The Empowering Nature of Vulnerability by Kelley Seriano, CNSF
After all these years, I finally fell into the arms of vulnerability and compassion for self. Six months ago, I found myself telling my now partner all the reasons he wouldn’t want to date me. I am needy; I will want him around all the time; I will be emotional for no reason; and I […]
Meditation can’t fix everything (but it’s still super-awesome…) By: Cynthia Beard
Have you ever met someone who goes on and on about the awesomeness of meditation and how it can cure all of your problems? I certainly have. In fact, I’ve occasionally been that person. It can be incredibly frustrating when someone offers unsolicited advice that can be reduced to “If you would only do exactly […]
3 Brain-based Tips for Balance in a Time of Political Inflammation By: Lisa Wimberger
“My side’s right, your side is wrong.” “The state of our country’s health depends on this one moment!” “We can’t have THAT monster in office!” Sound familiar right now? These are the same thoughts we referenced four, eight, 12, 16, 20 years ago, and so on. We are in a time of political fear and […]
When Breathing in Love is Not Enough
Are you tired of pretending to be calm and compassionate when inside you really feel like kicking and screaming? In my life-long meditation training I was often told to “breathe in love”. I so desperately wanted to do this, but there was no manual other than to just do it. When one is in a […]
Connecting to Others Just might Require some Self-Reflection
How can you connect to others if you can’t connect to yourself? When we are in reaction or in our limbic response, otherwise known as fight-or-flight, we have disabled the medial prefrontal cortex–this is the area that allows us to feel empathy, consider other people’s internal thoughts, states and motivations. If we want to connect […]
Compassion Meditation Rewires Brain’s Emotion Circuitry
What if meditation and thoughts of compassion could rewire our reactions to others? If you could heighten your empathic abilities and connection to others, would you? A recent neuroscience abstract in PlosOne indicates we actually can do this very thing through meditation. “Together these data indicate that the mental expertise to cultivate positive emotion […]
Cultivating Compassion, Navigating Crisis
Professor Kristin Neff of the University of Texas is considered a leading researcher in the field of self-compassion. Her research is showing that those who cultivate self-compassion by exercising gentle and non-judgmental self-talk bounce back more quickly during crisis. The growing evidence is indicating that you can “you can cultivate your self-compassion through meditation and […]
Rewiring through Compassion
In the foreword to New Beliefs, New Brain, Dr. David Perlmutter notes “When His Holiness the Dalai Lama counseled that ‘The brain we develop reflects the life we lead,’ it is important to understand that his statement reflects not only a call for us to live a life of compassion based on his spiritual pursuits, […]
Where the Gray Matters
Recent neuroscience is showing that the more we move into fear and threat response, the more we exercise and strengthen the neural pathways around the limbic brain which is our fight -or-flight center. We also end up shrinking or pruning back the neural pathways in our prefrontal cortex which then inhibit our abilities to see […]
Cultivating Compassion
“At Standford University, the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education, under the direction of Neurosurgeon Dr. James Doty is doing studies and conducting courses that show that compassion and altruism can be cultivated through disciplines and practices that extend our mindfulness by asking us to place our increased attention on the needs of […]
