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Online Meditation and Mindfulness Conference

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Online CMC Contemplative Spring Institute (CMC-CSI) 2021 from Thursday April 29 to Sunday May 2, 2021 The CMC International Association recently announced the online CMC Contemplative Spring Institute (CMC-CSI) 2021. This four-day event will focus on “Mindfulness, Wisdom and Compassion: Contemplative, Neuroscientific and Clinical Investigations”, from Thursday April 29 to Sunday May 2, 2021. The programme contains three days of talks, mixed with guided meditation practices and discussions. The fourth and final day, Sunday, is dedicated to intensive meditation with... Read more
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Meditation Research Roundup 2021-01

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Summary of meditation research 2021-01: In our regular meditation research roundups we provide a summary of meditation research, highlighting the most exciting recently published research about meditation and mindfulness that caught our eyes. This post includes several systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Two of them aggregated evidence about the influence of mindfulness meditation on different cognitive functions, one focuses in particular on reducing burnout in physicians, while the last one zooms in on heart rate variability, a psychophysiological parameter that might... Read more
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The Science of Mindfulness Meditation

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A brief explanation of the science of mindfulness meditation, how meditation works from a scientific perspective, what psychology and neuroscience have to say about it, why it is meaningful to meditate regularly, and what happens in the brain when we do so. Mindfulness meditation includes three components: Intention means, that we approach meditation with a certain purpose. While we meditate, we aim every moment to be purposeful or full of intention. Attention relates to the important aspect of training the... Read more
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Mindfulness meditation: ten minutes a day improves cognitive function

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Practising mindfulness meditation for ten minutes a day improves our cognition: after eight weeks meditators performed better in concentration tasks and were better able to keep information active in one’s mind, a function known as “working memory”. The brain achieves this by becoming more efficient, literally requiring fewer brain resources to do these tasks. Many big claims have been made about the effects of meditation, but too often the scientific evidence behind these claims is weak or even lacking altogether.... Read more
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Meditation and ageing: Cognitive improvements in older adults

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Yet another year is coming to an end and our time seems to be ticking away. Anyone feeling a bit older just by the thought of it? If so, do not despair, at least not if you fancy a bit of meditation. We now have the science about meditation and ageing: Injecting just a few minutes of meditation into our lives improves cognitive abilities – in people 55 to 75 years old! A range of recent studies suggest that regular... Read more
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Meditation and Neuroplasticity: Five key articles

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Meditation not only changes our mind but also our brain – this is what more and more neuroscientific research suggests. Neuroplasticity – the change of brain structures as a result of experience – is considered to be one of the most important discoveries of neuroscience. Over the last 10 years evidence has been growing that not only the acquisition of navigational knowledge by London Taxi drivers (see video) or learning a new motor task like juggling (see article), but also... Read more
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Advanced Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice raises body temperature – Part 2

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The first part of this post talked about a study that confirmed centuries old reports that through the advanced Vajrayana meditation practice Tummo the core body temperature can be raised significantly. When the forceful breathing practice was combined with the related meditation exercise (as would be the case during this type of meditation), the yogis increased their core temperature by several degrees into the slightly feverish range. As mentioned in part 1, in addition to recording changes in body temperature... Read more
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Advanced Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice raises body temperature

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Studying ten meditators of Tibetan Buddhism, a recent international research project provides solid evidence for centuries-old reports that through the advanced meditation practice Tummo, often referred to as “Inner Heat” or “Psychic Heat”, the core body temperature can be raised significantly. The Tummo (also “g-Tummo”) meditation practice is an advanced form of meditation that has been transmitted in the Vajrayana (or Diamond Way) traditions of Tibetan Buddhism for the last 900 years. The spectacular outer sign of this meditation is... Read more
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Cognition and Emotion in Meditation – Part 2

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In this study, Mica Allen and co-workers investigated how meditation changes cognitive and emotional processes, by looking at the involved brain areas. In the previous post I discussed evidence for the involvement of emotional processes even when performing a purely cognitive task. This study went a bit further by actually challenging emotional states while participants engaged in a task that was similar to the Stroop task that was a focus in a previous post, is carried out. The task used... Read more
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Cognition and Emotion in Meditation

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Research has convincingly shown the positive effects of mindfulness meditation practice on attentional mechanisms. I discussed some of these findings in previous blogs, for instance the evidence that mindfulness practice is linked to improved attentional control, which is also evidenced by neural markers that show improved selective attention as well as improved conflict resolution mechanisms. While the refinement of attention skills certainly is a central aspect of many forms of meditation training, mindfulness practice should also lead to changes in... Read more

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Mindfulness Meditation Exercises

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Mindfulness Meditation Exercises This growing section introduces and offers guidance for key mindfulness meditation exercises. Most of them are part and parcel of standard mindfulness programmes but can also be used on their own.   Key points to explain before getting started with meditation This video conveys key information that is useful to consider before […] Our knowledge base is for members only. To access this entry, either log in to your membership account or sign up for one of... Read more
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Does meditation make us kinder?

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Loving-kindness and compassion-focused meditations are increasingly integrated into psychological practice. Furthermore, scholars discuss ethical dimensions of secular mindfulness programmes. So, what is the scientific evidence about the prosocial effects of meditation? I review four meta-analyses that investigate whether meditation increases kind and compassionate emotions and behaviours, or increase our pro-sociality, as psychological science would say. […] Our knowledge base is for members only. To access this entry, either log in to your membership account or sign up for one of... Read more
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Trust-based approaches to meditation

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While mindfulness-based and compassion-focused meditation practices are well-known in psychological and scientific circles, trust-based approaches have not yet received much consideration. One reason might be that they are not so readily extracted from their spiritual, Buddhist context. Usually practiced within different Vajrayāna traditions, they also tend to be less accessible. Nevertheless, I decided to include […] Our knowledge base is for members only. To access this entry, either log in to your membership account or sign up for one of... Read more
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Compassion-focused meditation practices

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Compassion-focused meditations are central to most forms of Buddhism and are of central importance in Mahāyāna Buddhism. In particular simpler forms, such as Loving Kindness Meditations or Self-Compassion meditations are increasingly being used in psychological / therapeutic contexts. Up to now, Loving Kindness and Self-Compassion Meditations are also the most widely researched forms of compassion-focused […] Our knowledge base is for members only. To access this entry, either log in to your membership account or sign up for one of... Read more
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Mechanisms of Mindfulness – The IAA model

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Mechanisms of mindfulness meditation: The Intention – Attention – Attitude model A good understanding how mindfulness meditation unfolds its beneficial effects is pivotal, whether scientist or mindfulness practitioner. Here, models of the mindfulness mechanisms are a true blessing. Such models direct scientists when specifying their hypotheses and when designing their studies. In turn, the results […] Our knowledge base is for members only. To access this entry, either log in to your membership account or sign up for one of... Read more

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© 2019 – Meditation Research | Peter Malinowski

© 2019 – Meditation Research | Peter Malinowski