01 Oct Meditation- the truth about your personaltiy
Part II
Why is it important to change our personality?
I was interested in a research that Michael Mosely discussed in the Horizon programme. The study showed
ú How the mind can affect the body
ú How you think and what you think really does matter.
ú How your mental attitude can affect your health and ageing.
What is this study about?
The study was held in a little town, Oyama, in America. A scientist recruited all over 50s in the town to do a study into aging in 1975. More than 1,000 signed up. This experiment has been going on for nearly forty years.
Findings showed:
That mental attitude of candidates influenced quality of life and life expectancy.
The optimist increased his/her life expectancy by 7 «years.
Those that lived passed ninety had an attitude of living in the moment;
one candidate commented that to be stressed all your life would not be a happy life.
?Mental attitude was far more important than anyone had imagined.?
But first we all know that the mind and body are connected. If you are not sure whether this is the case then next time you are feeling scared or worried see what your shoulders are doing. They will possibly become tensed, curled forward or move up to the ears and remain in a locked position.
When you are nervous do you feel butterflies in your stomach.
What to do?
What if you are not a naturally happy positive sole?
Are you always staring out of space that may never occur?
Do you disappear in the past and not now?
The science behind positive psychology.
Scientists have looked at objective ways of measuring personality. Recent technology has allowed for this to be done. For example, brain probing can determine if you are fundamentally an optimist or pessimist i.e. does your brain have a bias towards seeing the world negatively or positively? For example, are you a constant worrier or do you suffer from anxiety.
Michael’s brain was probed using high technology equipment. The technology measured the level of electrical activity on two sides his brain whilst resting. The question was whether his brain had a bias towards a positive or negative mind set. Results showed that Michael was prone to pessimism, neuroticism, anxiety and had greater activity on the right side of his frontal cortex than the left. This is called cerebral asymmetry.
Michael also had to click a button when a dot appeared behind an angry or happy face. This was to test unconscious biases. Mosely?s reaction time was faster when the dots appeared behind the angry faces. This seemed to suggest that his attention is towards the angry faces.
Results: the results revealed that Michael’s brain was three times more active in the frontal cortex than the left which seems to suggest again that he has a negative filter i.e. he is more prone to anxiety, neuroticism etc and this can colour his relationship and can affect how he reacts to the world.
The state of your mind affects how your body reacts. For example have you ever had stage fright? This is the activity of the mind on the body.
Using emotional wrist bands to read emotions suggested that the body measuring emotions: the body?s response system faster than the mind.
Measuring emotions using emotional wrist bands by Prof. R. Picard showed that in fact the body reacts faster to emotions than the body sometimes registers. Filling in questionnaires for example is not always accurate as the mind can temper with what you?re actually feeling. The body records first hand direct experience without the mind having a chance to alter the feedback and/or the body tells you there is a change in the state well before the mind recognises the state. The questionnaire lags behind physical awareness.
Results: using the wrist band on Michael again showed that his base line for emotional is easily arousal. The right side of his brain for example showed high activity. When put in a social environment to discuss his right side of the brain became active suggesting social phobia. The social environment is physiologically hard work for Michael.
There are a lot of feelings we would try hide but like the novel “A Picture of Dorian Gray” try as hard as you may the negative emotions makes an impression on your body.
Two techniques in this programme showed results.
1. Cognitive Biased Modification (CBM) ? this reduced unconscious negative bias by training to seek out the positive. It tries to break the habit by introducing a good habit. Evidence to show it can combat anxiety but not depression.
Anxiety equals self-absorption ? worry about the past and stressing about the future makes one miserable.
2. Second technique is meditation
this has been practiced for 1000 of years and practising just 10 minutes a day meditation turns into a treat and not a chore.
to be continued…………,
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