Image via Wikipedia The yoga sutras are a lot of fun to read – especially the super-natural ones. I try not to take them too literally, as you never know what might have been warped in translation, or perhaps included merely to inspire yogis to go the extra mile in their practices. Occasionally, I come [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Brain’
The mind is stranger than the yoga sutras
Posted in meditation, tagged Brain, Memory, Nervous system, Patañjali, Perirhinal cortex, Psychology, Yoga, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali on December 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The beautiful universe behind your eyes
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Brain, Central nervous system, Meditation on December 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Your brain is a beautiful universe! Enjoy it via meditation. Love it & spend time getting to know it. Its a wonderful place!
Do I need to move my body to feel good?
Posted in breathing, Mindfulness, physiology, tagged Brain, Central nervous system, dualism, Kundalini, Meditation, mindfulness, parasympathetic nervous system, Teachers and Centers, Yoga on December 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Image by myyogaonline via Flickr Does yoga feel good? Do you feel good during the practice – moving your body through the bending, twisting, inverting etc.? Be honest. I mean, since you’re probably sore as hell the next morning … if you don’t feel good during the practice, why would you bother at all? Now [...]
A yogi's guide to what women want
Posted in breathing, Mindfulness, Uncategorized, tagged Brain, Central nervous system, Emotion, Empathy, Hormone, mindfulness, Mother Nature, Neuron, oxytocin, Society for Neuroscience, Yoga on November 17, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Image via Wikipedia Please forgive the absurd title here … its just a play on words from a flabby, middle-aged science geek who is as alluring to “the ladies” as an old leather boot. Like a lot of males (with active fantasy lives I suppose), my interest was piqued by the recent headline, “What Do [...]
Kundalini serpent tail whips the immune system into action
Posted in immunity, physiology, tagged Brain, Central nervous system, Immune system, Kundalini, Meditation, parasympathetic nervous system, Treatment-resistant depression, Vagus nerve, Vagus nerve stimulation, Yoga on November 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Have you ever seen the list “100 Benefits of Meditation“? Of course, many of these benefits are psychological. You know, things like: helps control own thoughts (#39) and helps with focus & concentration (#40). But many of the 100 benefits are rather physical, bodily, physiological, immunological and even biochemical benefits (such as #16- reduction of [...]
A depression gene that you can’t turn off
Posted in Hippocampus, MAPK, MKP-1, tagged Brain, Chemical synapse, Chronic stress, Depression, Gene expression, Hippocampus, Memory, Neuron, Pyramidal cell, Stress on November 10, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Image via Wikipedia You already know this, but when you are stressed out (chronic stress), your brain doesn’t work very well. That’s right – just when you need it most – your brain has a way of letting you down! Here are a few things that happen to the very cells (in the hippocampus) that [...]
DNMT helps neurons remember epigenetic stuff
Posted in BDNF, DNMT, Hippocampus, RLN, tagged Brain, DNA, DNA methylation, DNA methyltransferase, Epigenetics, Gene expression, Memory, Methylation, Rett Syndrome on October 17, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Image by DerrickT via Flickr Most cells in your adult body are “terminally differentiated” – meaning that they have developed from stem cells into the final liver, or heart, or muscle or endothelial cell that they were meant to be. From that point onward, cells are able to “remember” to stay in this final state [...]
Sitting on my thesaurus while meditating
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Brain, Breathing, Emotion, Meditation, Mind, mindfulness, Neuron, Religion and Spirituality, spirituality, Thesaurus, Vocabulary Lists on October 6, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Image by dullhunk via Flickr On Fridays, after a regular practice session, our shala is open for quiet meditation. This is a new experience for me, even as I’ve read much about the mental and physical health benefits accrued by experienced practitioners. As someone who is totally exhausted after practice – indeed, I couldn’t move [...]
What is the sound of Aum?
Posted in Buddhism, Mindfulness, tagged Brain, Gamma wave, Meditation, Nervous system, Tibetan Buddhism, Transcendental Meditation on September 27, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Image via Wikipedia Have you ever wondered what is the proper musical note to sound when singing AUM at the beginning of class? Tonight, I was blessed to chant along with Girish who led a kirtan at my yoga shala. According to him, “AUM” is traditionally played using a low E-chord. He played his low [...]
Show me your yogi face!
Posted in physiology, tagged Brain, Emotion, Facial expression, Facial Feedback Hypothesis, Neuron, Restylane, Yoga on September 16, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Every so often, in midst of a posture, as my wobbly elbows strain to press upward and beads of sweat roll down my face, my instructor will chime, “Now relax your face and smile!”. Huh? Did she say, “smile”? WTF? Do I really have to add a smile to my to-do list while struggling through [...]
Some 40 million-year-old ancestors have all the luck
Posted in 5HTT, Amygdala, Frontal cortex, tagged 5-HTTLPR, Anxiety, Brain, Cognition, Depression, Development, Frontal lobe, Gene expression, Genetics, Klaus Peter Lesch, Mental health on August 30, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
One day, each of us may have the dubious pleasure of browsing our genomes. What will we find? Risk for this? Risk for that? Protection for this? and that? Fast twitching muscles & wet ear wax? Certainly. Some of the factors will give us pause, worry and many restless nights. Upon these genetic variants we [...]
Science TV: parsing the role of genes on brain activity
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Brain, Twin on August 15, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Image via Wikipedia just a pointer to a great SciVee episode – Genetic Contribution To Variation In Cognitive Function In Twins Their data suggest that genetic influences on cognitive function act outside of the brain areas most commonly activated during cognitive tasks. The areas where genes seem to exert influence on brain activity are quite [...]
Did practice get ancient yogis out of their bodies?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged B. K. S. Iyengar, Brain, Central nervous system, electrophysiology, levitation, Mind, neurology, Out-of-body experience, Paranormal, Practice, Vedas, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali on July 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Image via Wikipedia Once in class, while trying to get my arms up during Prasarita Padottanasana C (no hopes for “over” and “down to the floor” for me, just “up” with merely a slight forward bend) my instructor said that the first time she was able to touch her clasped hands to the floor, she [...]
Posterior parietal cortex and the science of "self-transcendence"
Posted in Mindfulness, tagged Awareness, Brain, Central nervous system, Consciousness, mindfulness, Psychology, Religion and Spirituality, Transcendentalism, Yoga on July 24, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Image via Wikipedia The brain and mind changes that come with extensive yoga practice seem to increase inner awareness and – as many practitioners report – towards a more “spiritual” awareness. What is this? … in terms of specific brain systems? One recent research article, “The Spiritual Brain: Selective Cortical Lesions Modulate Human Self-Transcendence” has [...]
Movie star SIRT1 makes for a great body but an old brain
Posted in CREB, SIRT1, tagged aging, Aubrey de Grey, Brain, Chromosome, Development, Epigenetics, Gene expression, histone acetylation, synaptic plasticity on July 20, 2010 | 2 Comments »
Image by Smeerch via Flickr As far as science movies go, the new movie, “To Age or Not To Age” seems like a lot of fun. The interview with Dr. Leonard Guarente suggests that the sirtuin genes play a starring role in the film. Certainly, an NAD+ dependent histone deacetylase – makes for a sexy [...]
Why did early humans do yoga?
Posted in evolution, tagged Brain, evolution, Mind, Religion and Spirituality, sociobiology, Yoga on July 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
An exploration of HOW mindfulness practices such as yoga and meditation transform the body and mind seems inextricably tied to the question of, “WHY, in the first place, would anyone want to sit for days and meditate?” What was it that motivated early humans and early civilizations to engage in these so-called “spiritual” practices? Why [...]
An essay on science by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
Posted in Mindfulness, tagged Brain, Buddism, Dalai Lama, Meditation, Nervous system, Neuron, spirituality, Teachers and Centers on July 6, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Image via Wikipedia In this essay, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama addresses the question, “What possible benefit could there be for a scientific discipline such as neuroscience in engaging in dialogue with Buddhist contemplative tradition?”
Present thoughts and future actions rolled together in the brain
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged B. K. S. Iyengar, Brain, Central nervous system, Consciousness, frontal cortex, Human, Meditation, Mind, Neuron, Patañjali, philosophy, precuneus, Religion and Spirituality, Yoga, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali on July 5, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Image by alicepopkorn via Flickr Some of the most epic and beautiful of the yoga sutras are found in the final book IV. One of them popped into mind when I came across a recent neuroscience report entitled, “Predicting Persuasion-Induced Behavior Change from the Brain” by Emily Falk and colleagues at the Department of Psychology [...]
On mindfulness: old yogis and latent biological adaptations
Posted in Mindfulness, tagged Brain, Cognition, Meditation, Psychology, Religion and Spirituality, Yoga on July 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Image by whatsthatpicture via Flickr This post is part of an ongoing exploration of “mindfulness” biology and the neurobiology of reflecting inwardly on one’s mental life. I hope it helps support the self-discovery aim of the blog. In some ways, the 8 limbs of yoga described in the yoga sutras, seem a bit like a [...]
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