20 Scientific Reasons To Start Meditating Today By: Emma Seppala, Ph.D.

Great blog post list here by Emma Seppala on mediation benefits. 

I like #20 from Emma's post..

It Makes You WISE(R)

It gives you perspective. By observing your mind, you realize you don't have to be a slave to it.  You realize it throws tantrums, gets grumpy, jealous, happy and sad but that it doesn't have to run you. Meditation is quite simply mental hygiene: clear out the junk, tune your talents, and get in touch with yourself.  Think about it, you shower every day and clean your body, but have you showered your mind?  As a consequence, you'll feel more clear and see things with greater perspective.  "The quality of our life depends on the quality of our mind," writes Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.  We can't control what happens on the outside but we do have a say over the quality of our mind.  No matter what's going on, if your mind is ok, everything is ok. Right now.

The Science of Meditation

95-year-old Tao Porchon-Lynch - Sizzle Reel

Dirgha Pranayama or Three-Part-Breath

Sam Harris: Mindfulness is Powerful, But Keep Religion Out of It

Sam Harris is the author of :  Waking Up

"Meditation is interrupting the continuous conversation we are having with ourselves."

What is the Breath? 

By: Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman

"In many cultures breath possesses a sacred significance. The Greeks called it psyche ‘pneuma’, meaning ‘breath’, ‘soul’, ‘air’ or ‘spirit’. In Latin ‘anima spiritus’ means ‘breath’ and ‘soul’, while in Japanese, ‘ki’ means air or spirit; and in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit, ‘prana’ is the life force coursing within us that ceases at the moment of death. In Chinese, the character for breath (hsi) contains three characters meaning ‘of the conscious self or heart’, suggesting the breath that enables you to be alive and conscious also brings mental and emotional vitality."

Yoga and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

An Interview with Bessel van der Kolk, MD and  Integral Yoga Magazine

IYM: How did you get interested in Yoga for the treatment of PTSD?

Bessel van der Kolk : I began my own practice six years ago.  I was looking for a way for people to regulate the core arousal system in the brain and feel safe inside their bodies. My interest came from doing research that discovered how trauma affects the brain. Yoga turned out to be a way to get people to safely feel their physical sensations and to develop a quiet place of stillness. 

Lots of yoga cites claimed that yoga could change basic brain functions, but that was based on intuition, not scientific investigation.  So I decided to see if Yoga can positively affect the core regulatory mechanism in the brain.  Some trauma-sensitive people can feel frightfully unsafe experiencing the sensations that are evoked by certain asanas.  What most people don't realize is that trauma is not the story of something that awful that happened in the past, but the residue of imprints left behind in people's sensory and hormonal systems. Traumatized people often are terrified of the sensations in their own bodies.  Most trauma-sensitive people need some form of body-oriented psychotherapy of bodywork to regain a sense of safety in their bodies.  More from the interview here.