We had our Sunday Introduction to Meditation Class at Yoga Bliss. We practiced a guided meditation called Being on Your Own Side. Neuropsychologist, author and instructor, Rick Hanson, uses this practice to help us explore how caring for ourselves can enhance our mind and brain health.
In Rick’s book, The Buddha’s Brain: the Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love and Wisdom, he describes how we can use our minds to change our brains and how positive changes in our neural circuitry, in turn, help us cultivate healthier mental states. It starts with befriending ourselves. It sounds simple – just like the meditation instruction to follow the breath. Yet when it comes to practice we discover how difficult this can be – especially when we doubt the value of what we’re doing.
Think about what it’s like to be a good friend to someone. It’s not uncommon for people to be kinder to others than they are to themselves. Now consider whether you’re a good friend to yourself. If not, why not? Are you too quick to judge yourself for falling short of whatever goal or ideal you carry? Are you dismissive of what you actually achieve? Do you fail to stand up for yourself or communicate your needs? Are you resigned to your own pain or slow in doing things to make your life better?
Rick explains how even the little things we think, say and do actually effect how our neural connections are formed and, therefore, impact the actual structure of our brains. These nerve connections strengthen with repetition and create tendencies that either undermine or support our well being. He describes the brain and the mind as a single integrated system: what happens in the mind changes the brain; what happens in the brain changes the mind. We can use our mind to change our brain to benefit ourselves and our relationship to others.
The Buddha’s Brain explores the contemplative practice of Buddhist meditation. He uses Buddhist principles because they offer a model of mind that parallels many of the scientific principles of psychology and neurology. He defines the three principle practices of virtue, mindfulness and wisdom and shows how they are supported by the three fundamental functions of the nervous system of regulation, learning and selection. When we engage our minds in the practices of ethics, focused attention and altruistic enlightenment we are also stimulating the neural functions that enable us to self regulate, learn and discern what actions will enhance or undermine our well being.
Living an ethical life of consideration for ourselves and others creates a supportive foundation for deepening our awareness. Our ability to pause and concentrate our attention enables us to step out of the steady stream of distraction to really see what’s going on around us. Once we can abide with what is actually happening we can draw on our innate caring to use information and act wisely.
Our more primitive survival strategies can actually work against us. Stress often clouds our ability to see clearly – the immediate loss of what we want doesn’t threaten our long term survival. In fact, our “enlightened” minds can recognize that the more we try to cling to what we want or avoid inevitable loss or pain, the more we suffer. From a neurological standpoint we are strengthening the bars of our own cages and we stay locked in a cycle of stress.
Rick tells us that the small positive changes we make every day add up to large changes over time. We can gradually build the neural structures that predispose us to be on our own side. He reminds us that the more power we have over someone, the greater our duty to use that power benevolently. The person we have greatest power over is our future selves! We hold our lives in our hands – what we become depends on how we care for ourselves.
In this brief guided meditation – we imagined caring deeply for another. We considered the feelings and qualities active caring evokes and then infused our bodies with the energy of these same qualities – holding our spines more erect, breathing more fully and heightening mental clarity. As we did this, we embodied these qualities and also strengthened their neural pathways in our brains. We brought this same kind of embodied awareness to ourselves – claiming the care, happiness and love we deserve.
The more we can offer ourselves our own kind regard, the more likely we are to extend it to others. When we slow down, cultivate balance and improve our connections with each other we become more focused, resilient, empathetic and well. I could see this in our faces as we concluded our meditation and began to share our experience. Author and meditation instructor, Sharon Salzberg, reminds us that it is very natural to question the value of taking time out to meditate – it often feels like nothing is happening, why bother? The magic becomes apparent the day we notice how we didn’t lose our temper the way we used to – the moment we recognize what used to annoy us no longer provokes irritation – and that we’re quicker to restore a sense of equanimity after we’ve tipped out of balance. Sounds like watching a flower grow. I think our blossoms are worth the wait.
You can find this week’s homework and other resources at:
Sunday Meditation Class 11 Homework