Meditation

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This made me think of somebody here who might benefit from a little meditation... besides myself. :grin: I have to take pills to keep my rage at bay. :wink: No... hehe

Actually, I just found it interesting.

_How the Dalai Lama Keeps His Cool

By Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Staff Writer

The Dalai Lama is a symbol of kindness and compassion. Perhaps meditation helps him keep his benevolent attitude.

Many wonder how the Dalai Lama can retain his kindness and magnanimity, even as his homeland is torn apart by violence. New neuroscience research may help explain the exiled Tibetan leader's unremitting compassion for all people.

Meditation may increase a person's ability to feel empathy and benevolence for others, according to a study published March 26 in the journal PLoS ONE.

Scientists asked subjects --- both expert meditators and novices --- to practice compassion meditation while inside a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine (fMRI). The participants heard sounds designed to provoke an empathetic response, such as a distressed woman calling out, as well as positive sounds (a baby laughing) and neutral sounds (background noise at a restaurant).

"We wanted to see how compassion meditation changes the way you perceive emotional sounds," said Antoine Lutz, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin who conducted the research with his colleague Richard Davidson.

When subjects heard the sounds, both groups experienced more brain activity in areas associated with empathy and emotions while meditating than while not meditating. The distressed sounds elicited stronger empathetic responses than the positive and neutral noises, and the brain activity in these regions was much stronger in the seasoned meditators.

"The difference was very clear," Lutz told LiveScience. "We saw significantly more activation in this circuitry in experts than in novices. What is interesting is that the regions that are more activated are the regions which we think should be more important in compassion."

These regions include the insula, or insular cortex, which is associated with bodily representations of emotions, and the temporoparietal junction, which previous research has shown to be involved in distinguishing between oneself and others, as well as in perceiving the mental and emotional states of others.

"Both of these areas have been linked to emotion sharing and empathy," Davidson said. "The combination of these two effects, which was much more noticeable in the expert meditators as opposed to the novices, was very powerful."

Sixteen of the 32 total subjects had practiced meditation for at least 10,000 hours; the same-aged beginners had learned the basics a week before the study began.

Compassion meditation involves first focusing on loved ones and directing loving-kindness toward them, and then extending that goodwill to all beings indiscriminately. This technique is widely practiced among Tibetan Buddhists, Lutz said.

The researchers argue that their findings suggest compassion can be learned and increased with practice, similar to any skill or talent.

"It kind of primes the mind to react with benevolence to others when a situation requires that," Lutz told LiveScience. "You naturally know how to feel compassionate about someone you care about. This practice tries to build on that and extend that to others."

Previous research has shown that meditation can increase mental focus and concentration and help people release negative emotions. Other claims on behalf of meditation, such as that it benefits health, have so far been unsubstantiated with research.

The researchers want to further test how much the boost in compassion persists once a person is not in a meditative state.

"These practices should change the emotional baseline of a person," Lutz said. "How does this change the way in regular life this person is behaving? That's the long-term question."

He and Davidson suggest that compassion meditation may benefit depressed people or young people who struggle with aggression and violence.

"I think this can be one of the tools we use to teach emotional regulation to kids who are at an age where they're vulnerable to going seriously off track," Davidson said.

More research is needed before meditation could be developed into a treatment, Lutz said.

"This study is really a first step," he said. "The next step is to try to longitudinally assess the effects of these techniques on behaviors and brain functions, and see how these techniques can eventually be applied to targeted populations."_

To go along with the previous post....How heavy metal prepares you for heavy emotions There is more to manipulating our emotional state than simply trying to feel good. That's the conclusion of a new psychological study, suggesting that we will deliberately seek out experiences that make us angry before facing a "confrontational" situation.In the April issue of Psychological Science, researchers led by Maya Tamir of Boston College explain how they asked student volunteers to play computer games - either the first-person shooter Soldier of Fortune, or Diner Dash, in which players must guide a waitress serving customers.Beforehand, the students could choose to recall events from their past, or listen to various types of music - "angry" tunes such as Inquisition Symphony by the uncompromising Finnish cello-metal band Apocalyptica; "exciting" numbers including Bim Bam Bum by the self-styled "Latin Dance King" of the 1930s and 40s, Xavier Cugat; or "neutral" compositions, such as Lava by the down-tempo German duo Boozoo Bajou. Before playing Soldier of Fortune, the students were more likely to recall events that made them feel angry, or to listen to the angry music. What's more, doing so improved their scores on the game. This suggests that people will manipulate their emotions, even if it isn't the most pleasurable thing to do, to achieve an end result. But the researchers admit that more work is needed to determine the societal relevance of these findings.For one thing, the volunteers were all male (chosen because of their greater familiarity with computer games), so whether women would behave similarly remains to be seen. How the ability to obtain high scores on Soldier of Fortune relates to real-world situations other than armed combat is also unclear, for now.As a next step, Tamir and her colleagues suggest testing their ideas in the context of "aggressive sports". Maybe they should recruit the famously combative former England defender Stuart "Psycho" Pearce, who reportedly used to treat his soccer teammates to a selection of punk classics before key games. Could similar tactics work for those of us in other walks of life?A few years back, while in a job that involved some "interesting" challenges in personnel management, I used to listen to AC/DC's Back in Black on the way to work. It didn't make me angry - just more pumped-up with self-confidence - but it was a deliberate exercise in emotional manipulation.Anyone else like to share their use of "mood music"?Peter Aldhous, San Francisco Bureau ChiefLifted from New Scientist web site.

Hmmmmm, I cant help but think that its directed at me, especially after some pms and shit you and I have had between us as of late.I meditate everytime I pick up a pipe, I love sitting in the dark alone with some music on, mostly pink floyd,m and space out and work out shit. Thats meditation right?medicated meditation, but it does keep the rage at bay for a few hours, lets me sleep, and even keeps me a bit calm in the morning hours.I dont know how you do it, I was only in Oklahoma for 2 days, most of it driving on each day, an I dont think I could stand to live there, Id fucking kill some hick bastards real fast and be on my way to prison. i think the fact you can live with the okie equivalent of the HIlls, shows a great deal of self restraint on your part, alot more self control and ability to keep the ire stuffed down with a cork in it than I posses. Fuck in OK city it took me 3 minutes of my arrival to find some fat, fucking redneck hick bastard to put on his ass. Id only been out of the car for 30 second in the cracker barrels parking lot before I got into it. ID be dead there with in a week. Hell alot of why I am still alive where I do live is riding on my reputation in a small town and people scared to do anything to me when I call them on their bullshit. Every once ina while some asshole will pipe up and not know who I am and take a beating. My name in a bar clears a place for a fight in the middle of the room. in burger king some asshole spouted off, two people told him he was fucking with the wrong person, before I could take my jacket off he was locked in teh bathroom to avoid the beating he so richly deserved. THe best part of that was my son laughing at him for running and locking the shitter door in a crowded eatery. Rage? Fuck yeah, Im full of rage, lividness, ire, dander, call it what ya want, Iv got a gut full of it.

mood msuic eh?
I like hard heavy fucking metal and old punk, it works me up for fighting or say a nice basketball game with no fouls called. Its what I listen to when I work to keep up the energy, ac/dc is alwsy good, so is disturbed, grim reaper,most metallica falls into that as well, for some reason I really like of wolf and man. some of sublime, RIght now im taking a smoke break from cleaning up the house while I wait for my dad to get into town, first time Iv seen him in about a year. I got some Zevon cranked, detox mansion. James McMurtry is great for when I go to far over the edge, reminds me of simpler times, with the exception of his anti bush, anti chaney songs like we cant make it here anymore,and chaneys kids. "Its tough to be somebody, and its hard not to fall apart, way up here on rehab mountain we learn these things by heart!" the msuic really depends on the mood and what iM doing, I have alot of old country i like when I go hiking and carry the ipod, or cross country skiing.
I got tons of songs that fit different moods, if my dad isnt here soon, its gonna change over to flogging molly, always good for cleaning, fast paced and great lyrics.

"Hmmmmm, I cant help but think that its directed at me..."What would ever make you think that? Back when I was suffering from depression I would often go into fits of rage, bad fits of rage.That's what my pills are for, otherwise people can't stand me.

Thats par tof the reason I smoke! light 100's! and uhhh other stuff Had alot to do with why i used to drink so much, and the depression is real, but I cant afford ot take the pills. I did for a bit, but I could not get into a rage, I couldnt dig down and grab the anger when I needed it.if I can get pissed I can do that extra mile, make it up the hill, lift up the heavy part I cant till I get pissed, throw the bundle of shingles onto the roof, get the wall in place while I secure it so it can get hiltied, or in some cases fight. I cant fight itll Im pissed, it takes one punch to do that, one good hard punch thats not enough to knock me out, but enough to get my attention, and the flood gates open, adrenaline pours out, I dont know what happens next, I explode, when it goes away Im either standing over body's laying bleeding and broken, or Im picking my ass up off the ground. I need the rage to be able to fight, or to get my shit done, or just to force myself up over the next summit. Those fucking pills took that away from me, I could get mad, but not that deep down fucking pissed off that I need sometimes to get shit done. So I quit taking them.Not touched a one in the last 5 years. Summer will be here soon, and the sun light means Ill be feeling somewhat better, bring on the heat, the green mountains, the caves and the rock, the clear streams and the fishing.That anger and touch of depression never really goes away, but with the methods described above, I can cope, I can keep it stuffed down till its needed. The bad part is getting it back under control when I dont need it.