Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sati_(Buddhism)
- https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/the-positive-mind-mindfulness-and-t...
- https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201702/how-do-neuropl...
- https://www.slideshare.net/drrickhanson/buddhas-brain-the-practical-neurosc...
- Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain - https://goo.gl/4sCrw5

The roots of mindfulness as we understand it today can be traced primarily back to the Buddhist concept of Sati (in Pali; Sanskrit: smṛti). Sati is mindfulness or awareness, a spiritual or psychological faculty (indriya) that forms an essential part of Buddhist practice.

Awareness, Attention, Remembering - Awareness and Attention can be understood in much the same way we understand them today, but remembering, in this context, is about remembering to be aware. Having the INTENTION to pay ATTENTION.

Sati is the first of the Seven Factors of Enlightenment:
- Mindfulness (sati)
- Investigation (dhamma vicaya)
- Energy (viriya)
- Joy or rapture (piti)
- Relaxation or tranquility (passaddhi)
- Concentration (samadhi)
- Equanimity (upekkha)

Mindfulness as we understand it today, based on extensive research, observation, and anecdotal evidence, can be divided into three umbrella skills, all of which are valuable to our mental and physiological health

The three fundamental skills:
- Focused Attention (AKA concentration)
- Choiceless Awareness (AKA open monitoring)
- Acceptance & Loving Kindness (reframing our relationship to ourselves and to others

MISCONCEPTION: Mindfulness = blank mind. Nope. Mindfulness = awareness of the endless energy of the mind without being ruled by it. Mindfulness turns us into the master of our mind, not the reactor to it

Mindfulness is ultimately an ATTITUDE TOWARDS EXPERIENCE. A recognition that pain doesn't have to equal suffering. That our thoughts don't all need to be given equal measure. That we have a choice about how we react to the world, even when (especially when) we have no control over the world itself

"the mind evolved to secrete thought" - Dr. Ronald Siegel, Psy.D, Harvard Medical School.

Today, by some estimates, 80 PERCENT of hospital visits are stress related.

Why?

Our brains evolved under remarkably different conditions than those that we live in today. We came to be the creatures we are today on the savannah's of Africa, were long stretches of quietude and simple living were punctuated by the persistent threat of predatory death, and we were better served making the safe mistake 1,000 times versus making the deadly mistake once.

For hundreds of thousands of years, this served us extremely well. Better to think a rock a lion than a lion a rock. Then came the agricultural revolution. Then the industrial. Then the scientific. Where once we lived side by side with only dozens of people, we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions. The safe mistake (rock = lion) is now made 1,000 times a day instead of 1,000 times in a lifetime. This produces tremendous interior suffering.

21st-century societies produce CONSTANT activation of our amygdala and our sympathetic nervous system (fight-freeze-flight). And the damage is two-fold. Not only are we being triggered by countless so-called dangers, we are no comparing ourselves to statistically impossible standards of beauty and accomplishment. It's easy to think yourself smart and handsome and competent when you only have to compare yourself to a dozen other people, but what about when you have to compare yourself to the most beautiful/wealthy/intelligent people in the world?

The modern world is hell for the primal brain.

Mindfulness is a potential antidote.

scientists used to think that the brain matured @ age 25 then started to decay. NOT TRUE.

neuroplasticity = the malleability and elasticity of neural circuits

Neuroscientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that neurogenesis and neuroplasticity caused less-fit older neurons to fade into oblivion and die off (neural pruning) as the sprightly, young newborn neurons took over existing neural circuits by making more robust synaptic connections. Newborn neurons weaving themselves into a “new and improved” neural tapestry.

Long before there were neuroscientific studies, Henry David Thoreau unwittingly described the process of how the paths that one's mind travels can become hardwired (when you get stuck in a rut) by describing a well-worn path through the woods. In Walden, Thoreau writes,

"The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and also with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity!"

25,000 streets + 20,000 landmarks

3 years of training

extra large hippocampus

proof positive that experience = brain change

Mind = info processing + subjective experience
Brain = underlying tissue activity

The two are intertwined. Based on current research and evidence, three of the most potent ways to increase overall neuroplasticity are:

1. aerobic exercise
2. coordinated movement or complex activity (yoga, learning an instrument, learning a language, etc)
3. MINDFULNESS

The sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for intense physical activity and is often referred to as the fight-or-flight response (aka fight-freeze-flight). This complex system (regulated primarily by the amygdala aka the lizard brain) sends blood rushing away from the higher-functioning aspects of your brain to your limbs to prepare for emergency action.

The parasympathetic nervous system has almost the exact opposite effect and relaxes the body and inhibits or slows many high-energy functions. And this system is activated by MINDFULNESS.

DOSAGE MATTERS - on average, it takes 5 positive actions to counterbalance a negative one

Turning states into TRAITS.

- Mindfulness keeps neural pathways from withering with age (like a triathlete's muscles - analog in musculature)

- Even shown to lengthen the telomeres, the myelin sheaths that cap the nerve endings and normally wear down with time and stress and lead to CELL DEATH

- increases FLUID intelligence (ability to adapt and think on the fly)

- reduces anxiety to neutral (ambiguous) stimuli - helping pre-frontal cortex regulate amygdala and sympathetic nervous system

- for example, someone who has a blank or neutral expression is more likely to be perceived as a threat by an anxious mind

(e.g. jacqui's menla story)

- reduces activity in the right pre-frontal cortex (depression, anxiety) and increases activity in the left pre-frontal cortex (energy, enthusiasm)

reduces the duration of negative states - negative moods are more transient - like clouds passing in front of the sun

happiness and joy emerge more and more frequently

cultivates beginner's mind, noticing each new experience with attention and curiosity

related to beginner's mind, helps us step off of the 'hedonistic treadmill' - extracting more joy out of simple experiences & reducing the need to constantly chase novelty as a balm for boredom and anxiety as old experiences become less and less stimulating

- activates insula, the interior part of the brain associated with 'gut feelings' - intuitions that are often associated with creativity and discovery

- visualization (a form of meditation) can activate mirror neurons which = empathy

Right now, we all have a choice. We can either live in a constant state of reaction to the world and its neverending stimulus. Or, we can step out of the river, and watch it flow by, choosing what's worth paying attention to, what's worth acting on, and how we want to live to become our best selves.

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