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The benefits of mindfulness meditation are well-known, but one type of mindfulness meditation, loving-kindness meditation, works particularly well when it comes to sharpening your capacity for compassion and empathy. The beauty of this meditation is that it shows you that you can practice being loving and kind just as much as you can practice a headstand or your latest balance pose and you can become far better at it, too.

A UW-Madison studyfound proof of this when they took fMRI scans of the brains of Tibetan monks and meditators who had at least 10,000 hoursof practice meditating on loving-kindness. The scans showed that brain circuits used to detect others emotions and feelings were far stronger in those who had practiced loving-kindness meditation than in those who didnt. Whats more, the longer they had practiced, the stronger the connections were. Meditators displayed a heightened capacity for positive emotions (read: happiness!) as well.

In particular, the insula a region near the front part of the brain linked to bodily representations of emotion exhibited significant activity during loving-kindness meditation. The strength of its activity measured even higher in those who claimed to be meditating more intensely. The temporal parietal juncture linked to the perception of others mind states and emotions lit up as well. Both areas are linked to ones capacity for sharing emotions and empathizing with others.

So, what does this mean, exactly? According to Dr. Richard Davidson, psychiatry and psychology professor at UW-Madison and the director of the study, People are not just stuck at their respective set points. We can take advantage of our brains plasticity and train it to enhance these qualities. In other words, compassion can be learned. And who couldnt use a little more compassion?

What makes loving-kindness meditation so powerful is that it increases your capacity for wholly unconditional love. Often we reserve compassion and love for those closest to us family and friends but with loving-kindness meditation, that love extends much further to oneself, strangers, and the whole world. Perhaps most difficultly, this meditative practice requires you to extend love and compassion to those youre struggling with, too.

Heres how to do it, according to the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.

May I be freefrom inner and outer harm and danger. May I be safe and protected.

May I be freeof mental suffering or distress.

May I be happy.

May I be freeof physical pain and suffering.

May I be healthy and strong.

May I be ableto live in this world happily, peacefully, joyfully, with ease.

As loving-kindness practitioner and Buddhist monkMatthieu Ricard said, Meditation is not just blissing out under a mango tree. It changes your brain and therefore changes what you are. With loving-kindness meditation, you have the power to hack into a more compassionate and happy life. Because this practice requires no special time, place, or tools, its easy to fit it into your daily routine. Next time youre sipping your morning tea, relaxing into savasana, or even zoning out driving down the highway, consider addingten to 30 minutes of loving-kindness to your day.

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Lauren Krouse is an autodidact, travel addict, amateur Buddhist philosopher, and proud black lab mama. She believes in sounding her barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world Whitman-style and is frequently found writing in the woods perched on a log or reading on the coast with her belly in the sand.

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This is How Loving-Kindness Meditation Transforms Your Brain - Organic Authority

The key to a well-balanced life? According to Gisele Bndchen, it's meditation.

On Tuesday afternoon in New York City, Bndchen and other practitioners of the activity gathered at the inaugural Women of Vision Awards, hosted by the David Lynch Foundation, to benefit female survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. The nonprofit organization provides scholarships to classes on stress-reducing techniques. The luncheon raised enough money to provide free Transcendental Meditation sessions to 1,000 girls and women in N.Y.C.

The fundraiser, hosted by Rosanna Scotto of Good Day New York, also recognized Bndchen, Robin Roberts of Good Morning America, Alex and Ani CEO and founder Carolyn Rafaelian, and filmmaker Joni Kimberlin with Humanitarian Awards for their work with the charity, while veteran and sexual abuse survivor Latoya Mack received the Courage Award

"I have been meditating since my early 20s. Words cannot express enough the significance of its gifts in my life," said Bndchen, who wore a slinky white pantsuit featuring a knotted bow at the collar and wide legs and beige pointed-toe pumps to the luncheon. "I discovered meditation is a wonderful way to connect with our true essence. It can help us become more aware. It brings wisdom and healing."

"Meditation has brought me clarity and peace during my most challenging times," she added. "It has helped me know myself and to discover my purpose."

VIDEO: 4 Ways to Work Out Without Killing Your Wallet

RELATED: 7 Meditation Apps to Help Keep Your Zen

Head to davidlynchfoundation.org to find out more about the organization's work and how you can contribute to the cause.

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Gisele Bndchen Talks the Importance of Meditation and Finding Your Inner Peace - InStyle

Living model industry legend Gisele Bndchen may have retired from the runway, but her schedule isnt showing any signs of slowing down. In addition to cochairing last weeks Met Gala and starring in an episode of National Geographic Channels award-winning climate change docuseries Years of Living Dangerously , Bndchen successfully balances several other hats: motherhood; being the worlds most famous unofficial Patriots cheerleader; and promoting a handful of causes near to her heart, including the restorative power of meditation.

We ran into the supermodel on Tuesday, moments before she took the stage to be honored at the Women of Vision luncheon in New York City. The event is an annual fundraiser for the David Lynch Foundation, an organization that promotes the stress-reducing properties of Transcendental Meditation to more than 1,000 women and children who have survived domestic violence and sexual assault. There, Bndchen spilled the beans on her penchant for comfy sweatpants, the unlikely places youll find her meditating, and how she kicks off her morning routine every single day.

Your episode of Years of Living Dangerously was so good! It made me want to be a conservationist and move to the rain forest.

Right? Thats what I thought: Maybe I should just move to the rain forest. But then I thought my kids would miss me and my husband probably wouldnt like it too much, either.

Speaking of your husband, Tom Brady, both of you looked so great at the Met Gala last week.

I havent gone in two years but this year I was lucky enough to serve as the cohost. Its an amazing event; it raises so much money for the museum.

And you tied in your passion for sustainability with that Stella McCartney dress you wore.

Yes, I wanted a sustainable dress, something very classic, so I called Stella. I said to her, I want something sustainable, and she did three or four different drawings and I loved the one I ended up choosing because it was so 1940s and had that open back. It was great. And my husband loved it. He always sees me in sweatpants, so anytime I wear something thats not sweatpants he likes it. But that was a great dress.

Lets talk about meditation. You started practicing in your early 20swhy?

I was going through a challenging time in my life and I started practicing yoga. I was doing a lot of Pranayama breath work, which helps balance the left and right sides of your brain, I was doing three-day silence retreats, and eventually that led me to start practicing meditation. Every time I had a challenging time and needed clarity, I would do meditation, but I wasnt consistent about it. I would go on vacation for 10 days and meditate for an hour every day, then I would come back and maybe I wouldnt do it every day. Whenever I felt a lot of intensity coming from all over the place, I would decide to meditate. It wasnt until about two or three years ago that I met Mario [Orsatti, a director of the David Lynch Foundation], and he introduced me to Transcendental Meditation, that I really started to meditate more regularly.

And how did picking up the technique of Transcendental Meditation change your practice?

Well, its only 20 minutes two times a day, and I thought, Ive been doing an hour a day, so I like that!

More efficient!

Exactly!

What is it that you like about meditation?

People have been practicing meditation for thousands of years and the reason is because its really a wonderful tool to grant you a different access to yourself. Its a different awareness and new level of peace. Once you learn how to do it, its yours foreveryou can always access that. Its an energy inside of you. Its not something you can lose thats outside of yourself. Its not physical; its something much deeper than that. The more you practice and the more you reach it, the more amazing it becomes.

Where do you meditate?

The thing about meditation is that you can do it anywhere. And Ive done it everywhere. On planes, the back of a taxi, sitting in hair and makeupbecause of my job, sometimes youre doing makeup for hours and hours and hoursin my bed in the morning, in nature, anywhere. All you need is 20 minutes. Even with a schedule like mine, I can find 20 minutes. For me, I love to do it early in the morning before the kids are up. The energy is very calm.

Has meditation helped you as a parent?

Well, I like to do it in the mornings because the energy is very calm. Its dark; I like to put a candle on. For me, its a ritual. The way I see it is that you have to put the oxygen mask on yourself first before you can put the oxygen mask on the people around you. If I nourish myself in the morning, when the house energy starts revving up, you have so much more to give. As a mother, youre always giving. Its important to give something to yourself, so you can give from a place of being full, instead of giving from a place of being depleted, which isnt healthy for you or for the family. If I dont do it in the morning, its a very different energythe dogs are barking, the kids are saying they are hungry, its so chaotic, theres this and that . . . when I wake up just 30 minutes before everyone else, it makes a world of a difference. It pays off.

You used the word ritual. Whats your process, exactly, when you meditate?

I get out of my bed because everybody is still sleeping. I go downstairs, light a candle, and I have warm water with lemon every morning to start my system. I have my warm water; I have my candle; I just sit on the couch, in silence, with my back straight, and close my eyes. Some people have a mantra, but because Ive been practicing for so long, I like to focus on my third eye. I bring the energy right to my third eye. Sometimes I sit in silence and enjoy the silence, but usually Im meditating on a certain question. And almost alwaysI can find the answer.

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Why Gisele Wants You to Start Meditating - Vogue.com

Starting a company is stressful. Starting one in your twentieswith no experience as an entrepreneur and no fall-back plan? For Yunha Kim, it was all-consuming: "M y identity was tied up with the companys success," she says.

The need to dissociate herself from her first venture, Locketwhich she sold to e-commerce platform Wish in 2015was what initially inspired Kim to start meditating. She turned to the practice as a way to cope with the ups and downs of life as an entrepreneur with a "total lack of work-life balance." And she's not exaggerating: "I lived with five guys and three dogs in a two-bedroom apartment. We lived in the bedrooms and worked in the living room."

After a CEO coach introduced her to meditation, she began experimenting with various apps and in-person classes. While she liked the convenience of apps, she also appreciated trying out different instructors and methodologies. That conflict illuminated a gap in the meditation tech space: "M ost of these apps really have one teacher, but I needed access to all kinds of meditations, all kinds of teachers," says Kim. That's exactly the need that she is attempting to meet with her second startup, Simple Habit.

On Tuesday, the San Francisco-based, four-person company announced that it has closed a $2.5 million round of seed funding, with investments from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), FJ Labs, Foundation Capital, Dropbox founder Drew Houston, and Gusto founder Joshua Reeves.

Subscribe to the Broadsheet, Fortunes newsletter for and about powerful women.

At its core, Simple Habit is a library of guided meditation, organized by occasionsuch as commuting to work, preparing for an important meeting or date, or going to sleep. Kim says she hopes to do for the mindfulness space what streaming app Spotify has done for music.

Like Spotify, the startup offers meditators the choice between a free version and a premium subscription. With the former, users get access to 50 meditations. The latterwhich costs $12 per month or $100 per yeargives access to a library of over 1,000 meditations, most of which are five minutes long.

Since launching to the public last summer, the platform has acquired 400,000 users and hosts meditations by approximately 60 teachers.

In addition to allowing users to discover teachers, the app promises to help instructors grow their audiences. " How do you become famous [as a mindfulness expert]? YouTube doesn't cut it," Kim says. In addition to distribution, teachers get revenue share based on how often their tracks are played.

Other popular meditation apps create content in-house, usually with one or a handful of teachers. For example, meditation app Headspace touts teacher Andy Puddicombe as "the voice of all things Headspace."

As a second-time founder, Kim says she is keenly aware of the need for balance. " Were in it for the long game and we need to take care of ourselves," she says of her company, which she hopes to build into the " leading brand for mindfulness and meditation content." Her new practice of k icking off every meeting off with a five-minute meditation is a start.

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Female-Founded Startup Simple Habit Is the Spotify for Meditation ... - Fortune

Marc Saltzman, Special for USA TODAY 12:29 p.m. MT May 9, 2017

Simple Habit is an on-demand meditation platform with simple five-minute lessons featuring more than 1,000 meditations guided by mindfulness teachers from around the world.(Photo: Provided photo)

Between calendar notifications, pushed emails and intrusive messaging platforms, you might believe smartphones contribute to your daily stress levels.

But that same device could also help nudge you to take much-needed breaks throughout the day, thanks to a handful of meditation and mindfulness apps.

I often say that mindfulness isnt hard whats hard is remembering to be mindful, says Sharon Salzberg, a renowned meditation expert and bestselling author. Ones device is the perfect implement to offer those reminders, not only for a time-out of five to 10 minutes, but for what we call short moments, many times taking a few breaths to return to ourselves and return to the moment.

Salzberg believes theres an increased interest in meditation in the West, perhaps because of the incredible busyness and sheer unrelenting pressure of potentially always being on. Salzberg says several apps could help with reminders and bite-sized lessons at home or the go.

May is Mental Health Month. The following is a brief look at five picks available at both the App Store (for iOS) and Google Play (for Android), unless otherwise specified.

Simple Habit

One of the newest players is also one of the most impressive. Simple Habit is an on-demand meditation platform built for busy people. With simple five-minute lessons, the app features more than 1,000 meditations guided by mindfulness teachers from around the world. For a more tailored lesson you can choose the time, place and cause of your stress. For example, tap Tough Day or Big Event, or Morning Meditation or At Work.

You can also pick a lesson by Series (Drift to Sleep, Sharpen Focus, Meditate in Nature), and by teacher of your choice.

More than 50 sessions are free, with the option to upgrade to a premium version for $11.99 a month or $99.99 a year. Its also available through a desktop website, and Simple Habit will remember where you left off.

Calm: Meditation to Relax, Focus & Sleep Better

Calm is a meditation and mindfulness app with guided sessions in varying lengths, ranging from three to 25 minutes, and with content designed for beginners, as well as intermediate and advanced users.

Similar to some other apps of this kind, you can choose a topic that matters most to you: Calming Anxiety, Deep Sleep, Self-Esteem, Forgiveness, Happiness, Managing Stress, Focus and Concentration, and so on. Track your progress with gamelike elements, such as daily streaks, as well as seeing a tally of time spent meditating.

While theres some free content to get you started, subscriptions are $12.99 a month, or the heavily discounted $59.99 a year. Subscribers get full access to all the instructions, along with a new 10-minute program added daily, more than 20 Sleep Stories, seven- and 21-day programs, breathing exercises, relaxing nature sounds, and more.

Headspace

Your gym membership for the mind, Headspace wants to teach you how to meditate in just a few minutes a day.

Endorsed by Emma Watson, this UK app features a clean and easy-to-use interface, and offers a free beginner series called Take10 10 sessions, each 10 minutes over 10 days using proven meditation and mindfulness techniques that could help clear your head, reduce stress, sleep better and enjoy greater overall happiness.

Available for iOS, Android, Amazon, and the web, the lessons include stat tracking, rewards and an optional buddy system for friends to motivate each other.

If you want more than the introductory Take10, Headspace offers a subscription service ($12.99 a month or $94.99 a year) for access to many other meditation lessons, guided and unguided, as short as two minutes and as long as an hour. Some deal with applying mindfulness to everyday activities, while others cater to managing stress (S.O.S. sessions) and life-altering situations.

As part of Headspaces Get Some, Give Some program, for every subscription someone signs up for the app will donate a subscription to someone in need, the company says.

10% Happier

Designed for fidgety skeptics, 10% Happier offers clear and simple meditation lessons.

Led by New York Times bestselling author and ABC news anchor Dan Harris, who suffered an on-air panic attack in 2004, which prompted him to write the book 10% Happier the app (iOS, web) features quick meditations by many respected teachers, include Salzberg, which you can do whenever you have a spare moment.

The free version of the app offers access to a seven-session introductory course, with daily meditation videos (with offline access), guided audio lessons (for when you cant look at a screen), advice and tips to applying mindfulness to your personal and professional lives, and new content added monthly to keep things fresh.

Members get a lot more content for $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year.

Breathe

Reminders to take a time-out arent just on your smartphone, theyre prompted by your smartwatch, too.

Built into the latest Apple Watch operating system is Breathe, Apples own app that encourages you to relax, focus and breathe.

Youll feel a slight tap on your wrist every four hours, and when you glance down at the screen the app will ask you to start a session, if youre able to. The app will guide you through some deep breaths over a one-minute session of seven breaths, but you can tweak these session lengths. Follow the animated circles on the screen to inhale and exhale, plus you can feel a tap on your wrist to inhale, if you want to do this with your eyes closed.

A summary screen, with heart rate info, is shown at the end.

Follow Marc Saltzman on Twitter: @marc_saltzman. Email him at askmarcsaltzman@gmail.com.

Read or Share this story: http://www.thespectrum.com/story/life/2017/05/09/take-breather-meditation-apps/101474088/

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Take a breather with these meditation apps - St. George Daily Spectrum

The Power of Thought

Meditation,in its most basic sense, is clearing your mind of all thoughtor at least, trying to. The practice is used in cultures around the globe for both religious and secular purposes. While it may be best known for its spiritual uses, it is this latter purpose that has recently ignited a firestorm of interest, as scientific research seems to indicate that meditation changes your brain on a fundamental, biological level.

Dr. Robert Puff, a licensed clinical psychologist, notes in Psychology Todaythatdescriptions of meditation techniques date back at least some 3,000 years, to Indian scriptures written inapproximately 1000 BCE. However, the practice itself appears to be far, far older. Some evidence suggests that individuals were describing the practice as long as 5,000 years ago. Unfortunately, the exact date of its inception is lost to the annals of time, but we do know that it wasnt until the 6th century BCE that it truly started its global spread. And it wasnt until the 20th century that mainstream scientists started researching the impact that it has on the human bodyspecifically, the impact it has on the human brain.

To date, a host of medical uses have been found for meditation. The most obvious use is,perhaps, stress management and reduction, which is supported by a plethora of scientific evidence. Ina study published in Clinical Psychology Review,researchers at Boston University and Harvard Medical School found that the technique helps alleviateanxiety and allows individuals to better cope with stressfulsituations.

Along these same lines, a 2011 study by Dr. Fadel Zeidan, assistant professor of neurobiology and anatomy at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, found that meditation helps individuals cope with, and better tolerate, physical pain. This work was published in theJournal of Neuroscience.But this is just the start of the research that has been conducted in relation tomeditation.

In a 2015 study published inFrontiers in Psychology, researchers from UCLA found that individuals who meditate over extended periods have more gray matter volume in their brains than those that do not. The work looked at individuals who been meditating for an average of 20 years, and the impact was pronounced. As study author Florian Kurth notes:

We expected rather small and distinct effects located in some of the regions that had previously been associated with meditating. Instead, what we actually observed was a widespread effect of meditation that encompassed regions throughout the entire brain.

Other studies support these findings. A 2011study inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which was conducted by Yale University, discovered that meditation decreases activity in the default mode network (DMN) in the brain. In the paper, the team noted that this reveals the actual biological impact of meditation and helps bring to light a unique understanding of possible neural mechanisms of meditation.

And still, the evidence does not end.

Sara Lazar, a neuroscientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, recently conducted work which found that individuals who meditate ultimately have more gray matter in the frontal cortex and, most notably, that this gray matter is preserved in spite of aging. The significance is overwhelming. As Lazar asserts in an interview with the Washington Post, Its well-documented that our cortex shrinks as we get older its harder to figure things out and remember things. But in this one region of the prefrontal cortex, 50-year-old meditators had the same amount of gray matter as 25-year-olds.

In other words, as a result of transformations in the brain, individual who meditate have a better chance of retaining their memory function in old age. And it doesnt take much for individuals to reap the benefits. Lazarstates that, in her study, the average meditation time was just 27 minutes a day and results were obtained just 8 weeks after the individuals started the practice. So, how can you reap the benefits?

Scientists assert that using proprioceptive input (also know asdeep touch pressure (DTP))to ground your body is helpful when attempting to reach a meditative state. Research has shown that this kind of pressure results in a reduction in cortisol levels and an increase in serotonin production, decreasing yourheart rate and blood pressure.

Thus, the relaxed physical state that comes from peroprioceptive input can make it easier to achieve a calm mental state thats conducive to meditation, and one of the most effective ways to get this proprioceptive input isby using a weighted blanket.

As Amber Martin, an occupational therapistfrom Utica College, notes, peroprioceptive input is good for pretty much everyone and anyone. It can be very calming and organizing. By helping youreach a state of peaceful relaxation more quickly, Gravity Blanket makes it easier for you totake advantage of every valuable moment of meditation before you have to return to the busy world outside your mind.

Theres little debate in the science regarding the benefits of meditation. According to research published in theJournal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology,meditation has beenlinked to reduced feelings of depression, anxiety, and physical pain.

Other studies have explored connections betweenmeditation andimproved focus, lowered blood pressure, strengthened memory, reduced fatigue, andwell, the list goes on and on. Yet, reaching a meditative state generally takes a lot of work, and truly clearing your mind is far from easy. A weighted blanket is just one thing that can help you get there.

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Harvard Neuroscientist: Meditation Reduces Stress and Literally Changes Your Brain - Futurism

In any one day there are moments where there is nothing going on, but we link up what is happening from thought to thought without any space. We overlook the spaciousness that its all happening in, Gangaji, from our new book The Unexpected Power Or Mindfulness & Meditation.

Nowadays, mindfulness and meditation are often used to mean the same thing, which can be confusing, while not many are clear on what mindfulness meditation is and how it differs from either of the above. So heres our version:

Mindfulness is being aware. Its noticing and paying attention to thoughts, feelings, behavior, and everything else. Mindfulness can be practiced at any time, wherever we are, whoever we are with, and whatever we are doing, by showing up and being fully engaged in the here and now.

That means being free of both the past and futurethe what ifs and what maybesand free of judgment of right or wrongthe Im-the-best or Im-no-good scenariosso that we can be totally present without distraction.

Mindfulness also releases happy chemicals in the brain; it lowers blood pressure, improves digestion, and relaxes tension around pain. It is simple to practice and wonderful in effect. Not a bad deal when all that is needed is to pay attention, which sounds like something we should all be doing but often forget. When we do pay attention, then change becomes possible.

Mindfulness and meditation are mirror-like reflections of each other: mindfulness supports and enriches meditation, while meditation nurtures and expands mindfulness. Where mindfulness can be applied to any situation throughout the day, meditation is usually practiced for a specific amount of time.

Mindfulness is the awareness of some-thing, while meditation is the awareness of no-thing.

There are many forms of meditation. Some are aimed at developing a clear and focused mind, known as Clear Mind meditations. Others are aimed at developing altruistic states, such as loving kindness, compassion or forgiveness, known as Open Heart meditations. Others use the body as a means to develop awareness, such as yoga or walking; others use sound, as in chanting or intoning sacred words.

Mindfulness Meditation is a form of Clear Mind meditation. Attention is paid to the natural rhythm of the breath while sitting, and to the rhythm of slow walking. This alone can have an enormous impact. Ultimately, the method is simply an aide; its not the experience itself. A hammer can help build a house but its not the house.

In the same way, meditation practice is not an end in itself. We may wander off and do all sorts of other things, but stillness will always be there. It is a companion to have throughout life, like an old friend we turn to when in need of direction, inspiration, and clarity. Theres no right or wrong way to practice, we all do it differently. Most important of all, meditation is to be enjoyed!

Ed & Deb are the authors of The Unexpected Power of Mindfulness & Meditation. Deb is the author of Your Body Speaks Your Mind, now in 19 languages. They have six meditation CDs. See more at EdandDebShapiro.com

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Mindfulness & Meditation: What's the Difference? - Huffington post (press release) (blog)

Good Advice

by Alison Feller, May 8, 2017

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Duringthe final few moments of the 2017 Super Bowl nail-biter between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons, most fans in the stands or at home were stressing in anticipation over the outcomeand were probably continuing to reach for boozy beverages or cheesy nachos to calm their nerves.

But not wife-to-the-QB Gisele Bndchen. As the clock ticked and it looked like the Falcons had clinched the win, Bndchen knew the gamewasnt over. After calling her family and asking everyone to pray for husband Tom Brady and his Patriots, she turned to meditation.

I channeled some great energy, and I feel a little responsible [for the win].

I channeled some great energy, and I feel a little responsible [for the win], she joked to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show. I brought love and peace and clarity and calmness into the game. It shifted after that, I must tell you. It worked.

Bndchen has been practicing since her early 20sandsays its particularly helpful when she starts feeling anxious or finds herself in stressful situations (like when your husband is on the field at the Super Bowl, about to lose the biggest game of his life).It was the only thing that could calm me down, because it was kind of crazy, she says. Its the most amazing tool.

Herpreferred form of meditation is Transcendental Meditationa popular choice among celebrities and CEOswhich is the practice of sitting for 20 minutes, twice a day, repeating a personal mantra. Bndchen says she has spent up to three days at a time in intense meditation. Before kids, I had time for that, she says.

But, she says, TM isnt just for Katy Perry and women who walk red carpets and runways for a living. Its beneficial to everyone, she insisted to Fallon. For people who feel that life sometimes is overwhelmingits a wonderful tool. Its unbelievable.You really should do it.Well, if it can win Super Bowls

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Your March energy horoscope: It's time to spring clean your spiritual house - Well+Good

India is known to be the land of ascetics and meditative dispositions. The art of mediation has been proven, time and again, to offer benefits that go much beyond just improvements in mental health. To the wonder of many, a 2011 study by Harvard had shown how only an 8-week meditation was enough to make changes in the brain's physics. Meditation is often vouched as the cure-all for each and every malfunction that our body has seen or may see. Want to start your own meditation transformation? You may want to try Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), on which the Harvard study was based.

THE STUDY The group of participants who were involved in the study reported spending an average of 27 minutes each day for MBSR. When, after eight weeks, their MR images were tested, it was found that their gray-matter density in the hippocampus had increased. It is a factor that boosts one's learning abilities, memory, self-awareness, compassion and introspection.

The other aspect of brain changes was noticed through the reporting of decreased stress levels in the participants. This was correlated to decreased gray-matter density in the amygdale, a factor that can reduce one's stress levels and anxiety.

However, the eight week period was not sufficient to witness any changes in the self-awareness associated structure called insula. The researchers suggested that a longer period of meditative practice is needed to produce changes in the insula.

THE TECHNIQUE A meditation practice that is based on mindfulness is essentially about two things: focusing and awareness. To establish both, you must do the following exercises.

Clubbing focusing and awareness Focusing is basically an inward process. With your eyes closed, keep your eye balls straight as if they are looking on a road ahead. Try to anchor the process by focusing on your breath. This will help you ward off thoughts.

On the contrary, awareness is an outward process that involves observing yourself from an outward perspective. This will help you know yourself better and notice aspects that you didn't know existed in you. Do this by distancing yourself from your mental traffic and watching it from the eyes of an outsider. Let your thoughts flow and make a conscious effort to break it down dispassionately and distance from your stream of consciousness.

Focusing and awareness will overlap at the point when you are at the risk of getting drowned in your stream of thoughts. That's when you need to focus.

FOCUS

Focusing on the moment that's right here is essential but we are hardly doing that in our lives. By practicing the following focus exercises, you can make a conscious effort to break down and relish every second that passes by.

Breathing: Take deep breaths that go down to your belly. Once you are settled and thoughts start flowing in, pick a thought like you pluck it from a stream. Analyze it and when you want to switch to another thought, let that one flow away in the stream.

Body scanning: Lie down with your eyes closed and imagine that you are scanning your body for any kind of discomfort or soreness. If you feel that any spot is particularly tight or sore, breathe into it like you are healing it.

Mindful walking: While you walk, make a conscious effort to focus on your body movement. Relax your movement, look around and try to notice everything around you. Pay heed to your speed and how every part of your body moves when you are moving. This will help you release any kinds of tensions in your body.

Mindful eating: Try to avoid eating while you are focusing on other things, like while watching television. Instead, focus on what you are eating, its taste, and texture.

Mindful stretching: Perform stretches, like hatha yoga, while being conscious of your breath and movements.

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This meditation technique changes your brain structure in 8 weeks - Times of India

Cold comfort: Wim Hof (centre) leads Carney (left) and other trainees through a meditation session to find their inner warmth. Photograph: Jeremy Liebman

Before Scott Carney set about climbing a Polish mountain in his underwear in temperatures 10 degrees below zero, he believed his days of adventure were just about over. He was in his mid-30s. An anthropologist by training and a journalist by vocation he had written two books about the dangerous extremes to which humans go to find salvation the first about the black market in organ donation, the second about the fatal consequences of a particular meditation practice.

His journey to the Polish mountain called Snka, 5,300ft, the pinnacle of the Silesian mountain range had begun one afternoon at his computer in Long Beach, California, with palm trees swaying gently outside his window. He had been idly Googling when he came across a picture of a man in his 50s sitting cross-legged on a glacier in the Arctic Circle, unclothed.

The man was Wim Hof, a Dutch evangelist for an extreme physical method that he claimed allowed him to raise and lower his body temperature at will and to control his immune system with the power of his mind. Carney was intrigued, but also highly sceptical. He decided to investigate Hofs claims, and persuaded Playboy magazine to sign him up for a week-long initiation into the Dutchmans methods that took place in a shack in Silesia in January.

He assumed that the story would be about another guru with an eye to the main chance, another investigation into the ways in which the gullible can be parted from their money in the name of enlightenment (the week cost Carney and his fellow disciples $2,000 each).

His scepticism did not last long. By the end of the week, after a short course in the breathing techniques that Hof demonstrated, and controlled exposure to the winter elements and icy water, Carney felt transformed. Not only could he climb Snka in 2ft of snow, but he discovered a kind of elation and an enormous sense of internal warmth. He was converted.

His latest book, What Doesnt Kill Us, explores the science and the philosophy of Wim Hofs methods, which promise to unleash dormant inner fire by creating the mitochondria-rich tissue brown fat that is produced when the body is exposed to extreme cold.

By the time Carney met him, Hof had achieved notoriety by running a barefoot marathon in the Arctic and climbing 25,000ft up Everest in his shorts. Carney went on not only to relish the Dutchmans regime of ice swimming, but also to accompany him in a shirtless climb up Kilimanjaro. The guru-buster had been won over by a man who claimed that a few simple physical techniques can promote world peace and win the war on bacteria.

But Carney is enthusiastic rather than being easily won over when it comes to Hofs more grandiose claims. The book is pretty exhaustive in its investigation and he provides anecdotal evidence for Hofs belief that his regime can improve the lives of those with auto-immune conditions such as Parkinsons, Crohns disease and rheumatoid arthritis and this comes with caveats. The biology of the method focuses on the potential of vasoconstriction the narrowing of blood vessels in response to extreme cold. The philosophy behind it suggests that our bodies and brains require exposure to physical extremes to realise what they are capable of.

Speaking to me about his conversion, Carney explains his belief that we have forgotten how to access the powers Hof describes. Our technology has advanced to such a degree that we no longer see ourselves as part of nature, he says. But we are just big smart monkeys, right? One of the driving forces in our technological progress has been to try to maximise comfort and convenience and that has had consequences.

Whether that progress is thermostatically controlled room temperature, a decent sofa, or easy navigation, the aim, Carney suggests, is to protect ourselves from things that are hard physically and mentally. Without those everyday challenges, he argues, we have undermined our natural biological armoury. The Hof method which begins with hyperventilation and culminates in lots of ice is designed to switch on and wake up inbuilt energies, and to trigger immune responses those same responses that allowed our ancestors to trek across tundra and thrive in unheated caves.

Its designed to trigger the immune responses that allowed our ancestors to thrive in unheated caves

The idea is seductive, but isnt Carney wary about evangelising what are potentially dangerous practices? He claims there is some evidence to support Hofs theory, although its not conclusive or wholly supported by science. There is always the risk that people take these things to extremes, he says. Certainly one of my worries about writing this book is that someone might read it and think: Oh my God, I can be immune to the elements! and then die on a mountaintop. That is not the message I am pushing

He is cautious, too, as he describes the health claims Hof has made, but is clearly personally persuaded. He has moved with his wife to Boulder, Colorado, in the foothills of the Rockies, where he can experience temperature extremes more easily than on the coast. Still, he stops short of describing himself as a brown fat disciple. Though he was seduced by Hofs philosophy, he attempts to balance that with a clear-eyed examination of the Dutchmans frailties.

Hof comes across as a kind of freaky Spartan, but not a charlatan. The good thing is that you would never want to be him, Carney says. He has a very disorganised life. Kids with different women, alcoholism in his past. He is flawed and human. I feel that if you hang out with him that makes you trust his really good qualities.

Its four years since the pair of them first met in Poland and they remain close friends. Carney has kept up his regime. I had a cold shower this morning, did my 70 push-ups and 15 minutes of breathing exercise with my wife (who is also a convert). But it is the understanding of the connection between his health and his environment that has changed his life. I am much more comfortable with being uncomfortable now, he says. The understanding of extremes provides, he believes, a sense of physical perspective. He feels not only healthier, but part of the natural scheme of things. While our fight or flight responses are as likely to be triggered these days by worrying about the mortgage or getting outraged by the internet, he says, contact with the elements reminds us both of our frailty and our strength.

The regime becomes addictive. A cold shower might release a few endorphins, but it is only a gateway drug. Carney craves the sensation of plunging through ice. Jumping into very cold water and knowing you will feel warm is pretty cool, he says. He does it as often as he can.

His book links the psychological appeal of the practice to the attractions of punishing obstacle course challenges, such as Tough Mudder. Carney sees not only a health benefit in those challenges, but also the kind of rite of passage that society rarely affords: The idea used to be a war will make a man of you, he says. An idea that obviously doesnt do us any favours. With these kinds of disciplines, you are putting yourself in a challenge and proving you can overcome it. There are many benefits of that.

As an anthropologist, with an interest in eastern religions, I wonder how much he sees it in an ascetic, monastic tradition. Isnt it just masochism?

They are related, but they are not the same, he says. Ascetics deny the flesh to get closer to God. That is not the heart of this. It is celebrating what our bodies can do. You dont have to do it all day every day. You can wear a coat sometimes if you want. I am not suggesting you become a cavemen and ditch the internet and forget modern medicine. It is about balance, he pauses. But I guess it certainly shows there can be a joy in pain.

What Doesnt Kill Us by Scott Carney is published on 11 May by Scribe Publications at 14.99. To order a copy for 12.74, go to bookshop.theguardian.com

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Ice baths and snow meditation: can cold therapy make you stronger? - The Guardian