texts which are constantly opposed therein are either burnt or forced to dwell in obscurity, without any possibility of an academic defence.

One may, for the sake of argument, accept the commonly offered explanation by the left that ancient Indian philosophical texts are not the subject of research and academic attention because of their inherently racist, casteist and sexist tones. But how do we then reconcile this logic with the fact that the same educational institutes prescribe to their students the texts of philosophers like Aristotle, who said that a woman is nothing but a deformed male, like Hegel, who said women regulate their actions not by the demands of universality but by arbitrary inclinations, and like Nietzsche, who declared that when women turn to scholarship there is usually something wrong with their sexual apparatus? The argument is, as quite evident, ridiculously anachronistic. By allowing this propagandist discrimination towards the study of Indian philosophical texts, we have forced the study of these texts to recede into religious and spiritual organisations, into the hands of priests and gurus, which has further diminished the credibility of the Indian philosophical tradition.

If there is any chance of its rescue from the dark pit of oblivion, from the extremist ideologues and from the merchandise stores of spiritual bazaars, the effort must come from within Indian academia, or else we must concede once and for all, to live with the disappointment of the aborted renaissance of Indian philosophy.

Original post:

How And Why Did Indian Philosophy Get Reduced To Words Like 'Meditation' And 'Spirituality'? - Swarajya

San Francisco-based meditation app Simple Habit has raised $2.5 million in a new round of funding that includes investorsNew Enterprise Associates (NEA), Fabrice Grinda's FJ Labs, Foundation Capital and the founders of Dropbox and Gusto. This is the first round of funding for the company, whose app launched on the iOS App Store in April 2016.

CEO Yunha Kim, who went from being an investment banker to being an entrepreneur and CEO (of lockscreen app Locket, which was acquired by Wish), knows something about work stress. She created Simple Habit, the story goes, to deal with her own stress but saw potential to bring the benefits of meditation to others.

"We aim to help millions of people throughout the world live more mindfully," Kim said in a statement. "This new round of financing will allow us to expand our team in San Francisco."

The app offers more than a thousand guided meditations from famous mindfulness and meditation teachers. Users can also search for meditations aimed at particular symptoms like insomnia, or aimed at particular life situations like a hard day at work. Meditations are as short as five minutes long, and the app encourages users to complete one a day. The latest update enables premium users to download meditations for offline access (during a plane ride, for example), a new search feature, and even an alarm clock feature that can wake the user up with a gentle morning meditation. The app is free, but users can pay for premium access and in-app purchases.

"Simple Habit was crafted from a personal need that applies to all of us," Rick Yang, a partner at NEA, said in a statement. "The benefits of mindfulness and meditation are clear, and Yunha and the team have built a beautiful product and experience that makes it accessible to everybody."

Link:

Simple Habit raises $2.5 million for freemium meditation app - MobiHealthNews

The Question:I experience depression andanxiety. Will meditation really help me?

The Answer:Depression and anxiety can make everyday life very challenging. And research suggests that healthy lifestyle habits like meditation may help with some of its symptoms.

Case in point: A small study published earlier this year in the journal Psychiatry Research. Researchers randomized 70 adult participants with generalized anxiety disorder into two groups. One group received mindfulness-based stress reduction as a technique to cope. The other group, acting as the control, did not receive any sort of meditation training.

The scientists found that participants who learned the mindfulness techniques showed much lower levels of a specific biomarker for stress in the body. This could suggest meditation can not only help how someone feels over time, but also may leave an impression on a cellular level.

This potentially corroborates alarge body of meditation researchthat suggests the practice is a wunderkind for mental health issues.But its important to note that previous research outcomes also had its flaws. Some early studies lacked a control group. Other research potentially fell victim toexpectancy bias, which is when participants expected meditation to work and thus reported feeling better after the experiment.

The recent Psychiatry Research study took all of this into account, which is why it seems promising. To solve for bias, the researchers said the study was simply about stress reduction without mentioning a meditation component.Mindfulness was introduced later on, and only to some of the participants. This is so researchers could separate out meditation as an active component, according to Elizabeth Hoge, the studys lead author and associate professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University.

shutterstock

It all comes down to your thoughts, according to Hoge. Start by sitting in a quiet room and try to focus on your breath. Thoughts will inevitably pop up but the key is to not push them away or give up.

For example, if you are meditating and start to ruminate on a major work mistake or an unfounded fear, notice whats happening but dont get frustrated. The thoughts wont disappear but you will learn to create distance from them, Hoge said.

Mindfulness meditation is based on the idea of paying attention ones own inner experience, whether thats thoughts or sensations or emotions, she told HuffPost.Anything that passes through the mind is the internal stimuli that youre paying attention to.

Ideally, with enough practice, youll learn to create space between negative thoughts and your reactions.

See them as distinct objects from yourself, Hoge said. As in, My thoughts are not myself. That allows a layer of separation so that the person has a little bit more freedom in how to respond to the thoughts or how to cope with them.

The practice does have some really great mental health perks. But if you truly suffer from anxiety and depression, meditation is likely something you should consider as part of a larger form of treatment like therapy, according toChloe Carmichael, a clinical psychologist based in New York City.

Carmichael, who specializes in treating anxiety and depression, was a yoga instructor before she became a mental health professional. She uses a blend of mindfulness meditation and psychology tools to treat her clients.

When you just sit there and follow your breath, that is a mindfulness meditation. Its one of the early steps of learning how to follow our thoughts, Carmichael said. Once you have mindful awareness of what your thoughts are, youre able to observe them without reacting to them.

Depression has a tendency to make people think theyre worthless and then they tend to ruminate on that negative idea. People who have anxiety are prone to excessive worrying. Meditation can be a tool to help observe those thoughts, but medical support can provide the methods that help replace those thoughts altogether, according to Carmichael.

Thats one of the cornerstones of cognitive behavioral therapy: To analyze someones automatic thoughts, she said. So they work together really well psychology and mindfulness meditation.

Ultimately, implementing mindfulness into anxiety or depression treatment can have a very positive impact, according toSharon Salzburg, a meditation teacher and author ofReal Happiness: The Power of Meditation: A 28 Day Program.

You try different things to relieve suffering, she said. You can celebrate whatever method, or combo of methods, [that] help.

Just a little something to meditate on.

Read the original:

Does Meditation Really Help With Depression And Anxiety? - HuffPost

When touting the health benefits of meditation, experts and practitioners often speak about experiencing a mind-body connection. But up until recently, the concept that a persons physical and mental functions become synchronized thanks to deep, controlled breathing and a lot of discipline has been difficult to prove. Some people are perfectly fine accepting what spiritual gurus say about enlightenment, but its certainly not enough for scientists who tend to want well-designed studies that objectively demonstrate unconfirmed claims.

Thankfully, a group of researchers say theyve developed a method for measuring the physiological phenomena associated with mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). Researchers from the University of Hong Kongs Centre for Buddhist Studies and their department of electrical and electronic engineering have come up with what they say is a consistent and accurate way to prove the real-time physiological effects of spiritual practice, namely how a persons heart and brain activity synchronize.

We talk about whether your body and mind are in harmony but there is no systematic way of measuring this, says the Venerable Sik Hin Hung, director of the Centre for Buddhist studies and lead researcher on the paper. We now can say with some kind of certainty that when youre practicing MBSR your heart and your mind become more synchronized and thats very good for you.

Subscribe to Newsweek from $1 per week

A woman meditates at sunset on Venice Beach in Los Angeles, California. A team of researchers say they've figured out a way to scientifically track the mind-body connection. Lucy Nicholson/REUTERS

The paper was published Wednesday in JoVE Video Journal, a one-of-its kind scientific journal focused on study methodology. Founded in 2006, the main purpose of thispeer-reviewedjournal is to address the issue of reproducibility in biomedical science. Hung says the methodology developed and used by him and his team is complicated, which is why they published with JoVE , since the journal produces how-to videos for all of the studies. (In 2016, Hung and his team published another separate study in in Neuroscience Letters explaining the results of their research.)

When you find out something you want to be acknowledged that youre the first guy to able to find a way to do it, he says. Hung says he hopes the paper will help guide other researchers to replicate the process in their own scientific investigations of mindfulness and various forms of meditation such as the physiological effects of mantra chanting, yoga, tai chi and prayer. The test could also be used to track a persons progress when just starting a meditation practice.

For the study, Hungs team recruited a group of 11 graduate students enrolled in an 8-week university-led MBSR course, which means they were meditation novices rather than masters. The researchers connected study participants to electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG), and collected data while they werepracticing MBSR as well as when they were breathing normally. EEG is used in clinical settings to evaluate patients with conditions such as epilepsy, traumatic brain injury, Alzheimers disease and sleep disorders. ECG (also known as EKG) measures the electric activity of the heart. Both of these tests evaluate wavelet entropy, which is essentially chaotic or erratic activity. After evaluating the activity of both brain and heart, the researchers converted, summarized and compared the data and then used a statistical method to analyze their findings.

By measuring the things that are chaotic you more or less have a reflection of things that are in harmony, he says. Hungs assertion probably seems like a Zen-influenced commentary on, say, figuring out the meaning of life but its actually based in some reasonable scientific truth.

To be sure, theres already a growing body of scientific research on mindfulness. But existing researchnamely looks at the long-term effects of MBSR on the brain. Most of these studies rely on participant questionnaires that evaluate perceived changes in mood and stress level, as well asbrain scans that seek to identify any physicialbrain changes. What researchers have found is that a regular mindfulness practice causes structural changes to the brain. One study out of Harvard Medical School published in 2011, found a 2-month mindfulness program increased grey matter brain density. Grey matter is involved in sensory processing, as well as speech, executive function,self-control and emotions. But Hung's research is science's first effortto look at MBSR impact in realtime, he says.

Humans (and all mammals, for that matter) have two different nervous systems: The sympathetic and parasympathetic. The sympathetic nervous system is in charge of your fight and flight instinct, while the parasympathetic governs breathing, feeding, digestion and sexual function. In a perfect world, these would operate at the same momentum. However, modern life taxes the mind and therefore also the body.

The sympathetic nervous system controls the release of the hormone epinephrine (also known as adrenaline). The release of adrenaline into the bloodstream causes a number of physiological effects including a quickening of the heart. Other changes that occur, such as an increase in blood pressure. Chronic stress therefore impacts the parasympathetic nervous system by provokingphysiological changes that causethe body to operate less efficiently.

In our daily life when we become stressed the sympathetic nervous system kicks into action and suppresses the parasympathetic nervous, says Hung. Through this research we found out the practice of MBSR was able to synchronize these two systems, which is a good thing.

Read more:

Mind-Body Connection During Meditation Can Now be Tracked, Thanks to Science - Newsweek

A guest post by Pierce Salguero

I am not a scholar of Buddhist meditation. My own research has only touched on meditation insofar as it was claimed to have therapeutic benefits in a handful of texts in premodern Asia. But, as a long-time on-again/off-again practitioner myself, I have been following the rise of meditation in American popular consciousness over the past 15 years with interest. More recently, I have also begun following the critiques of meditation that have circulated in scholarly and practitioner communities, which some observers have begun to characterize as a backlash. This post is a roundup of such critiques.

I do not claim that the list below is comprehensive, that the examples Ive chosen are particularly influential, or that my insights are particularly original. Other people have rounded up critiques of meditation before me, including in this great (though absurdly expensive) book that goes into great depth. This post is simply my way of making sense of the critical perspectives that most interest me, from my own personal vantage point as a scholar and practitioner.

Some of the most salient critiques of contemporary meditation (and of mindfulness meditation in particular) have come from within the Buddhist fold. There are multiple specific objections that belong to this category, including (but not limited to):

This latter point, which is the least commonly articulated of the three, at least in English-language popular media, is the one that connects best with my research. I have found little evidence of mass interest in meditation in my readings of historical Buddhist texts on health and wellbeing. And, from what I can tell from my formal and informal ethnographic studies in contemporary East Asia, Thailand, and Asian-American Buddhist temples in the US, it is not the dominant feature of contemporary Buddhist practice either. In fact, I think its now uncontroversial to acknowledge that before widespread lay involvement in meditation began in 19th-century Burma as a product of colonial-era reforms and sensibilities, and still today in most parts of the world, very few lay Buddhists have ever meditated.

Another widely accepted critique of meditation is that the therapeutic claims made about its efficacy have been wildly exaggerated. Serious studies of meditation (e.g., Goyal et al., 2014) and of MBSR in particular (e.g., de Vibe et al. 2012) have tended to be rather cautious in reporting the benefits of these practices. This contrasts markedly with the piles of URLs from the popular media filled with breathless hyperbole hyping mindfulness as a cure for this or that ailmentor even as a super-power.

Or at least, that was the state of things a year or two ago. Somewhere in late 2015 or early 2016, the tides seem to have begun turning, and critiquing mindfulness itself has now become mainstream. Questioning the overblown claims about meditation is now the favorite passtime of the very same popular media outlets that previously had been peddling the myth of mindfulness-as-panacea (e.g., Psychology Today, Inc. magazine, Newser, etc.). It seems that perhaps the stress-busting juggernaut has begun moving on to greener pastures. (Whats next, you ask? Ive got my money on drumming for stress relief.)

(image via Pixabay)

This critique has been around for quite some time, but has recently gained more traction. The idea, in a nutshell, is that meditation rhetoric places the onus on the individual to manage their own stress. Attention is thus moved away from addressing structural problems that cause the stress in the first place (for example, exploitative corporate labor practices, hostile work environments, economic precarity, etc.). And, of course, the individual is encouraged to pay for products, apps, and workshops to learn to destress, which further benefits corporate interests at our expense.

I believe the first person to suggest that meditation is a tool for the production of acquiescent capitalist subjects was Slavoj iek in his article, From Western Marxism to Western Buddhism, 16 years ago. Ron Purser & David R. Loys 2013 article popularized the label McMindfulness for the phenomenon of corporatized mindfulness, and was helpful in pushing this critique into the mainstream. Outside of mainstream media, this line of argumentation has continued to be developed in increasingly sophisticated ways by Marxists and critical theorists, among whom Tom Pepper and others at the Speculative Non-Buddhism website have been the most vocal (and, at times, bombastic). Although these blogs (and especially their comment sections) are sometimes difficult to wade through, they collectively articulate a sharp and trenchant criticism of 21st-century meditation that I think should be required reading for any serious practitioner today.

Another objection that has been circulating widely of late might be summarized as the whiteness of meditation critique. Several people, including myself, wrote about this when TIME magazines infamous 2014 magazine cover was released. White-washing certainly is not limited to popular representations of meditation: a number of pointed articles have appeared in the past year or so highlighting the systematic erasure of Asian Americans and other Buddhists of color by the mainstream media. These outlets tend to hold up Caucasian practitioners as the mainstream face of American Buddhism, while fetishizing Asian teachers and culture (iek again), and overlooking Asian Americans and other non-white Americans entirely. Some highlights of this particular genre include articles by Wakoh Shannon Hickey, Chenxing Han, Funie Hsu, Ajahn Amaro, and the Buddhist Peace Fellowship.

The final type of critique I will raise here is one that the critic of modern Buddhism Glenn Wallis has called the principle of sufficient Buddhism (see his Speculative Non-Buddhism website), and which has also come up in different guises in other places as well (e.g., Dharma Overground and the Imperfect Buddha podcast). Applied to meditation, this critique might take the following form:

Buddhist doctrine and mindfulness hype both tell us that by doing meditation, we gain greater insight into reality as it is, but what if those changes in perception are just the product of changes in the mind or the brain that are in themselves inherently meaningless? Even if we stipulate that meditation reliably leads to changes in our perceptions of the world, how do we know that these perceptions are more true or more accurate than those we had before? Or, worse, what if meditation functions like some form of self-hypnosis that results in a further distorted view of reality. How would a committed skeptic be able to tell the difference?

Walliss point, as I understand it, is that Buddhism cant answer these questions without making circular arguments that rest on Buddhist doctrine.

At the end of the day, many of us (myself included) intuitively feel that meditation practice has beneficial effects on our lives. But, how to speak of these benefits in light of the above critiques? Filtering our responses to the question Why meditate? through these critiques seems to eliminate all of the most popular reasons to meditate. Saying meditation helps me to relive the stress in my life becomes inadmissible in light of the capitalist subject critique; it is the very heart of the Buddhas teachings becomes inadmissible in light of the historical critique; it helps me to experience the present moment as-it-is becomes inadmissible in light of the sufficiency critique; and so forth.

So, from this perspective, what is left to recommend the practice of meditation? If we extend Walliss sufficiency critique further, I think it also prevents us from boiling meditation down to any other single explanatory paradigm (appealing to the sufficiency of neurological states, for example, or of the placebo effect). In my view, the only answers that seem to remain relevant are personal, experiential, modest, even mundane.

Is it enough that meditation merely helps me to fall asleep, or that it makes unpleasant physical experiences a bit more tolerable, or that it makes me a little more patient with my kids? Or do we need more? What do you think: can you articulate why you meditate without falling into one of the traps outlined above?

Pierce Salguero is an interdisciplinary humanities scholar interested in the role of Buddhism in the crosscultural exchange of medical ideas. He has a PhD in the History of Medicine from Johns HopkinsSchool of Medicine, and is Assistant Professor of Asian History and Religious Studies at Penn State Universitys Abington College, in the Philadelphia area. He is the author of Translating Buddhist Medicine in Medieval China (UPenn Press, 2014) and Traditional Thai Medicine (White Lotus Press, 2016) and the editor of Buddhism and Medicine: An Anthology of Premodern Sources(Columbia U Press 2017). See http://www.piercesalguero.com.

Here is the original post:

A Roundup of Critical Perspectives on Meditation - Patheos (blog)

WALTHAM, MA- Dhanashree Ramachandran is taking meditation to the masses. The founder and CEO of meditation startup Nous Labs, she and her team are bringing together meditation and UX technology to instill a lasting habit of meditation to a persons busy lifestyle. Their goal is to break down the process of preparation for an immersive meditation experience for their users through their app to establish a life-long meditative practice.

Ramachandran is also the Director of Community Advancement and Public Relations for the Art of Living Massachusetts, the Boston-based branch of the Art of Living Foundation. The Art of Living Foundation is an international NGO founded in 1985 by spiritual teacher Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. The foundation has active initiatives in over 156 countries, with programs for meditation, stress management and disaster relief.

INDIA New England News: Please tell our readers about your work and what you enjoy most about it?

Dhanashree Ramachandran: I teach meditation because it is gratifying to witness the transformation it brings, and the impact it makes, on practitioners. I believe meditation is the answer to many big and small problems that we face today- individually and socially. Meditation offers alignment on all levels you can think of- mind and body, purpose and action, problem and solution, desire and outcome, resources and results etc.

I have seen this working every single time with equal efficiency may it be the Department of Family and Health, the World Bank, schools, universities or weekend sessions. I have been very fortunate to receive foundation of spiritual knowledge and practice of meditation at a young age. The way everything in life is so aligned with the mission of taking meditation to the masses makes me think of my life as a spiritual fairytale.

Dhanashree Ramachandran (Photo: Bimal Nepal)

I am formally trained as a user experience designer and have worked as a consultant for some of the game changers and trendsetters like Bose, State Street and TIAA. In 2016, I decided to bring together the best practices from both the areas- meditation and user experience design to solve most common problems that keep potential meditation practitioners from meditating- lack of time and lack of knowledge of preparation for effective meditation.

As a founder and CEO of Nous Lab, I work with an extremely talented team to design meditative experiences that will help our users establish a meditative lifestyle without making big commitments or changes to their current lifestyle. What I love most about my work is that along with meditation and UX, I get to explore my third passion, progressive storytelling, like in theater. Many of the experiences that we are producing fancy a touch of theater. We want to make meditation an integral part of the world that we live in through experiences wrapped in finest entertainment elements and full of transformative interactions.

INE: To which charitable, community and professional group do you belong and why?

DR: Meditation has the power to bring the world together and Art of Living Foundation has executed that as a mission with active initiatives in over 156 countries for over 37 years. Its been a privilege to be a part of the largest volunteer-run non-profit organization for the past 11 years.

As an Art of Living instructor, I have led several programs for youths and adults in the US and India. As the director of Community Advancement and PR, Massachusetts, I am responsible for identifying opportunities for collaborations and establishing relationships with local organizations and communities to enable a healthy and violence-free society.

Last year Boston hosted the largest meditation seminar with 1,103 participants who learnt Sudarshan Kriya and practiced meditation for peace. We are also one of the largest providers of trauma-relief support for refugees, disaster survivors and veterans in Massachusetts. With perseverance, our volunteers have managed to take stress management programs to schools in inner city and underprivileged neighborhoods.

I recently joined Global Indians for Bharat Vikas, an international non-profit with a mission to bring multi-level transformational development in India. As Chief Coordinator, Massachusetts, I am responsible for fundraising, membership drive and PR. Currently I am also leading the effort to design a web portal to connect volunteers from around the world.

I love theater, and have been associated with theater and acting since I was very young. Boston has a very active and vibrant theater community with dedicated theater groups like Stage Ensemble Theater Unit (SETU). I have worn many hats in the past six years with SETU, including acting in four major productions. I saw a need and opportunity for an educational platform for theater enthusiasts and Caf@SETU was born in 2016. Caf@SETU is an educational arm of SETU that is dedicated to bring educational aspects of theater to everyone who wants to learn.

INE: What are your hobbies and interests?

DR: My hobbies are writing, cooking, acting and panting.

INE: In what way do you feel you have positively influenced or served the local community and your company/organization and professional field?

DR: Meditation brings happiness, peace of mind and stability in life. It empowers you from within. Such empowered individuals become messengers of peace and catalysts of positive transformation. I have dedicated my life to bringing meditation to as many people as possible.

INE: Your rare talent?

DR: [The] ability to see and execute big visions.

INE: Your favorite books?

DR: Celebrating Silence by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Dnyaneshwari a book by Saint Dnyaneshwar in Marathi, Bhagvadgita, Works of Aristotle, Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy, The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho.

INE: Your favorite quotes?

DR: Presence is knowledge. ~ Sri Sri. This quote continues to inspire to stay committed to adapting wisdom into action so it becomes the action. I have found this to be the secret behind success in teaching.

On the same lines, I find this quote by Aristotle very inspiring- Quality is not an act. Its a habit.

INE: Who inspires you the most?

DR: I am more inspired by ideas than people. I have been much fortunate to be born in a family of influencers who have implemented many inspiring ideas. I am also inspired by Sri Sris vision of one world family. It amazes me how millions of people come together in knowledge to celebrate life and happiness. In the world fragmented by limited ideas of religion, boundaries, language and color, Sri Sri manages to continue spreading the message of love and togetherness. To me, its nothing less than a wonder.

INE: The one person you would like to meet and why?

DR: I have been a big fan of Aristotles writings and thoughts. I celebrate his birthday every year. I often wonder how it would be to meet Aristotle outside books.

INE: What are the core values that you try to live by?

DR: It has to be friendliness. I think friendship is one such relationship that promises everlasting trust, love and support. Friendliness empowers you to be truthful and open without fear of judgment. It provides perfect setting for creativity to thrive to manifest all big and small ideas into reality.

Read the original post:

Dhanashree Ramachandran: On a Mission to Teach and Spread Meditation to Masses - India New England

Gisele Bundchen joked during an appearance Friday on The Tonight Showthat her meditation practice helped the New England Patriots win Super Bowl 51.

I channeled some great energy and, really, I feel like a little responsible, Bundchen told host Jimmy Fallon. I brought love and peace and clarity and calmness into the game. It shifted after that, I must tell you.

The supermodel said that, in addition to helping relieve anxiety of Super Bowl proportions, her regular meditation practice helps relieve daily stress.

Of course, meditation isnt just for the rich and famous. The practice has become more popular as scientists study the ways in which meditation can generate changes in the brains physical structure, leading to positive changes in mood, stress levels, and mental focus.

Gena Bean, founder of local meditation centerMindful Boston, said her center serves people from all walks of life.

People often come to me looking for a break from hectic times, she said, especially in Boston, where there are so many people with type A personalities.

Mindfulness meditation might sound like something that requires a guru, but there are ways to experience the benefits that dont require a lifestyle change.

With meditation, we work on building the foundation that holds us up every day, Bean said.

She had some suggestions for people who are curious about the practice but arent sure where to start.

Practice a body scan

Bean said the body scan is a popular meditation method for all levels of meditators, and it can be practiced anywhereeven sitting in your cubicle.

To start, find a comfortable position, either sitting or lying down. (Its important that your body is supported so youre able to relax your muscles.) If its possible to remove distractions from your environment, go for it, but its OK if the only time you can find is at the office or while your kids are napping. You can leave your eyes open or close them.

Once youre comfortable, the practice is as the name suggests: Starting with your toes, slowly work your way up your body, focusing on the sensations in each region. If your mind wanders, gently steer it back to the body scan. Breathing deeply helps increase relaxation for some people, but it isnt necessary.

Body scans can last anywhere between one minute and 45 minutes, according to Bean.

The great thing about the body scan is that the results are often immediate; afterward, you should feel a sense of calm and relaxation.

Get some tech assistance

If you have trouble directing your own body scan, Bean guides one on YouTube:

Using tech for meditation might seem counterintuitive; however, Bean said apps can be great tools for beginners and regular meditators alike. Shes particularly fond ofInsight Timer, a free app offering guided meditations from some of the worlds most well-known meditation experts.

Find a group

According to Bean, group meditation offers more than just a social dynamic. She believes so strongly in the benefits of group meditation that she names it as the reason she chose to start Mindful Boston.

To know youre not alone youre not the only person who ever wanted to jump out of their skin thats the best way to get involved, Bean said.

Some meditators say they experience a deeper sense of relaxation when practicing in a group versus alone, and meditating in a group can help beginners feel more relaxed.

To help get beginners started, Mindful Boston offers occasional free, non-religiousCommunity Meditation Nights, during which participants engage in guided meditation together. Mindful Bostons upcoming Community Meditation Night will be held on Wednesday, May 17 at the Boston Marathon Adidas RunBase in Back Bay. The meditation will last between 15 and 25 minutes, and the event will include a brief discussion about meditation during which participants can ask questions. All ages are welcome, and the event usually includes around 40 participants, though Bean has aspirations to grow the event to around 200 people.

Community meditation nights are the best way for people to learn about meditation in a low-key environment, Bean said.

Dont judge yourself

Meditating isnt a one-size-fits-all solution, Bean said.

It might take beginners a while to find a practice that works for them, and some people might find that meditating doesnt help them as well as it helps others.

Bean uses a food analogy to help dissuade people from judging themselves (and others) when it comes to meditation:

Sushi might be weird at first, but theres no way to know you like it until you start eating it, she said. Meditation doesnt have to be any more judgmental than what you choose to eat. Sushi isnt for everyone, and meditation isnt for everyone.

See more here:

How to make like Gisele Bundchen and meditate away the chaos - Boston.com

Home News Paul Bail Invites FSU Students to Free Meditation Class inLeominster

By thepointfitchburgstate on 11 May 2017

by Holly Wentworth-

Paul Bail, Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Michigan Ann Arbor and a meditation teacher, invites Fitchburg State students to come to his meditation class, located at the Leominster Public Library on Mondays, other than holidays, from 7 pm to 8 pm. According to Bail, in his experience of meditating, hes found that it has improved his mental focus, memory, sleep, energy level, the speed of his decision process, and the judgment of himself and others. He believes that with meditation, it can help benefit Fitchburg State students as well.

When Bail first started doing meditation in Houston, TX, he tried transcendental meditation, which is a technique that involves the use of sound or mantra that helps people get into a meditative state, which lasts 15-20 minutes per day. Bail discovered that the benefits he got from transcendental meditation were remarkable. He commented that its not like super powers, but you do notice improvement in yourself.

Once Bail moved back home to Central Mass, he found that there were no meditation groups within the area. Bail didnt want to meditate on his own because its easier with outside support, like dieting, he said. To fulfill his need for a group meditation, he often drove to Boston to go to classes. However, it did not take long for him to get tired of the drive into Boston, and he ended up going to the meditation classes less and less. Finally, nine years ago, Bail decided that he would just teach his own meditation class so people from Central Mass could participate too, and that way it would keep him obligated and disciplined by showing up every week. Luckily, the Leominster Public Library was renovating at that time for an expansion of rooms that community groups could use for free. Bail took upon the opportunity and its been the best thing for him.

Finally, nine years ago, Bail decided that he would just teach his own meditation class so people from Central Mass could participate too, and that way it would keep him obligated and disciplined by showing up every week. Luckily, the Leominster Public Library was renovating at that time for an expansion of rooms that community groups could use for free. Bail took upon the opportunity and its been the best thing for him.

His Leominster Meditation group has grown to an average of eight people per class, but sometimes it can get as high as 15 people. Bail enjoys teaching meditation because it gives him the same benefits if he wasnt teaching it. He also says that he enjoys meeting different people.

How Bails Meditation Class Works: Bails meditation class begins with the first session where there is a little bit of movement, which allows you to get into your body and sensations. He says not to worry if youre doing it right or not, but many people still worry, especially if its their first time. From there, he goes into a session where you are being aware of your breath and where you feel your breath mostly, such as the nostrils, chest, abdomen, or whole body. He tells people to choose wherever is easiest for you to focus, and just focus on the sensations of the breath. The last part of the session is a heart centered meditation. Bail tells people to start by thinking about somebody they care about and wish them happiness, then think about yourself and wish yourself happiness, and then send it out to the world in general and wish everyone else happiness. He asks people to notice and reflect on the feeling they get by wishing happiness among everyone. By doing that, he says that it opens their hearts and puts them in a caring mood and allows them to focus on that feeling. The reason why Bail has three meditation sessions to his class is because he hopes that someone will connect with at least one of them.

When asked if he thinks meditation works for everyone he said that it might only work for someone who gives it a chance and who wants to do it. He also said that if theres anybody that thinks it might be beneficial to them, then they should have an opportunity to try it.

If youre interested in trying Paul Bails meditation class, its every Monday, other than holidays from 7pm-8pm at the Leominster Public Library, no prior experience or commitment is needed. It would be a great time to go and relax, especially since finals are coming. Hope to see you there!

Like Loading...

Categories: News

See original here:

Paul Bail Invites FSU Students to Free Meditation Class in Leominster - Fitchburg Point

Benitolink: San Benito County News

Local meditation group seeks members Benitolink: San Benito County News Do you practice one of the many kinds of meditation there are available in the world? Or would you like to know what meditation is, or how you can begin to do it yourself? If so, you can find a weekly meeting in Hollister where you can join others of ...

The rest is here:

Local meditation group seeks members - Benitolink: San Benito County News