Article by Locke Hughes writing for The Canberra Times.
It outlines some of the common issues faced by top meditation experts when they started. It is a reassuring read, as many of the challenges you may experience are common: such as can’t stop thinking, wanting to move, falling asleep, feeling a lack of time amongst others.
Good read for those starting out or running into some challenges with their meditation.
Why Mindfulness Is The Key To Performing At Your Peak
From Amy Morin, writing as a contributor to Forbes.com.
Summary high level article on benefits of mindfulness at work. 5 Benefits include:
Link to the article is at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/amymorin/2016/06/08/why-mindfulness-is-the-key-to-performing-at-your-peak
Julia Belluz writing for vox.com in July 2015
Julia read over 50 books and takes a critical eye to some of the claims that are typically made in Yoga classes. Her post has an excellent list of links to major academic studies over the past few decades.
There are some known benefits, like reducing inflammation, helping with back issues, improving flexibility, and increasing body awareness (which has many other benefits).
However the research on Yoga is overall still weak. Most studies suffer from bias and there is no clean firm definition of what ‘Yoga’ actually is.
We still don’t have firm evidence on which types of Yoga are the best, and if and how it can flush our organs or stimulate digestions as some Yogis claim.
However, the good news is that the quality and quantity of studies is improving over time.
Article by Schumpeter for The Economic, Nov 2013.
The mindfulness movement is gaining traction, gaining eclectic group of co-horts from across top companies, and more recently has been taught at leading Business Schools around the world.
However, some of the movement is becoming hypocritical to it roots.
“What has parading around in pricey lululemon outfits got to do with the Buddhist ethic of non-attachment to material goods? And what has staring at a computer-generated dot got to do with the ancient art of meditation? Western capitalism seems to be doing rather more to change eastern religion than eastern religion is doing to change Western capitalism.”
Research on mind-body connection, benefits of meditation for GI disorders
Aug 2015 article by Arjun Wali, for Collective Evolution
Study demonstrating mind-body connection. specifically the benefits of the relaxation response on symptons of symptoms of gastrointestinal disorders, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
The study comes out of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC).
The study enrolled 48 adult participants — 19 of whom had been diagnosed with IBS and 29 with IBD — who participated in a nine-week group program focused on stress reduction, cognitive skills, and health-enhancing behaviors.
