This is 52 minute television program from Dan Rather that covers a wealth of information about the brain, its plasticity, its connections with meditation and other ways we can change our brain's functioning. A bit of commitment...but worth it for the overview on brain plasticity....   more »

I joined a conversation over at the Shift in Action website which was hosted by a member named Rod Sherwin. He posed a question about how we can know when shifts in consciousness -- personal or societal -- are happening. How can we know when we experience not just big dramatic shifts in our ways of being, but even the little movements that might take us from 3 out of 10 on some scale of change to 3.5 out of 10? In working with people's brains using nonlinear methods of feedback, it is very common indeed that people experience changes - shifts in their ways of being, thinking, feeling, and/or acting - that they are just not aware of at the time of the shift. Every neurofeedback practitioner I speak to has stories of people changing in all sorts of both subtle and dramatic ways, but not seeing the change themselves or not realizing how big or important a shift it is. I think this is partly...   more »

This is a video from TED.com that I think you will find moving and inspirational --- one, because I did and two, because a number of my clients and readers have already shared the link with me, being sure I would want to see it. It's almost 20 minutes, but I think you'll find it gives you food for thought that's worth every minute. Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuroanatomist who realized one morning that she was experiencing a massive stroke.   more »

Imagine yourself sitting back for a nonlinear neurofeedback session.... That means that your brain is going to have a "conversation" with itself (which I recently described in my newsletter, Not Just Neurofeedback, as the brain looking at itself in a mirror - let me know if you want to be on the list and have access to back copies like this). Your conscious mind doesn't really have anything specific to do in order to "make" something happen on purpose". In fact, the best thing you can do is to get out of the way. ;- ) But what does "get out of the way" mean, exactly? How do you "get out of the way"?   more »

I was watching the television program Nova on PBS (Absolute Zero) last night and they were taking about a phenomenon called a "Bose-Einstein condensate" Listening to the behaviour of particles and knowing that nature is generally shows what is called "self-similarity" (think of the repeating patterns of fractals..here's a wonderful animated example of self-similarity), I wondered if this idea of a Bose-Einstein condensate could apply to the human level as well. The principle of self-similarity means that you see repeating patterns at different levels as you zoom in and out So I played a bit...   more »

Everything has its own place and function. That applies to people, although many don't seem to realize it, stuck as they are in the wrong job, the wrong marriage, or the wrong house. When you know and respect your Inner Nature, you know where you belong. You also know where you don't belong.

Benjamin Hoff from  the The Tao of Pooh

I was watching a program on the native navigators from the Hawaiian Islands some time ago (and it is a stunning place. Now on my list of places to visit. As I understood it, these navigators actually used a process very related to the brain’s functioning and why our brain and CARE works: 1) They learned the patterns of waves in and from different directions and destinations so they could recognize each one. ...   more »

I heard an interesting question the other day about whether anyone even notices the impact of a single person. Does it matter what we as individuals do? Can we really make any difference at all? Although the question wasn't directed to me, I had an answer anyway (this may not surprise those of you who know me ). And this seemed like the perfect place to show the beginnings of that answer, although I just might find myself inspired to create a longer version of these thoughts -- if you'd be interested in this, just let me know. So here we go.... The short answer is yes, each of us does make a difference. The long answer involves a few different lines of research about how you feel and what you do.   more »

I came across a wonderful article that shows what happens in the ocean when rogue "monster" waves appear and capsize ships. What makes it wonderful and why am I writing about it here --- on a blog about the brain and neurofeedback? You may not see a connection between rogue waves on the ocean and what happens in the brain -- or why that matters for our lives. Good question. I hope by the end of my article you'll see why I was so delighted to come across this story as a teaching tool about the brain and how neurofeedback can work.   more »

Question: "I have been told that we only use 10% of our brain's capacity. Not sure all the reasons why we cannot access the other 90%. I want to. I wouldn't mind having a better memory!" Answer: There are differing opinions on this. Some say it's true and it's the result of a built-in redundancy. Not available until something goes wrong. I personally am in the "I don't think so" school and there are a number of lines to evidence to support me on this.   more »

There's a fascinating discussion going on over at Dawud Miracle's blog about whether we have "parts" of ourselves or whether we are a "whole" misled by our language and habits of thought into thinking of ourselves in parts. (This guy is not just another web designer, eh?) I had to join such a conversation, but of course I approached the question from the perspective of the brain. (I couldn't help myself -- you'll understand ). To follow the whole conversation (or is that to follow all its parts??), you'll need to go catch up on Dawud's blog, but I thought I would share my thinking on this for my brain aficionados. (That's you.) So -- Why do we seem to have "parts"?   more »

I came across this YouTube video called "The Simple Path" -- a lecture by S.N. Goenka. It is part of series of broadcasts on Vipassana meditation, also called mindfulness meditation -- "seeing things as they really are". What caught my attention in his talk was the notion of working at deep levels in Vipassana meditation vs making surface changes in some other meditative techniques. It brought to mind the kinds of techniques people are often initially fascinated by when they start exploring ways of training their brain for better performance. These techniques may include...   more »

Apologies -- I've gotten temporarily distracted from my agenda of posts on creating self-change by more posts from Rick Cockrum's Shards of Consciousness. This week he's writing a series of articles on Happiness and I wanted to do a quick article about his first in the series: Happiness, Emotion, and Fulfillment - Part 1. One of Rick's conclusions was that happiness can't be found outside ourselves, an insightful interpretation he made of the studies he reviewed. This is absolutely one of the take-home messages of the positive psychology approach -- the way your world (and you) appear is highly dependent on how you're looking at it. Look at your world as half-empty and you'll see half-emptiness (or worse) all around you. Look at it as half-full and likely to get filled up and you'll be experiencing that fullness. Research has shown that optimism is good -- from the perspectives of your physical health, your emotional resilience, your personal growth, your relationships, your work....and on it goes. And here's an interesting addition to his point:   more »

I've discovered an interesting blog by Rick Cockrum called Shards of Consciousness: Explorations in Personal Development . He writes about disliking the biological approaches to human life, but I hope he won't mind my comments on his post. This is an older article from his blog, but I like some of the things he had to say and I wanted to elaborate a bit on why. I've extracted some of the bits that got my attention:   more »

Someone sent me this story today. I have seen it before and perhaps you have as well, but I thought it was worth sharing as another way to think about heart coherence. ... Two Wolves   more »