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Happy New Year 2012!

Peter Malinowski January 1, 2012 Research Blog 0

Happy New Year and thank you for your shared interest in meditation research. I think it will become an interesting year. For the first few days I will just share with you a quote that inspires me a lot: Observing …

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Meditation Research Bibliography

Peter Malinowski December 22, 2011 Research Blog 1

Finally! I talked a lot about it, but now it really starts happening.   The meditation research bibliography, which until now was hosted at www.pmalinowski.de, is moving to its new home. From now on the searchable, categorised bibliography of research …

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Mindfulness and obesity

Peter Malinowski December 21, 2011 Research Blog 1

Almost three weeks since the last post. NO! – meditation and mindfulness research did not come to a sudden standstill. I was abroad, presenting our work at the Research Seminar in Experimental and Neuro-Cognitive Psychology at the Ludwig-Maximilians University in …

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Neither vibrating nor not vibrating!

Peter Malinowski December 3, 2011 Research Blog 0

One way of expressing the aim of buddhist meditation practice may be to say that is is about overcoming the extremes of clinging to existence or to non-existence: “Form is emptiness – emptiness is form – form and emptiness are …

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Sustaining Happiness: The Science of Buddhist Meditation

Peter Malinowski November 29, 2011 Research Blog 3

Does meditation make you happy?  A few years back I organised a symposium at the 2008 BA Festival of Science in Liverpool (now British Science Festival) to discuss the link between meditation practice, happiness and well-being.  At that time I …

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Meditation practice is associated with reduced mind-wandering

Peter Malinowski November 27, 2011 Research Blog 1

A forthcoming publication in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports a brain imaging study that shows reduced brain activity during meditation in those brain areas that are typically quite active during day-dreaming or mind-wandering. A research group led …

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Mindfulness meditation – How does it work? Part Two

Peter Malinowski November 26, 2011 Research Blog 0

In a recent post I introduced a theoretical paper on the mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects of mindfulness practice by Britta Hölzel and co-workers. Here I would like to offer a few more ideas that arose when reading this interesting …

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Interested in this meditation research blog?

Peter Malinowski November 22, 2011 Research Blog 0

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Mindfulness meditation – How does it work?

Peter Malinowski November 22, 2011 Research Blog 1

Buddhist Mindfulness practice has been around for more than 2500 years. Now, revamped in a psychological and neuroscientific context, we start asking the question, how this practice actually works. Well, we are not talking about how it helps individuals to …

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Buddhists make rational economic decisions

Peter Malinowski May 31, 2011 Research Blog 4

A recent study into human decision-making revealed that experienced Buddhist meditators act more rationally in social situations that are commonly experienced as unfair. The study, carried out by researchers in the US and Canada, compared the decisions of experienced Buddhist …

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