Benefits of the Mindfulness Directed to the Body

Mindfulness: Insight: Refrain: Long Discourses of the Buddha

Fashion, Fad and Fantasy and Meditation

There is a report on resilience and how mindfulness practices can help us with bouncing back, in Time magazine (June 1, 2015, page-30). Original article is titled "The Science of Bouncing Back".

In one research reported in that article, Martin Paulus (scientific director and president of the Laureate Institute for Brain Research in Tulsa, Okla.) trained four Marine infantry platoons in an eight-week mindfulness course and four platoons trained as usual. Then both groups took part in a very stressful series of war games.

After these exercises, the researchers checked the mental states of both groups and found out that the Marines who had taken mindfulness course proved more resilient. Brain scans even showed their brains had undergone a structural change, for the better. Another source about Marines and Meditation is "US Marines May Be Adding Meditation To Their Pre-Deployment Arsenal".

To confirm their findings, these researchers went on to train some Olympic BMX athletes in mindfulness, who went on to win at a major BXM competition the gold, silver and bronze medals.

Some more miraculous claim shows up near the end of the report:

"Another recent study shows that meditation can even help decrease expression of pro-inflammatory genes."\

Maybe soon they may claim that the Mindfulness meditation can help you fly, walk on water, cure Ebola and so on.

Lateral Thinking, Creative Thinking, Mindfulness and School Essays

In writing school essays, having something to say and saying it in a clear, concise, organized way is more important than a superb mastery of grammar and a ultra-rich vocabulary.

Here, I elaborate on "having something to say" part.  I believe adults too struggle with this issue.

I recommend the following steps to have ideas:

1. Be aware. Know your thoughts and feelings about the topic in the Question. 
2. Follow them bravely and quickly.
3. Collect them in a clear/simple order.

Collect our thoughts and feelings about something.

Will this work for adult/corporate/professional world?

Let's see what the Literature has to say about this:

Lateral thinking: creativity step by step By Edward De Bono

De Bono's Course in Thinking

Six Thinking Hats

Conceptual Blockbusting: A Guide To Better Ideas

How Breakthroughs Happen

The Myths of Innovation

I can easily whip up hundreds such links here.

It will take you hours to read them all, hours more to spot the gems scattered all over the places, and more to take and digest your notes.

I want to save you time and hassle. Here, I give them away in just 3 sentences.

1. Know thyself, especially, thy thoughts and feelings.
2. If they are in the same-old same-old areas/zones/routes/channels/domains, break free from them by leaving them alone or jumping out away from them.
3. Collect your new thoughts and feelings bravely and calmly.

I keep using the word "brave" here and there because bravery is required to think honestly, feel honestly, and capture the thoughts and the feelings honestly.

That is the topic of a future post.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

on April 15, 2012

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

1. moderation
2. "philosophic repose",  "philosophy",  perspective
3. possibility, imagination, "invention"

Also see How to Sharpen Judgement by Bertrand Russel.

Will Google's algorithms recognize this as a good post? Fat chance!

Maybe, blogging is a big waste of my time.

Football Philosophy

1. Fun and Efficiency can stay separate.e.g. I can have fun without efficiency. Or I can be efficient without any fun.
2. But,  Fun and Efficiency do not necessarily mutually exclude each other. e.g. Fun can be efficient. And Efficiency can be fun.
3. Fun and Efficiency must balance against each other and against other factors as well.

Playing football for 3 hours a day?
No time for study, for helping parents?

Play same old same old styles, tactics, techniques?

Play half-hearted, absent-hearted ways?

Then, we become not only poor students but also bad, lame football players!

Life cannot be full without being mindful.